Contact

[Minnie]

A few weeks ago, I had a contact review about my girls. I knew before I went into this that the local authority were trying to reduce my contact. I'm not prepared to reduce my contact as I don't feel this in the best interests of the girls and it's in the girl's care plans. In this review,I was told that I could have telephone contact as well my contact. No changes to contact were made as the local authority said the Iro would need to make a decision at the Lac review. It was supposed to be this week,it has been cancelled due to the Iro leaving the local authority. I have broached the subject of telephone contact whilst waiting for the Lac review,I have been told no telephone contact until the Lac review which there currently no date for. The review 3 weeks over due already. On the plus side my contact remains the same until the Lac review.
My daughter is asking to come and live with me;she repeatedly asked to be with me over the last 8 months. She also has asked the social worker could contact be at home and without the local authority supervising. The social worker told my daughter that she could make her decisions about where she wants to be by the time she is 13 (she is nearly 10).
I want some advice on how to handle this

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Minnie,

Thank you for updating us. The guidance that concerns looked after reviews sets out the timescales for when reviews take place. This should be adhered to by children services. Do you know when the next review is scheduled?

Here is our advice sheet about Duties to children in the care system . Page 17 onwards deals with the review process.

Contact
The law says that, as a parent, you will be entitled to “reasonable” contact. This has been interpreted to mean that if contact is not agreed between Children’s Services and the parents it should be ‘objectively reasonable’.

Have you received a copy of the social workers report for the looked after review (LAC review)?

If there is a proposal to change contact, then this should be backed up with reasons and evidence.
You could then counter this by setting out (in a letter or email) why contact should remain as agreed in the court. You could refer to the psychologist and guardians report. They would have set out why it is in your daughters’ best interests to have this level of contact.
You could also check with your solicitor-is there anything the barrister has said about contact that could be useful?

What is the local authority saying about supervision of contact and contact taking place at home?


When the social worker refers to your daughter being allowed to make her own decisions when she is 13-what she means is that often when a child reaches 13, she will be often be old enough to make informed decisions about contact –so a lot more weight will be given to her wishes and feelings at the age of 13 compared with a child aged 10.

Our advice sheet about contact with children in care sets out the law that governs contact when the local authority have a care order.
Please look at page 10 for tips about arranging contact.

Best wishes,

Suzie

[Minnie]

Hi

Thanks for responding,no date for contact or lac review. This is making my daughters and myself unhappy. The children's father is trying to control the contact and transporting the girls to contact. He appears to be succeeding.

[Minnie]

To Suzie

The Lac review is 6th October, I'm scared of going to this and I'm not enjoying contact at the moment. My girls are struggling living with the father and it's spilling over into contact. My oldest is still telling the social worker that she wants to be with me. My youngest was excluded from school on Thursday due to her behaviour problems and the rapid response worker from the LA was sent to the house to desescalate my daughter as school were concerned.
My parents have unsupervised contact monthly which would be organised between them and the children's father. My mum messaged him yesterday to organise this and he told her that social services told him not to response to any requests and discuss directly with the social worker. I'm getting similar responses from local authority in regards to my contact.
This is really difficult to deal with especially the reasons given for changing aren't been explained.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Minnie,

I am sorry to hear how difficult things are at the moment for you and your daughters.

I can see that your youngest is struggling and has been excluded from school due to her escalating behaviour problems. Children services may be worried about the placement with dad breaking down so are trying to support him to prevent this happening.

Do you know how your daughter is responding to the support that has been put in place? Are they contemplating further assessments of her?
What did the care plan filed in court say about her support needs?
The Looked after children (LAC) review will be looking at all aspects of your daughters care plans and trying to ensure that it is working.

I can see that you feel daunted by the review, which is understandable. Remember that you have parental responsibility so it is important that you attend and are consulted about any decisions being considered.
You should receive all the reports about your daughters care plans beforehand so you can prepare yourself.
You could make a list of all matters you wish to raise in response to the reports. Write down the main points about contact.

Is the psychologist who made recommendations about contact in the court proceedings still advising children services?
The independent reviewing officer will be speaking to both your daughters before the review so will hear their views about how things are going with dad as well as contact.

If you are worried about the review due to dad’s presence, have you considered asking for an advocate to support you? Here is some information about Advocacy. .


You are worried about the social worker being involved in setting up contact. Ask the social worker why this is happening.
If you need further advice please post back.

Best wishes,

Suzie

[Minnie]

To Suzie

Both girls are having cognitive behaviour therapy which has only just started,they have referred them for play therapy, I put a referral for children's support at Welsh women's aid and my youngest has been referred to Camhs. Nothing was written in the care plans apart from putting parenting support from the girl's father and step mother.
As far as know the psychologist is no longer involved.

