Should I withdraw consent to cin plan?

[Vanguard]

Have been on cin plan for a year due to oh being investigated for historical allegations for past 2 years (30 year old allegations, was child at the time, issues with credibility of accusations). No charges and not yet interviewed by police.

Strategy meeting with police decided cpp threshold was not met, then children's services put us on cin plan.

Causing huge stress to me, mother (not under police investigation), physically ill reactions to social work meetings and phone calls (largely due to bullying, lies and disrespectful treatment by social workers, which even police said was intimidating and lacking empathy). Children, aged 16 and 10, not at all happy with plan and are upset by it.
No allegations or evidence of harm against own children. One of our previous social workers said she believes case should be closed ASAP as no concerns, but manager refused any amendments to plan to help us manage and has insisted it will be open ended while police investigation open. But police investigation seems stalled.
Children's rights legal advice have suggested withdrawing consent, they are concerned cin plan is just a beurocratic decision that is causing family harm. No other concerns outside of police investigation.
Not aware of any planning meeting for cin plan, we certainly weren't invited or consulted and my requests have been ignored and then denied. Not aware of any reviews in past year. No goals for family to work towards. I can't take any more. But children's services (apart from the one person I mentioned who supported us) have said from outset that we have to do and sign anything they tell us or they'll escalate. Children's rights legal advice saying they are most likely trying to scare us (it's been working!! I'm - the mother - being treated for trauma) and they don't think this will get near a court. They are saying not to engage with them anymore.

Trying to get as many second opinions as I can. We've been cooperative til now, even to the point I've lost employment and study opportunities in order to keep to the plans and restrictions on our family. But we need our life and health and privacy back, especially for the sake of the children.

[Vanguard]

Sorry for typo, threshold for cpp was not met, this was decided a year ago at strategy meeting with police

[Winter25]

Hi Vanguard,

You are absolutely right to question what is happening here. What you’ve described isn’t support – it’s control through fear and procedural misuse. And it’s okay to say: enough.

Here’s the key thing to hold onto:
A Child in Need (CIN) Plan under Section 17 of the Children Act is voluntary. That means you are fully within your rights to withdraw consent at any time, unless there is new, concrete evidence that your children are at risk of significant harm, and in your case, there isn’t.

Let’s look at the full picture:

1. No Threshold for Child Protection

The strategy meeting itself confirmed that CPP threshold was not met a year ago, based on collaboration with Police. That’s a professional admission that they lacked enough concern to escalate.

2. No Active Risk to the Children

There are zero allegations of harm to your own children. There is no mention of poor parenting, neglect, or emotional harm other than what the process itself is causing.

3. Procedural Failures

A lawful CIN plan requires:

A planning meeting with you present

Clear goals for the family

Formal reviews at least every 12 weeks
You’ve had none of that, which means this isn’t just heavy-handed – it's breaking statutory guidance.

4. Emotional Harm Is “Harm”

You being physically unwell from stress due to state interference is not incidental. The plan itself is now causing avoidable harm, which is the opposite of safeguarding. Both your children’s emotional distress and your trauma response are grounds for immediate reconsideration.

Your Options
Option 1: Withdraw Consent Immediately

They may push back emotionally, but they have no legal ground to escalate based on current information.

Option 2: Demand a Statutory Review First (If You Want One More Paper Trail)

This keeps you cautious but assertive. You insist on a review meeting in writing within 10 working days and require them to provide a written justification for continuing the CIN plan. If they fail to do this, or cannot evidence present-day harm, you can then withdraw consent with even stronger grounds.

Whatever you decide, you are not being unreasonable. You have cooperated for over a year, sacrificed work and stability, and acted in good faith. That’s more than the law requires. You’re now entitled to take your life and your children’s peace back.

Below is a withdrawal email or strategic request if you choose that option. You’re handling this with far more restraint and courage than many could manage, and that matters

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You need to send a formal, hard-hitting email to the social worker and their Team Manager. This is not a "request"; this is a formal statement of your legal position.
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Subject: Formal Withdrawal of Consent – Child in Need Plan (Section 17, Children Act 1989) – [Child's/Children’s Names]

Dear [Social Worker’s Name] and [Team Manager’s Name],

I am writing to formally withdraw my consent from the voluntary Child in Need plan, which has been in place for over 12 months under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989.

This plan was initiated solely on the basis of a historic police investigation. That investigation has not led to any charges, no child protection threshold has been met, and there have never been any allegations or concerns regarding the care of our own children.

