Potential xenophobic targeting by CS

[Questioning19]

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting here.
I apologise if my post ends up being too long and thank you in advance for your time and any potential advice.

To start with, I am the foreign mother of half-British children and have been in a stable relationship with their father for over a decade. We are just a regular family. Before the CS nightmare started out of nowhere, we had enjoyed a peaceful and quiet life; we had no issues with anyone in the area.

It all started when the head teacher of the school our children attend (and have for a few years with no problems whatsoever) decided to call CS after my eldest had complained I was mistreating and upsetting her, following an argument that morning.

Long story short, I ended up being arrested and charged with assault, although there was no physical evidence for it, since it had not happened. It is also unclear what my children said when being interviewed by a social worker and police officer that day. When interrogated I was asked about preposterous actions on my part I highly doubt my children would have made up. Who did, when and why is anybody's guess. I will not find out the details until my solicitor receives these interviews. I can only think they asked leading questions and interpreted my children's answers as affirmative.

Due to the lack of evidence, my first hearing has already been postponed twice, for weeks at a time, so I have not been prosecuted yet. If it does go to trial, I do not see how I can be convicted of something I did not do based solely on the police and CS twisting my children's words. We'd had no prior involvement with CS and I had not been accused of anything ever, by police or anyone else. Also there isn't one person who can back this kind of accusation against me as a witness.

Meanwhile a "safety plan" (as described by CS) is in place and I am not allowed unsupervised contact with my children at any time, though we live in the same house and I have always been (and continue to be) their main carer. Another adult needs to be in the same room at all times. This has been going on for weeks. It has been extremely difficult and absurd (the current social workers agree). I know from reading this forum it could be much worse, but it is still needless, underserved and awful. This was not about protecting anyone; they have just stressed us out.

As a result of this investigation we are also being evicted form the home we have been renting for years without one single problem. The excellent relationship we'd had with our landlord for years has gone down the drain after CS went to his door.

The head teacher I mentioned has upturned and nearly destroyed our lives with just one phone call, based on no evidence whatsoever. I truly hope people like her, only interested in ticking all their boxes with no concern whatsoever for common sense, will be held accountable someday.

The CS team that works direcly with the police has left us alone after roughly two weeks of almost daily visits and delegated to a different team we've had no problems with. The fact that we were filming their visits might have played a role in their expediency in delegating the matter. We have caught them in a lie which they had to admit to eventually. Not to mention the numerous lies police have told us regarding our circumstances as thsi unfolded, and there is nothing we can do about it.

In the beginning, I realised both teams suspected I might not know what the law was in the UK with regards to children and discipline, which is certainly not the case. The issue was raised a couple of times before even having a proper conversation with me. They just assumed. They have since understood these concerns were not warranted, but the damage had already been done. It baffles me everyone started out with the presumption that I was guilty, without a shred of evidence and before getting to know me at all. School staff had known my children for years, as previously mentioned.

I'm worried about the future in many ways. I understand by searching online that even after the case is resolved there will be certain markers on my children's names which schools and doctors will be able to see wherever we go. Will that make us more likely to be targeted in the future? Perhaps I will have to live on edge regarding every detail until they are adults.

Now I am unsure if I should take it as a given that I will be suspected of bad parenting due to being a foreign national, by whomever I meet. There might be a societal consensus I have been blissfully unaware of for years.

Also, I was told by the current SW that anything children say at school, whether real, exaggerated or made up, is likely noted by school staff. Their age or fruitful imagination does not matter. It's like being back under communism, basically - constantly worrying about being prejudged, targeted by professional busybodies and accused with no proof. I'm sorry for ranting; before this I just never imagined things could get so absurd out of the blue. I had read some things in the press, but was naive enough to think it would never happen to me.

Many thanks for reading and any advice you can give on how to handle matters is much appreciated.

[Questioning19]

To give a quick update, it appears the involvement of social workers with our family is ending next week, as they have no concerns now.

Whilst that is great news, I'm still worried about these "markers" and the future my children face in this country. I understand that having been under any protection plan that might raise concerns when/if they become parents themselves. Of course that won't happen for many years but just thinking long term.

Anyway, it seems my case is not an emergency, fortunately.

I do think ethnicity and prejudices were issues to start with and did not mean to be inflamatory when suggesting that (in case I offended anyone); I was told by a few people (born and bred here) that had I been local things would not have unfolded in this exaggerated manner.

Thank you again for taking the time to read my posts. If anyone can reply with regards to what might happen in the future it would be much appreciated. I would ask them directly but don't want to seem paranoid.

[Questioning19]

To give another update, the case is now closed and they are actually helping me with the court case, which is at a standstill for now. I am hoping for the charges to be dropped due to lack of evidence and this positive report from them. They have been really helpful. I am counting my blessings as I know most people have the opposite experience with social workers. I was lucky enough to run into two genuinely nice people who were not out to get me and assessed matters as they were.

