Section 47 report

[Sebbie2026]

Social services have recently carried out a section 47(the risk was the mothers partner). There is now a child in need programme in place. I've asked for a copy of the section 47 report and have been told I need to file for it to information governance.

Surely this can't be correct?

[Winter25]

To answer your question No, this is absolutely not correct, and you should challenge it immediately. Social workers frequently try to direct parents to Information Governance because it kicks the ball into a long, bureaucratic grass and buys them weeks of time. However, because you are now on a Child in Need (CIN) programme, the rules are entirely different.

1. The CIN Framework Requires Partnership
A Child in Need plan is a voluntary framework under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989. It relies entirely on cooperation and partnership between you and Social Services.

You cannot work in partnership if they are withholding the core assessment that forms the basis of the plan.

You have a right to know exactly what the identified risks are regarding the mother's partner, what the social worker's analysis concluded, and what recommendations have been made.

2. The Guidance is on Your Side
Under the statutory government guidance "Working Together to Safeguard Children," assessments must be transparent. Social workers are expected to share the outcomes of Section 47 enquiries and continuous assessments directly with the parents. Shunting a parent to an administrative data team is the exact opposite of working transparently.

3.The Written Pushback
Do not argue this over the phone. Send an email directly to the social worker and copy in their Team Manager (TM). You can use this wording:
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"Dear [Social Worker Name],

Thank you for your update regarding the Section 47 outcome and the implementation of the Child in Need (CIN) programme.

I am writing to formally request that a copy of the Section 47 report be shared with me directly by the team, rather than via an Information Governance application. As we are now embarking on a CIN plan, active and transparent partnership is required. It is impossible for me to meaningfully engage with the plan, understand the threshold of risk identified regarding the mother’s partner, or safely fulfill my role without sight of the full assessment.

Directing a parent to Information Governance for an assessment that directly impacts an active, ongoing family plan runs contrary to the statutory principles of 'Working Together to Safeguard Children.'

Please confirm that the team will share this report with me directly by [Date - give them 48 hours], or pass this request to your Team Manager for urgent review."
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Usually, when you name-drop the Team Manager and point out that you can't comply with a plan you aren't allowed to see, they back down. If the report contains third-party personal data (like information about the mother's partner that they don't have permission to share with you), the social worker can simply redact those specific paragraphs themselves, they do not need a separate department to do it.

Hold your ground. You are entitled to see the case against your family.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Social services have recently carried out a section 47(the risk was the mothers partner). There is now a child in need programme in place. I've asked for a copy of the section 47 report and have been told I need to file for it to information governance.

Surely this can't be correct?

Dear Sebbie2026,

Welcome to the parents’ forum and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I am the online adviser at Family Rights Group. I hope that the following information and advice is helpful to you. You can click on the links to take you to more information on our website.

You explain that a section 47 investigation was carried out and a child in need plan has now been recommended.

You have asked for a copy of the section 47 report but have been told that you need to request this from ‘information governance’.

If you are the parent of the children involved then any documents should be shared with you (and you shouldn't have to make any formal request for this - it should be done without the parent having to ask for it). (You don’t explicitly say that you are the parent, however as you have posted on the parents’ forum I will assume that you are). If you are not the parent and you do not have parental responsibility for the children then you would not be entitled to any documents regarding the children.

If you are the parent then I would suggest that you email the social worker and their manager formally requesting that the section 47 report is shared with you. If you don’t have their email addresses then you can call the main phone number for the children’s services where you live and ask them to share these email addresses with you.

You could point out that under UK statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026, children’s services should share relevant information with you about your children, unless doing so would place the children at risk of harm. You can find out more about this on our website HERE.

If you are unhappy with the response that you receive, or if you are unable to get hold of the email addresses, then I would suggest that you submit a formal complaint. You would need to contact the complaints team directly to do this. You should be able to find how to do this by searching the name of the local authority plus ‘formal complaints team’ into a search engine. You should receive a response within 10 working days once the complaint has been submitted. If you do not receive a response, or if you are unhappy with the response then you can ask for your complaint to be escalated. There are 3 stages to the complaints process within children’s services. We have more information about making and escalating complaints on our website HERE which may be helpful for you to read as it explains what to expect from each stage of the complaints process and what the timescales are.

We have advice and information on our website HERE about the child in need process which may be helpful.

I hope that this is of some help. Please post again if you have any further queries or you can call our free, confidential adviceline on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm). We also have a webchat which is currently open on Monday and Thursday afternoons.

Best wishes,
Suzie

[Sebbie2026]

Hi Suzie,

Thank you for the reply.

I have shared parental care of the child, who is now living with me and my partner.

I've requested the section 47 on numerous occasions, both by email and by phone. I've submitted a formal complaint to social services and the team manager is fully aware of it. They still won't acknowledge the request. We have fully cooperated with the child in need programme even though the issue isn't with us.

They have been useless from start to finish. We've tried to contact them with more information regarding the case for over a week and still haven't been contacted.