What to Expect When Social Services Are Involved (Real Advice)

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

I'm current in court process and have been for over 20 months with daughters father. He has made so many false allegations against me. Has kept not returned my daughter on 2 occasions despite a court order being in place, and had failed 6 out of 7 drug and alcohol tests. Due to his extensive lies a section 37 report was carried out. And I was closed to social services last may. Social worker did not attend final hearing as she was sick. Final hearing is the end of this month. Court asked for addendum s37 report ready for final hearing. New social worker has met with myself and daughter and her father and is now making recommendations we agree to a child in need plan.
Now her recommendations are that my daughter sounds everyone weekend with her father who lives 3 hrs away from us, he has access to her school when we have been safeguarded due to DV. And he is given more contact over a 4 month trail period.
My daughter does not want to go to fathers house and I feel this new worker has not took any of his drug and alcohol results into consideration when making these stupid recommendations. There are no safe guarding concerns my side, all her needs are met and they are recommendations that my daughter resides with me.
I feel this lady has not known us our case or past to make such recommendations and I am refusing any socail care involvement. And I will fight for what my daughter wants.

May I also add, its states my daughternis scared to go to her fathers. What is this world coming to.

Dear Cocopops8826

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

I am sorry to hear about your difficult family situation. I can see that you have had a lot to deal with over the last few years.

You explain that you and your daughter’s father have been involved in private law Child Arrangements Order proceedings to decide arrangements for who your daughter should live with and spend time with. You describe a history of domestic abuse and that your daughter’s father has been drug and alcohol tested as part of the court process, failing 6 out of 7 of the tests. He also did not return your daughter to you on two occasions and made allegations against you.

This led to the court directing that children’s services complete a section 37 report. As you know, this is when the court considers that a child may be at risk of significant harm so asks children’s services to investigate the child’s situation and to consider whether to:

• Apply for a care or supervision order
• provide services or assistance for the child or their family; or
• take any other action with respect to the child.

In your situation, the social worker has recommended a child in need plan for your daughter to support the arrangements for contact. They are recommending that your daughter continues to live with you but sees her father every second weekend, that he has access to school and that contact between father and daughter is increased over a trial 4-month period. The social worker is completing an addendum to the section 37 report for the final hearing due at the end of February.

You are worried about the social worker’s recommendations, for the reasons you have explained, and as the report states that your daughter is scared to go to her father’s. In their report for the court, the social worker should explore the reasons for this.

At the moment, you are refusing children’s services’ involvement.

You don’t say if you are legally represented in the court case but if you are then the most important thing for you to do is to get legal advice from your solicitor as you disagree with the recommendations and to discuss if and how you want to challenge in court. You should also ensure they are aware of your concerns about your daughter’s father knowing your daughter’s home and school address in view of the history of domestic abuse you describe. The court is the forum where, as you know, decisions will be made for your daughter so you must raise any concerns and put forward your proposals in that arena.

If you are not legally represented, then I would suggest that you access urgent legal advice from one of the services listed here . If you are a litigant in person there is guidance to support you with this; please see gov.uk and Advice Now guides.

The child in need plan recommended by the social worker is voluntary; it is classed as family support. However, it was recommended following a court-directed investigation into your daughter’s circumstances due to concerns that she may be at risk of significant harm. The purpose of a child in need plan is to provide extra support to a child and her family, where needed. The aim in your daughter’s case is to facilitate and review proposed contact arrangements. It would be a good idea to discuss this also with your solicitor if you are still reluctant to agree. The benefit of agreeing to this plan is that you, your daughter, and her father will be supported with this difficult situation, on a family support basis. If you decide not to consent to the plan, children’s services will need to consider whether they need to take any other action; this might include escalating to a child protection plan if the threshold is met. The court will take account of parents’ willingness to work with children’s services to support the contact arrangements it makes when deciding on what order/s to make at the final hearing.

I know there is a lot for you to think about. I hope this has been helpful. If you would like further advice about the proposed child in need plan or children’s services involvement, please contact the advice service again and seek legal advice from your solicitor or a specialist legal advice service about the forthcoming court hearing.

Best wishes

Suzie

[Tinkabell09]

Hi,
Ive been reached by the social workers due to a police referral which mentions domestic abuse. I dont wish to deal with social workers. What can I do to end this quickly and quietly. Me and my partner have made uo and are communicating better than before. Im not in danger nor are the children but this referral has me stressed and i wish for it to go away. Please advise what to do

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi,
Ive been reached by the social workers due to a police referral which mentions domestic abuse. I dont wish to deal with social workers. What can I do to end this quickly and quietly. Me and my partner have made uo and are communicating better than before. Im not in danger nor are the children but this referral has me stressed and i wish for it to go away. Please advise what to do

Dear Tinkabell09,

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 am sorry to hear that you are feeling stressed about a referral that has been made to children’s services by the police. I hope that the following advice and information is helpful to you. You can click on the links in my post to take you to more information and advice on our website.

Firstly, it is understandable that you are finding this a stressful situation. It is very common for parents to be worried when social workers contact them and to want it all to ‘go away’. Unfortunately though it won’t all just go away and the best advice I can give you is for you to meet with the social workers and speak with them openly and honestly about the situation. The police have made a referral because they are concerned that your children may have been exposed to domestic abuse, and so children’s services now have a duty to consider whether your children are safe. This is why it is important that you do not ignore the social worker’s requests to speak with you and that you allow them to visit your property to see the children. If you try and ignore them you are more likely to end up with children’s services involvement for longer as they cannot just ‘go away’. They must gather information to better understand whether your children are safe. You can find out more about this on our website HERE.

