Advice needed.

[A3dFv8]

Back story is needed sorry for long post. I reported my expartner after find disturbing images on his laptop. I also have 2 children with him. He was prosecuted in dec suspended sentence for 2 years, swx offenders register for 10 years and spho for 10 years. Current situation -There is a safeguarding plan in place, and he is allowed supervised contact with my children ( supervised by paternal grandparents). The police phoned me last week and told me they had been to see my ex partner as they had an anonymous report that he was left alone with my children, they also said him and the grandparents denied it. The police advised me to stop all contact until social services got in touch with me. 30 mins later social services knocked my door. They repeated what the police told me, and asked if they could speak to my children. I agreed and children confirmed it is true and that the grandparents just popped out and also disclosed that they had been left alone on a few more occasions. They social left and said they would be in touch after visiting the dad. Later on in the day the social worker rang me to stop all contact with the dad and grandparents while they continue to investigate and asked would I give consent for them to speak to my children with the police.

Has anyone had anything similar happen, or could advise on what will happen next. I feel I am in the dark and my children are being string along. They obviously miss their dad and grandparents. I feel so anxious, and also wondering do I need to seek legal advice?

[VD2ER]

Can you use a contact centre or the visit supervised by someone CS will find acceptable?

It's terrible this has happened and the children put in a difficult position.

This will mean their father and the grandparents can't be trusted.

Was a roadmap to unsupervised contact ever considered? Or would the SPHO prevent that?

[A3dFv8]

The spho doesnt allow any unsupervised contact. But now social services dont trust the grandparents and rightly so.
I hate my ex for what he did however my kids dont and they are the ones suffering. Its the stringing along I find worrying. As my child would accept it either way but he has asd and needs to know.
Im also wondering if this questioning social are doing with the police is an abe interview. Do you think I need to seek legal advice - i believe they see me as a co operative parent but I dont trust them either.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Back story is needed sorry for long post. I reported my expartner after find disturbing images on his laptop. I also have 2 children with him. He was prosecuted in dec suspended sentence for 2 years, swx offenders register for 10 years and spho for 10 years. Current situation -There is a safeguarding plan in place, and he is allowed supervised contact with my children ( supervised by paternal grandparents). The police phoned me last week and told me they had been to see my ex partner as they had an anonymous report that he was left alone with my children, they also said him and the grandparents denied it. The police advised me to stop all contact until social services got in touch with me. 30 mins later social services knocked my door. They repeated what the police told me, and asked if they could speak to my children. I agreed and children confirmed it is true and that the grandparents just popped out and also disclosed that they had been left alone on a few more occasions. They social left and said they would be in touch after visiting the dad. Later on in the day the social worker rang me to stop all contact with the dad and grandparents while they continue to investigate and asked would I give consent for them to speak to my children with the police.

Has anyone had anything similar happen, or could advise on what will happen next. I feel I am in the dark and my children are being string along. They obviously miss their dad and grandparents. I feel so anxious, and also wondering do I need to seek legal advice?

The spho doesnt allow any unsupervised contact. But now social services dont trust the grandparents and rightly so.
I hate my ex for what he did however my kids dont and they are the ones suffering. Its the stringing along I find worrying. As my child would accept it either way but he has asd and needs to know.
Im also wondering if this questioning social are doing with the police is an abe interview. Do you think I need to seek legal advice - i believe they see me as a co operative parent but I dont trust them either.

Dear A3dFv8

Welcome to the parents’ discussion forum and thank you for your posts.

My name is Suzie, online adviser at Family Rights Group and I will respond to your posts.

I see that your former partner and father of your children was convicted of sexual offence and is on the Sex Offenders Register and Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) for 10 years respectively.

You mention that there is a safeguarding plan in place which I assume means the children are on a child protection plan and father has supervised contact with the children. The contact is supervised by the paternal grandparents. The police received information anonymously that the children were left unsupervised in their father’s care. The father and grandparents denied this, but the children confirmed that they were unsupervised on that occasion and on other occasions. Both the police and then children’s services (the new name for social services) advised that contact should stop with father and grandparents whilst investigation done.

Both your children’s father and grandparents were aware of the requirement for supervised contact so, failing to adhere to the terms of contact means that children’s services will no longer be confident that the children can be safeguarded by their grandparents. If it was just one lapse where the grandparents popped out it could perhaps be managed with a discussion and emphasis on the need to ensure someone is always supervising. It was not a one-off, so going forward contact is likely to be formally supervised and this could be in a contact centre where it can be properly monitored.

This must be a very difficult time for the children who wish to have contact with their father and grandparents, but steps must be taken to safeguard them.

As you are unclear about the nature of the interview, I suggest you ask the police or the social worker to explain exactly what is going to happen and the reason for the interview. The children have already disclosed that they have been left unsupervised, so it is important that you are told what this interview is for. It does not mean you are being uncooperative, but you should be kept fully informed.

You may wish to speak to the Lucy Faithfull Foundation as the non-offending parent for advice and support. Here is their telephone number 0808 100 0900.

Here is information from our website about child protection which I hope you will find useful. I suggest that you continue to cooperate with children’s services for the best outcome for your children.

If you wish to seek legal advice, you can do so, but right now, it seems children’s services is trying to consider/resolve the situation and be sure the children have not suffered any harm. They will consider the circumstances and how best contact can happen safely for the children.

Should you wish, you can speak with one of our experienced advisers by telephoning our free confidential advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open from 9.30am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays)

Hope you will find this information useful.

Best wishes

Suzie