[Questioning19]

Hi again, it seems the positive report from CS was not even taken into consideration in court. It does appear that CS are only taken seriously when wanting to damage someone's life, not when actually wanting to help clear someone's name.

My solicitor appealed the supervised contact bail condition as soon as this report became available. Nothing came out of that. It was utterly disergarded and the trial is going ahead.

I am confident of winning, although I was equally confident of the likelihood of the charges being dropped for lack of evidence, and that failed to happen. The PF I saw in court, bless her (sarcastically, of course) seemed like a student with no life experience at all. She spent all breaks on her phone, cracking jokes, probably trawling through social media or something. Thy were laughing and joking at the same time as dishing out life altering decisions to plebs like us. It was disgusting in a way. It's all a game and a circus to them. So from four BS charges they were multiplied into 8. I olny had a brief chance to skim through them. They might as well have smeared the pages with you-know-what. I'm looking forward to my solicitor gaining access to the interviews in order to take them apart and spot the obvious manipulation and psychological pressure at the hands of police and the initial SW involved.

Due to being stuck in this absurdity I am actually starting to consider the possibility of a conviction. After all, if no one showed any common sense apart from the two SW mentioned above, why would a jury show it. When it's all over they will have consumed almost half a year of our lives.

My question would be, should anyone have the time to answer, should I be convicted, would CS automatically become involved again? Surely it would not be prison anyway; I have no prior convictions and have never been in trouble at all. But a conviction would be devastating nonetheless. I know I should ask my solicitor but he is extremely busy and I don't want to burden him with phone calls unless it's absolutely urgent.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Questioning19

Thank you for your posts and welcome to the parents’ discussion forum.

I see that you made a number of different posts following a referral by your children’s school to children’s services. In you posts you initially mentioned your concerns about children’s services becoming involved in the first place.

It is important to understand that when children’s services receives a safeguarding referral from a school or anyone else, they have a duty to investigate and see if there are issues which require them to take any action to ensure that the child or children involved are safe. In your situation your child or children made allegations which gave rise to safeguarding concerns and this led to an investigation.

Your latest post indicate that children’s services has concluded that they have no concerns. I would however like to point out that when children’s services are involved there investigation is not based on the criminal test of beyond reasonable doubt. The civil test is on the basis of the balance of probability and this means whether something is more likely to have happened or not.

There is a procedure that it followed by children’s services when they receive a referral and the purpose is to investigate by obtaining information from those involved with the child or children including school, GPs or any other professional involved with the children. Until these investigations are completed social workers have to take steps to ensure children are safe whether they remain in the family or not.
This is why supervision was necessary in your case (although you believed it to be unnecessary). Children’s services usually have different teams to deal with different aspects of a case for example, initial referral and then a case is allocated to a different team for further work to be carried out. I am pleased that you had a good outcome for your family and it is usually the case where parents or other carers cooperate and are open with children’s services the outcome is more likely to be good one for the family.

Regarding your question about there been future markers on your children, I think there will be a record of children’s services involvement which would be referred to if they became involved again or received a referral. I am not aware that there is anything that schools and doctors likely to be looking at throughout your children’s lives. You may wish to have a discussion with the social worker about this.

You may wish to have a copy of the case record on your family and you can request this from children’s services. Please see our advice sheet Access to information held by Children’s Services for more details about this.

I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie

[Questioning19]

Thank you for replying and for your advice. I will request a copy of the information they have on us when this is over with. I was also told but forgot to mention here that there would be no markers since our involvement with CS had been voluntary. I didn't perceive it as such but apparently it was.

Fortunately the condition regarding supervision was removed today through a Sheriff's decision as my solicitor had appealed again. The Sheriff remarked, as I'd mentoned as well, it was an unnatural situation for people to live in. I'd almost lost hope. The previous one never even considered it. So we can finally have a normal life again, which is the most important thing, and will deal with the rest as it comes.

Thank you again for your time and advice.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Questioning19

Thank you for your recent post. I see that you refer to a Sheriff’s decision in this post which implies that you live in Scotland and so your posts related to your involvement with social workers and the court in Scotland.

We only advise parents, family members or friend of children, in England or Wales, who have social workers involved in their child’s life. We do not advise on the situation in Scotland where the legal and practice frameworks are different. Please be aware that the advice previously given was based on our understanding that you lived in either England or Wales as it was not apparent that this was not the case.

You may want to seek advice from one of the following Scottish organisations:

Scottish Child Law Centre

Clan ChildLaw .

I hope this is helpful.

With best wishes

Suzie

[Questioning19]

I apologise for the confusion and thank you again.