What reports should I expect to received? I haven't received any from previous lac reviews and children have never met the Iro but they have had an advocate.

My family want to put a formal complaint in regards to the previous social worker,his statements were full of lies,no evidence to back up what he was saying and very biased against me.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Minnie

Thanks for posting again.

It is really great to hear that your children have now been referred for the help and support that they need. I hope that this will make a significant difference to them as time goes by, hopefully their behaviour will improve and they will be happier in themselves.

Regarding your question about what reports you should receive, you still have parent responsibility for your children so you are entitled to receive reports relating to their health and education. You are also entitled to have copies of LAC review minutes or any other report prepared relating to your children unless there is a specific reason, eg. It would be detrimental to the children or any help they are receiving. However, if it is the case that you cannot see a report you should be given a proper explanation.

You say you want to make a complaint about the statements that the social worker prepared. The place for this to have been dealt with would have been in the care proceedings and your solicitor would have been able to challenge anything that you said was a lie. I should explain that if there are factual inaccuracies, you could ask for these to be changed but you cannot do so for opinions that the social worker expressed.

If you believe the social worker acted unprofessionally then that is a different matter and might consider a complaint to his professional body. I have included a link for the organisation is here or make a formal complaint to children services and a copy of our advice sheet about making complaints is here for your further information.

Should you wish to speak to an adviser, please telephone our advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open Monday to Friday from 9.30 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.

I hope you find this helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie

[Minnie]

I have asked for the reports in preparation for the Lac review, I was told I could have them but it's not normally something that the local authority do. My daughter has been invited to the Lac review, she doesn't want to come. The social worker has suggested to her that she writes a letter to the Iro who with either read as my daughter has written or read bits of it. My daughter has refused to do this. The advocate is no longer involved with the girls.
In regards to putting in a complaint, my solicitor/barrister wouldn't address the lies that social worker has told in court. The told me it was important to address the concerns that the local authority has about me. There were factual errors in both my mum and sister's assessments. They asked for them to be amended and the social worker said non, they were obvious mistakes such as my sister had her father as my ex partner and the children's father. There were loads of them on both assessments. There have been procedural failings as well.
The new social worker has phone me in the evening, after 7 and spent over an hour on the phone. She has been positive about my parenting and the why I'm handling myself in meetings with my ex partner who is clearly trying to provoke me and is lying. He is trying to control me and the situation. My daughter's teacher said if her ex had behaved like that, she not sure she would have been able to control herself. My social worker told me that she was uncomfortable in the meeting with him behaving that way and she knew he was lying. I'm concerned about her motives for phoning me late and for so long. I know social workers don't have enough hours in the day. She phoned me at 8 and the call ended at 850.
I note down everything that is said to me

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Minnie

Thanks for posting again.

I think you do have a right to have reports from the independent reviewing officer under the guidance and regulations.

It is of course entirely a matter for you if you decide to make a formal complaint about the way in which your case was handled. You have already been provided with our advice sheet about making a complaint. Sometimes in care proceedings it is often important to concentrate and focus on the concerns about parenting rather than on the details which might have occurred because of typing error or a simple mistake. However, if it is important to you then you are within your rights to complain about things which were not done right.

Your daughter does not have to attend the review meeting if she does not want to do so. However, if there are things that she wishes to be considered at the meeting she can do this by letter. She does not have to do this if she does not wish to and it may be that she will be willing to attend or do a letter for another meeting.

I do not think there is anything wrong about the social worker contacting you out of office hours, as it might be that she just wanted to ensure she covered the work she had on a particular day. If you feel uncomfortable about it, I suggest you speak to the social worker.

You did very well to ignore your ex-partner and not be involved in any arguments with him. This will show him in his true light. I think it best that you continue doing as you are now engaging and working with the social worker for the benefit of your children and your relationship with them.

There is nothing wrong in you keeping a note of your meeting with the social worker as this will help you to remember and understand the expectations they have of you. Also, you can ask for things to be clarified if you do not understand to make sure everything is clear to you.

I am including a copy of our advice sheet relating to the duties children services have when a child is in the care system. It explains in full what should happen before and at review meetings.

Should you wish to speak to an adviser, do telephone our free, confidential advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open from 9.30 a.m. to 3.00 p.m Monday to Friday.

Hope you find this helpful.

Best wishes,

Suzie

[Minnie]

The lead up to the lac review is getting harder as my mum and dad have been asked not to attend as a support for me, this is due to been described by the LA as aggressive in meetings and emails, not a lot of evidence of this. There contact has been stop until the Lac review for the same reasons as above. I feel this is where they are going with me even though my feed back has been positive for contact. I'm taking a friend to the Lac review for support. This is getting unnessarily messy.