Issues with Social Worker

[finaldj0]

Hi everyone, I could really do with some advice as I'm feeling increasingly frustrated with how things are being handled regarding our daughter.

CAMHS have agreed to assess her for OCD and asked us to provide a list of her behaviours in bullet-point form to help them understand what she experiences day to day.

I spent a full day compiling a temporary draft and sent it to our social worker, making it absolutely clear that it was only a draft, that my wife hadn't had a chance to read it yet, and that I wanted feedback on whether the format was suitable before we finalised it. I specifically asked them not to send it to CAMHS until we had both approved it.

Despite that, they ignored my request and sent the incomplete draft to CAMHS anyway.

The second issue relates to a psychological assessment. Last Thursday, the social worker emailed us three CVs for psychologists and invited us to choose which one we wanted. We were also encouraged to submit our own questions for the psychologist before making a decision, with a response requested by Monday.

Because of my working hours, I didn't see the email until Sunday evening. My wife contacted the social worker straight away to explain this and asked if we could have a little more time. She said we would come back to them by the end of this week.

I had Wednesday and Thursday off work, so we took the time to read through all three CVs carefully, chose the psychologist we felt was the best fit, and drafted a list of our own questions. We planned to send everything back by Friday, exactly as we had said we would.

When my wife emailed, she received an automatic reply saying the social worker had been off on Monday and was on annual leave. She also doesn't work Fridays.

Then, at 4:00 pm today, right at the end of the working day, we received an email saying that two of the psychologists were no longer available and that we would have to use the one they had selected. Ironically, this was the psychologist we didn't want.

I can't help but feel that they had already decided who they wanted from the beginning. No appointments had even been arranged yet, so I genuinely don't understand how the other two psychologists suddenly became unavailable before the extended timeframe they had agreed to had even expired.

What is upsetting me most is the pattern that's developing. We are consulted, given choices, or asked for our views, but then decisions seem to be made regardless of what we say. Our draft was sent despite us explicitly asking for it not to be. We were given a choice of psychologist, asked to provide our own questions, then had that choice taken away before our agreed response date.

At this point, I feel like they're just pushing ahead with whatever they want to do without properly involving us as parents.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Would you raise this first with the social worker's manager, or would you take it to the Child Protection Conference Chair/Manager? I'm not looking to create conflict, but I do feel that our views are being ignored, and I'm wondering what the appropriate next step is.

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear finaldj0

Welcome back to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for your post. This is Suzie, Family Rights Group’s online adviser.

I am sorry to hear about the difficulties that you and your family continue to have. It sounds as if you and your wife are trying very hard to provide considered responses when children’s services ask you for information or to say which psychologist you would prefer to see your child. Unfortunately, in both situations you described the time frame has been short and this has caused difficulties.

1) Your summary of your daughter’s behaviours to inform CAMHS assessment.

You explain very clearly that you provided a draft of your summary to your daughter’s social worker, that it was not ready for submission as your wife had not had a chance to add to or approve it. However, the social worker sent the incomplete and unapproved draft to CAMHS anyway.

I would suggest that you email the social worker to query why they sent the draft without your consent and that you could provide a final copy now (which your wife has agreed) to CAMHS clarifying that this is the final version and asking them to please replace the draft. It may be that CAMHs set a tight deadline for the information to be returned but if so that does not seem to have been communicated to you.

2) The choice of psychologist

Again, you were given a very short time frame to reply to children’s services about your preference for a psychologist. It would be a good idea for the social worker to call or text you too to let you know they have emailed you and need a prompt response. Unfortunately, the social worker being on leave means that you did not get any confirmation or clarification from them about whether they could agree an extended time frame for you to reply. The result was that two psychologists are no longer available they have now instructed a psychologist who was your last choice. I understand how frustrating this is. I don’t think children’s services deliberately managed the situation so that only one psychologist (their preference) was left but I can see that again you were given very little notice or time as parents to respond to an important request and this meant that in effect you had no choice.

You are clearly trying to work collaboratively but the urgency of children’s services requests for you to respond to sensitive and important matters about your child has affected the outcomes. And left you feeling disempowered.

It is a good idea to set this out in an email to the social worker and their manager explaining how distressing this is but perhaps most importantly asking for steps to be taken to ensure that you are given more time to effectively respond in future and that they contact you before sending information you have not yet had a chance to finalise. You can then see how they respond and what resolution they suggest. We have a guide to working with a social worker that might help you plan your communication.

I hope that this has been some help and that you and children’s services are able to continue to work well together to get the right support in place for your child.

