Core Assessments??

[cheekipixi]

Hello Everyone,

Please can someone help me. I have been informed that Core Assessments are not done anymore in the County of Flintshire. Is this right?

Also, is a childs 'buddy' from Social Services allowed to speak to a child and ask the parent to leave the room, I thought it was only a social worker that could speak to a child, especially when the subject is about the childs mother?

Your help with this would be most appreciated.

Thank you
-x-

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi cheekipixi-

You have raised an interesting point.
I have had a look at the All Wales child protection procedures (which is being used in Flintshire) and this guidance refers to initial and core assessments. All Wales Child Protection Procedures
In a couple of English local authorities – they had pilot schemes where they did not use core assessments. Is there a similar scheme in Flintshire that uses Buddies instead of social workers?
You could ask the social worker to refer you to the part of the guidance that allows a “buddy” to speak to your child. If you have any difficulties please post back.
However, your post raises the issue of there being some differences between Wales and England. If you are interested, the NSPPC website here sets out the guidance in use in Wales.
NSPCC-Wales\guidance

Best wishes,
Suzie

[cheekipixi]

Hi,
Thank you for this information.
My friends son was placed on the at risk register a few months ago. Today was the conference to see whether her son came off the list or not. Unfortunately yesterday she was informed that her son would not be coming off the register today and so she was not requirred at todays conference.
I thought, the conference today was were everyone had their vote of this child either staying on the list or come off.
In brief, my friends husband died last yr. My friend had to give CPR to her husband, she broke some of his ribs and was guided over the phone by a medical person. Unfortunately her husband passed away and she then had to go through the ordeal of telling her son.
Since then the son has really gone off the rails and she has been sruggling so much and she in the end asked the help from CS, who ended up putting him on the list. Both have had no counselling for this death, she was informed in the initial conference that she would recieve help from family support to help get her son to school on time, this never happened.
Having said that tho, my friend has managed to turn everything around herself. Her son refused to go to school, his attendance lately has picked up immensly, the behaviours have been slightly worse, and there is talk of expelling her son, he is only 12yrs old and has had a real bad time coping.
She has asked the social worker if he can come off the list and become a child in need but the answer was no.
This cannot be right, or is it,
your help would be great please.
-x-

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi Cheekipixi

Thank you for the update.

Sorry to hear about the difficulties your friend has been going through, having recently lost her partner, and the circumstances around it and the issues of loss raised for her and her child.

Your friend may wish to contact Cruse in order to get bereavement counselling support on 0844 477 9400 or via http://www.crusebereavementcare.org.uk/.

I just also wanted to respond to a further point you raised. You say that your friend was informed in advance of the meeting, that she would not need to attend the review child protection conference. This was because it was being recommended that the child protection plan should continue in relation to her son.

The decision to either fail to invite or exclude a parent from a child protection review should not be taken lightly. Therefore, unless there are extenuating circumstances, (and without being aware of the full facts of her situation), does appear to contravene the concept of working in partnership with parents, under Working Together guidance http://www.workingtogetheronline.co.uk/.

Perhaps your friend may wish to speak to an advisor on the Family Rights Group advice line, to discuss their situation in more detail. If so they can phone 0808 801 0366 Monday to Friday 09.30 am to 03.30 pm.

Best Wishes


Suzie