Removed from family home by Police & Children Services

[blueplain]

Ok, so someone has definitely reported you for child cruelty. Can you think of anyone who would do this and any reason why. Rivals, someone you have had a big argument with recently? Unfortunately some children do lie for attention. Does any of your children have behaviour difficulties?

[heartbrokenfather]

blueplain: My daughter (E) (age9) does have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

[blueplain]

blueplain: My daughter (E) (age9) does have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

My son has that too among other things. He does have a habit to lie. Read this article you might find it interesting http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/5705.html

You must be very upset at the moment and confused but please excuse my questions. I ask them bluntly so that I may be able to help you better.

[heartbrokenfather]

blueplain: I am indeed finding things very hard, I have always been very close to my family and have never been away for more then a few days, and even then I have still been able to contact them.

I have no problem with anyone asking me any questions, and I will answer them as best as I can.

Thanks again.

[blueplain]

Ok, so you do not know who has reported you and exactly what form of cruelty you are accused of. This I can safely assume has been the most frustrating for you, as I can imagine. I can appreciate how stressful this will be for you and will dramaticly effect your state of mind. Let us go through ways that can help you feel constructive in regards to your case so you can feel more in control of your situation. First of all I would place a complaint with children services. Depending on the area this can vary on the time a response will be made. In my area the response took 10 days.

In your complaint you should state that the lack of information has left you in a very frustrating and anxious position. The prolonged exposure to these stresses are having an effect on your health. State that you feel that your health is being neglected due to the lack of information provided and that because of your sudden removal from the house and the anarchy that has now invaded your life, they have a duty of care for your situation. This means that taking an unreasonable amount of time to organise a supervised contact with your children is having a direct effect on your health. State that you also feel that they are intentionally putting themselves at an unfair advantage due to collecting evidence against you, while you are left in the dark and that it is not unreasonable for you to be informed what it is you are accused of doing. Also state that you have received no paper work from the children services and this disturbs you as you are also the legal carer for your children and should be dealt with as such until that is not the case.

Secondly while you are waiting for the outcome of the complaint and any further news you should attend certain courses to give you more power in court if it arrives to that point. Attend nurturing classes, parenting classes and even a class around ADHD. This will demonstrate that you want the best for your children and it will occupy you and take your mind off of focusing around what has happened and the whole confusion.

Lastly it would not hurt to pop down to your local citizens advice bureau, where they can give you information on your rights and a lot of other useful stuff.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear hearbrokenfather,

I am sorry to hear about the distressing time you are having and that you have had to leave your home.

I am concerned that children’s services don’t appear to have been keeping you fully informed about their involvement with your family. Have a look at our
frequently asked questions for fathers. The assessment process is explained at both the family support and child protection questions.

You will see that as father,you should be involved in the assessment process. In the early stages, when there are serious allegations-and there is a joint investigation (police and children services both investigating), often time is spent in urgent protection of the children from potential significant harm.
Until the investigation has been completed-the police and children services will not know whether the allegations against you are true-in case they are-they have to immediately protect your children. This is why you have been asked to move out. If you hadn’t agreed, they may have considered removing your children into foster care-or for them to stay with friends or family-until the investigation was completed.
You are homeless. Children services do have a “power” (ie they can but don’t have to) to offer you emergency accommodation-in order to protect your children under Schedule 2 para 5 Children Act 1989.

I can see that you are upset that you have not been kept informed about what has been happening.

You should consider emailing your worries to the social worker and copy in the team manager.
• Remind them that you have parental responsibility. That you wish to be fully involved in any decision making and want to be kept informed. Explain that you did not know you were not supposed to contact your wife. Ask them to put things in writing so there won’t be any confusion.
• You could ask about timescales of the assessment-when will it be completed? That you would like a copy of the assessment. Why are they worried about you?
• Contact- when is it going to take place and where. Can any family or friends supervise contact? If so, you could ask that they be assessed to do this.
• Your homelessness.
• That you want to cooperate with their assessment of your family but need to be kept informed.
•
I hope this advice helps but please post back if you need further advice or support.


Suzie

[heartbrokenfather]

blueplain: I have been trying to rack my brains with what has been happening over the last few weeks, my head is all over the place so it's hard for me to remember all the little details.

But I think it might of been the children's school that raised the concerns with the police & children services, but I am not 100% sure on that.
I do know that the school has had an ongoing problem with my daughter's behavior, where quite often she would need to be physical removed from the classroom and or restrained.
The school did setup meeting's with my wife to talk about strategies with dealing with my daughter's behavior, the meetings carried on for a number of months, but the last meeting my wife was going to she said she was going to put an end to the meetings as the school was not following their own agreements, I do not know if my wife did put an end to the meetings or not.

I don't know if any of that is relevant to what is currently going on or not.

I want to do what ever I can do to try and get back to my family as soon as possible, but I don't want to take any risks of causing more problems where the police & children services may remove the children from the family home.

[heartbrokenfather]

I am very concerned with the lack of information being given to me by the police and or children services.

One thing that concerns me is my Bail details, as said before I was released on unconditional bail, but was told verbally by the interviewing DC that I could not go home or contact my family.

Last night I posted over on TheLawForum asking for more details on the meaning of unconditional bail: http://www.thelawforum.co.uk/unconditio ... ion-please

Here is the question I asked:

I am looking for definition and advice with regards to Unconditional bail.

I was arrested and interviewed under caution, not charged, and released on unconditional bail.

I was told verbally by the DC doing the interview that I can not contact my family, but I do not have that in writing.

I was given a single A4 piece of paper with the header "Bail Record (Crime-Delayed Charge) Restricted", but that once again does not say anything about me not being able to contact my family.

Can someone please advice.

Thanks for your time.

Best Regards.

And here is the current reply:

If you have unconditional bail there are no restrictions -it is what it says -it is without conditions.

Under the Bail Act 1976 unconditional bail MUST be granted unless the police/court is satisfied that conditions are required to prevent offences, absconsion and the like.

The DC is well out of order - firstly as it is highly unlikely the bail decision was his to make (senior or custody officer would make it.) Secondly, it having been made he cannot alter it.

So I am not really sure if this help me at all or not with trying to contact and or see my family.
I don't want to do anything that might put the children at risk of being taking away from my wife by the police and or children services, but at the same time I so badly want to be back with my family.
But I want to try and find out as much information as possible.

[heartbrokenfather]

I have been in contact with children services today, and at last they have been able to setup supervised contact with my 5 children this Thursday.

I still have yet to receive any more paper work from the police, and as of yet no paper work at all from children services.

Can anyone here advice me what I should expect there, or be expected to bring or do while at the supervised contact with my children?

[Bitter Pill]

Will the contact be at a centre?