Another Section 47

[Ignatious]

Recently we have been subjected to yet another Section 47. I am fully aware of my LA's / CS duties regarding these. This issue has resulted in an Initial Child Protection meeting scheduled for next week. Amongst the invitees is a Senior Probation Officer. Does anyone know what the role of the Probation Officer is and in what capacity is he attending

Little History
Eldest child (now an adult, with learning difficulties herself and is in fact a vulnerable adult) physically assaulted sibling. Cutting long story short, (the reasons why she did do not need to be shared here), we, as parents had to for transparency inform First Response / Children's Services.

Issue
Whereby I agree and concede CS have to speak to the 'Eldest Child' to investigate what happened. I would like to know at what point should CS step aside.

My perspective
As far as I'm concerned CS should not have any further involvement with 'Eldest child' which includes assistance of any kind up to and including advice. When she became of age, there was no transition from Children's Services to her having her own Adult Social Worker.

Your views
I would very much like to hear other peoples views on where or if CS should step away.

[Har1Her1]

Hello Tony,


We are probably also facing another Section 47 (details on another thread). From what you have written CSC should not be involved with your eldest, but perhaps they should work closely with agencies who support your eldest if there are issues concerning your eldest and a younger sibling who is involved with CSC, This is only my opinion, but I would have thought now your eldest is under adult services she would not be conacted directly by childrens services.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Tonyp,

Welcome to the Parents Forum.

Has the child protection conference taken place? Have a look at our FAQ’s about child protection.

I would expect a probation officer to be invited where a parent or another relevant adult is on probation. The probation officer is likely to be in a position to share information that would be helpful to the conference. This might be information about how a parent is engaging with probation and what support might be available to a parent via the probation or related services.

Is the eldest child 18 years old? If she is younger, then children services may still be involved. If she is older, I would have expected assessments to consider support she might need as a vulnerable adult.
As part of children services assessment it would be normal to involve everyone in the family including adult siblings.
Are they assessing her to see what support could be accessed to help her deal with her behaviour that led to the alleged assault? The aim would be to reduce the chances of the younger children be subjected to a further assault.
If you have any questions, please post again.

Best wishes,

Suzie

[Ignatious]

A much belated reply.

No, The family were on a CPP, she was known to CS, When she became 18, there was no transition from Child Services to Adult. As far as I'm concerned, her needs 'slipped through the net'.

My bug bear is that we (my partner and I) needed to remove the eldest from the house to safeguard the other children. We made plans for her to go to one of her grandmothers. Childrens Services, I think in there capacity to investigate what happened spoke with eldest and in the course of that conversation it was discussed and decided that she did not want to go to her nans. Childrens Services response was that "she's old enough to choose where she wants to go".

There doesn't seem to be anything we could have done to prevent this from happening and are still recovering from the significant upheaval that has been caused by her removal from the home. (Our removal was only supposed to be temporary, which has since became permanent).

Opening a new thread to share and discuss other concerns as this topic/thread is effectively closed.