Social Worker Mistreatment?

[DFRE3]

How common is social worker mistreatment?

We've been treated awfully by ours - she was deceitful and perjurious in preparing for and engaging in court hearings, tried to undermine our relationship with the kids and had a complete disregard for the safety and wellbeing of one of our children taken into care.

We have put in a very comprehensive complaint against our social worker with some documented proof of her dishonest activities, but are sure we're not the first family she's mistreated.

Is there a way we could share details of social workers and local authorities privately with the site admin to determine if there are any common patterns emerging?

[Winter25]

Yes, sadly this kind of treatment is far more common than people realise. I’ve been through it twice, social workers twisting facts and using false information, but I challenged them and won in court.

In my case, the ICO confirmed the council’s GDPR breaches were unlawful. The council then gave a final Stage 1 complaint response finding “no wrongdoing,” and the Ombudsman wanted me to go back for Stage 2, which I refused, because the council can’t investigate itself after already clearing itself. I’ve asked the Ombudsman to investigate directly instead, as that’s the only fair route. It's ongoing this part but ill win this as well.

I have replied to your other post

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

How common is social worker mistreatment?

We've been treated awfully by ours - she was deceitful and perjurious in preparing for and engaging in court hearings, tried to undermine our relationship with the kids and had a complete disregard for the safety and wellbeing of one of our children taken into care.

We have put in a very comprehensive complaint against our social worker with some documented proof of her dishonest activities, but are sure we're not the first family she's mistreated.

Is there a way we could share details of social workers and local authorities privately with the site admin to determine if there are any common patterns emerging?

Dear DFRE3

Welcome to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for posting. My name is Suzie. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser.

I am sorry to hear that you have had a very poor experience with a social worker for your children. You explain that she was untruthful during court proceedings, and she was dismissive of the safety and wellbeing of one of your children who was in care. This must have been very distressing for you.

I hope that you were able to raise any concerns about the social worker’s evidence to the family court with your solicitor at the time as they would have been able to advise how best to address this with the court.

You have now made a detailed complaint about the social worker to children’s services. That is the right thing to do to have your concerns investigated. If you want to know more about how the complaints process works, then our detailed guide to complaints which you can find here may assist you in this process. If you exhaust children’s services complaints process and remain unhappy with the outcome you can then proceed to raise your complaint with the local government and social care ombudsman. You could also contact your local MP about your experience.

Social Work England is the regulatory body for social workers. If you want to raise a concern about a social worker’s fitness to practice, then you can do so with Social Work England. Please see their detailed explanation of what fitness to practice means here. They also provide examples of fitness to practice concerns which include concerns about dishonesty and serious or repeated failings in a person’s care.

You are querying whether social work mistreatment is common and whether there is a facility privately via this discussion board admin to share and identify examples or patterns of these issues.

It is not possible nor the purpose of this discussion board to do so. We do not hold information that can assist in building a picture or supporting a complaint about a social worker or children's services' department. You are taking the appropriate action to have your concerns investigated. And you can also consider contacting Social Work England as explained above.

We have produced a guide to working with social workers to help parents try to address communication or other difficulties with their social workers before they escalate. I know this may not have helped in the difficult circumstances you describe but it may help other parents to try to have a better working relationship with their social workers and to make sure children’s services address the parents’ concerns.

I hope this is helpful. Please call the freephone advice line if you would like to talk through your situation in more detail with an experienced adviser. The lines are open from 9.30 am to 3.00 pm, Mon to Fri (except bank holidays) on freephone 0808 8010366.
I see that you have posted additional queries on another thread so I will respond to them separately shortly.

Best wishes

Suzie