Best wishes

Suzie

[VD2ER]

It is unusual that 2 psychologists become unavailable in days. What normally happens is their diaries fill and so timescales become extended.

I suppose me being me, I would contact the agency(ies) directly to find their availability. If they ask why then you have their CVs and trying to assess timescales.

Is this so incredibly time sensitive the Local Authority can't wait a few weeks? Summer holidays can mess up availability.

Having said that. Psychologists should be wholly independent and it could be genuinely one of those things. A good parent centric CV may well be attractive to parents and get signed up more quickly than others?

I would also list the differences between the CVs and why the psychologist being offered is less suitable.

[finaldj0]

This is in summery of what the social worker manager said in a summery.

With regards to the psychologists, there are a few things that are probably helpful for me to clarify.

The vast majority of the time, when CSWS request psychologists, they are instructed through court proceedings, which is why they will each reference working within care proceedings. This doesn't mean that there is any hidden agenda, but I can appreciate this will have caused some concern. Our aim remains the same as always: understanding the child's needs and how you can be supported to meet these, so they remain in your care. However, the only way forward that we can see is through a psychological assessment.

We have to be very strict on timescales. As was explained at the RCPC, the psychologists work nationally with every local authority, and they provide us with timescales for when they can undertake their assessment and complete their report based on receiving a letter of instruction (the questions we are asking them to explore). If we take too long to provide these questions, they have to reconsider their availability and when they can undertake the work. As they are independent experts, there will be times when they accept work from other social work teams, local authorities, or instructing parties, which reduces their capacity to accept further work. I appreciate this may be confusing if it isn't something you deal with regularly, but this is standard practice within social work and in the way independent psychologists work in the private sector.

In respect of not hearing back, your email was received, and your views were expected on Friday, as you had indicated. When we were notified that two of the potential psychologists were no longer available, it was important that you were informed straight away, which is why you were contacted. I'm sorry to hear that you don't feel able to proceed with one of the proposed psychologists. We have since been sent one further CV, which has been attached for your consideration.

We would need you to choose between the two experts, as these are the options currently available to us. As mentioned above, this is time-sensitive to ensure we don't miss the opportunity to proceed with the assessment. I ask that you send your preferred choice and any questions by Monday so arrangements can be made for the psychologist to begin their work

We told their manager that we didn't want to proceed with the second psychologist whose details she sent over, as their approach seemed very similar to the previous one. We explained which psychologist we would prefer because we feel they are a much better fit for our family's needs.

I asked what the expected timescales were, what that psychologist's availability was, and why there was suddenly such urgency to rush this decision. They've only just arranged for youth workers to start working with our daughter, and a CAMHS referral has recently been made for OCD support. Over the last 12 months, the only involvement we've really had has been social work visits, and nothing meaningful has been done to help our family. Because of that, I said we were happy to wait for the psychologist we believe is the right fit. We also made it clear that we wanted to meet with their manager to discuss everything properly before moving forward.

Another thing that's frustrating is the inconsistency. Our social worker has repeatedly told us that she is legally required to see our daughter every three weeks for safeguarding reasons and that this timescale cannot be extended. However, we're now five weeks since the last visit and haven't heard anything. I'm not particularly bothered about the lack of a visit, but it highlights that they keep telling us one thing while doing another.

I also want to point out that at the recent ICPC meeting there was never any discussion about timescales being critical when choosing a psychologist. We were simply told that the social worker would send us several CVs so we could choose the psychologist we felt was most suitable. Now it feels as though they're trying to create an urgency that was never mentioned before. It's this constant inconsistency between what is said and what actually happens that is becoming increasingly difficult to trust.

[finaldj0]

It is unusual that 2 psychologists become unavailable in days. What normally happens is their diaries fill and so timescales become extended.

I suppose me being me, I would contact the agency(ies) directly to find their availability. If they ask why then you have their CVs and trying to assess timescales.

Is this so incredibly time sensitive the Local Authority can't wait a few weeks? Summer holidays can mess up availability.

Having said that. Psychologists should be wholly independent and it could be genuinely one of those things. A good parent centric CV may well be attractive to parents and get signed up more quickly than others?

I would also list the differences between the CVs and why the psychologist being offered is less suitable.

I did that already.

Could you please confirm whether this report is required for court proceedings or for private purposes? In addition, could you let us know how many individuals the report relates to and the contact details of the individual who originally enquired with ourselves?

Once I have this information, I will speak with Dr xxxx to check her availability and confirm whether she is able to assist.