It is positive to hear that you and your partner are now communicating better. The social worker may want to speak with you and your partner about this to get a picture of your situation. They will want to know what yours and your partner’s understanding is of domestic abuse and what changes you have made or are in the process of making. They will also want to know what your understanding is of the impact of domestic abuse on your children. You may find it helpful to read our website HERE as it has advice and information for parents when there are concerns about domestic abuse.

We also have information about organisations that can support people who are experiencing domestic abuse HERE. It may be helpful to contact some of these organisations to see what support they can offer. The social worker may also have suggestions about organisations in your local area. The more support you can get the better.

If children’s services decide to carry out an assessment then you can ask them what type of assessment they are planning to carry out. There are 2 types of assessment:

- A child in need assessment under section 17 of the Children Act 1989, or
- Child protection enquiries and assessment under section 47 of the Children Act 1989.


A child in need assessment is voluntary. This means that the assessment cannot be carried out unless the parent(s) give their consent. See HERE for more information about this.

Child protection enquiries and assessment are not voluntary. Even if the parents object children’s services must carry out this type of assessment. This is because there is a concern that a child or children might be at risk of significant harm.

Once an assessment has been carried out it will be decided whether a child in need plan should be offered, or whether a child protection plan is necessary. A child in need plan is voluntary but a child protection plan is not. You can click on the links to read more about these types of plans.

I hope that this is helpful. As things progress you are more than welcome to post questions or updates on the forum and I will do my best to advise you. You can also call our free, confidential adviceline on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm) to speak in person with an adviser. We also have a webchat which is currently open on Monday and Thursday afternoons.

Best wishes,
Suzie

[SnowAngel026]

Hi Susie, I just want to ask about my rights, I have been referred to social services because of rent arrears and financial hardship, my husband has health conditions and wasn't able to work and I am on zero hour contract. My children have medical conditions too but I don't think we need some support from social services because I have significant change of circumstances, I have an existing job and my husband will receive other benefits that will support the family. I have been looking after my children and feeding well so well. My question is, is there any other way to decline an assessment? Thank you for your advise

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear SnowAngel026

Welcome to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for your post. My name is Suzie. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser, and I will reply to your query today.

I am very sorry to hear about your difficult situation. It sounds as if you and your family are contending with several challenges. You describe how both your husband and your children have medical conditions, your financial circumstances are strained (you have a job but are on a zero-hour contract) and your husband should be entitled to benefits but may not yet be receiving them. You also mention rent arrears. You explain that your children are well-cared for and well-fed.

You have been referred to children’s services but don’t feel that you necessarily need an assessment or support from them as you are managing or have strategies in place (e.g. your husband to receive appropriate benefits) which should help.

You don’t say who/which agency referred you to children’s services. Also, it is not clear if you are at risk of eviction due to rent arrears; in this case Housing would normally inform children’s services, as you have children, so that you can have support to prevent homelessness.

The simple answer to your question is that yes, if you are offered an early help or a child in need assessment, then you can decline as both are voluntary services. If children’s services were planning to do a child protection investigation though this does not require parental consent and would continue even if a parent declined. However, the information you have shared suggests this is more likely to be a child in need assessment. I would encourage you to consider the information below and ask for more information from children’s services though, before declining.

Your children may be automatically classed as children in need if they are disabled because of their medical conditions.

We have a FAQ which addresses your query do parents have a choice whether to have a child in need assessment?. This explains that you don’t have to agree. However, the aim of a child in need assessment is to find out what help and support children and their family may need and following assessment to provide help and support to prevent difficulties getting worse. It is worth your while reading the FAQ and considering if it might benefit you and your children and whether you want to ask the social worker for more information about the assessment and help they might be able to offer to allow you make an informed decision.

We have a guide to help parents work well with social workers which you can find here; if you engage with an assessment this may help ensure positive communication with your social worker.

It is also a good idea to ask them to confirm what might happen if you decline the assessment and if the social worker is worried that this would mean that your family situation might worsen. They may encourage you to engage with an assessment. Only if they had serious concerns that the children might be suffering or at risk of suffering significant harm could they then look at whether they need to start child protection enquiries which as explained do not require parental agreement.

If you decide to decline an early help or child in need assessment you may want to clarify why you don’t think that it is necessary e.g. set out the strategies you have in place to address the difficulties and the supports that you can rely on.

It may also be helpful for you to know about voluntary sector agencies where you can ask for support and services if you need to. I will add links below to the organisations that I think may be most useful for you to know about:

• Turn2Us: benefits, grants and PIP application advice and information
• Citizens Advice: advice on benefits, money and debts, housing and much more
• Shelter: housing advice
• Contact (the charity for families with disabled children): they provide a range of advice, information, training and events for disabled children and their families
• Family Line; their website describes ‘first line support for every family and every family issue’
• Coram Family Lives; parenting and family support.

I hope this helps.

If you have any further queries about children’s services please post back, call our freephone advice line on 0808 8010366 (Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm), send an advice enquiry form or use webchat.

With best wishes

Suzie