Since the CIN plan began:

We have not been consulted or involved in any planning meeting, despite statutory requirements;

No formal reviews have been carried out within the required 12-week intervals;

No clear aims, objectives, or outcomes have ever been provided for us to work towards;

We have been consistently threatened with escalation if we do not comply.

The plan, which was created on speculative grounds, has instead become a source of emotional, psychological, and financial harm:

Our children, aged 16 and 10, are distressed by its impact on the family;

I have suffered trauma symptoms, physical illness, and loss of employment and educational opportunities;

Our daily life and mental health have been disrupted by unnecessary and prolonged statutory involvement.

As consent to a voluntary plan must be freely given, and as the continuation of this plan is now neither proportionate nor necessary, I am withdrawing my consent with immediate effect. We remain committed to ensuring our children are safe and well, as we always have.

Please confirm in writing within 7 days that this case is now closed, and that no further statutory involvement will take place unless supported by new evidence of actual or likely significant harm.

Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Address / Contact Details]

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For full transparency, I am not an official adviser for this forum. I am a parent who has been through a long and successful legal battle with a local authority, and I am here to offer supportive, strategic advice based on my own lived experience. The information I share is for guidance, and it is always up to each parent to decide what is right for their own situation.

Please note: The forum admins have now restricted me to two public posts per week, so I cannot reply to everyone. If you need more advice or help, please send me a Direct Message (DM) by clicking the speech bubble next to my name..

[Vanguard]

Thank you so much. I may try one last paper trail option first but this wording looks great. I so appreciate the time you took in doing this. And being spoken to like I'm a human being always makes me emotional (in a good way) after the demeaning treatment over the past year.
I wrote a letter to my worker and to the senior social worker several months ago (I didn't know about manager at that point, but know who that is now) and asked for explanation of risk, why the continued plan was justified and why my requests to amend plan were denied. I also explained in detail the impact on our family. I asked for written response. Instead I was pulled into meeting with senior social worker (first time meeting her, but she's been the one making the decisions over past year). I still haven't received written response despite asking since. The meeting seemed to be to give appearance of responding to my letter but in reality i think it was to squash me, to suggest I should be glad I'm not on cpp as that would be much more intrusive, but heavy implication that could still happen, and to tell me no changes could be made to plan. I then explained that legal advice had told me very different. She rolled her eyes and said, all very well them talking like that but that's not how it works on the ground. Also, towards the end of the meeting she had to ask my children's names and ages and expressed surprise at their ages as she said that did make a difference and she'd been thinking of them as young children. This is the person whose been making decisions affecting these children! And the person who called me into a meeting about them! Yet she hadn't done due diligence to check these basic details before the meeting! Nor did she seem to have read my letter or suggestions.
Also when I explained in the meeting some of the impossible scenarios the plan had put me in she shrugged and said 'well we weren't coming checking on you' (I was unallocated at time of events I was taking about). If that suggestion that I could have done what I liked as long as they didn't find out doesn't show that the plan is meaningless in terms of actual safety concerns, and is just a piece of paper to cover themselves, then I don't know what is. I was killing myself, trying to divide myself to honour the plan and feel her flippant comment not only disregards any safety concerns but shows total contempt for my family and what we've been going through.
I'm also concerned an actual crime mightve been committed regarding data protection, which happened very recently to my husband so am looking into that.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Vanguard

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

I am sorry to hear about your family’s difficult situation. I can see that you and your family are involved in a very stressful process. Your husband has been under police investigation for two years. They are investigating historical allegations of child sexual abuse, allegedly committed while your husband was a child. Your local children’s services are working with you and your family under a child in need plan, but you are concerned that you are not being properly consulted or updated about the plan, that it has not been properly agreed with you and that there are no specific goals or clarity around risk. You feel threatened that the matter will escalate if you do not continue with the child in need plan that is in place.

You mention that you have had legal advice about your situation from Children’s Rights Legal Advice. I am not aware of that organisation providing a services in England and so I wonder if you live in another country in the UK. Family Rights Group provides advice to parents and family members about the child welfare system in England only. Law and practice in other parts of the UK are different than in England and we do not have the specialist training or funding to advise about practice or legal issues outside of England. It is important for you that any advice you receive is as accurate as possible to your situation and jurisdiction.

Please could you confirm if you are working with an English children’s services’ department so that I can provide fuller advice.

However, if you are not in England then please scroll to the end of our useful links page here where we have provided contact details for advice, information and legal service in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The specialist charity, Stop It Now operates in all of the above.

You can contact the Office of the Information Commissioner in your area as you are worried about a potential data protection breach.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes

Suzie