Dear CGDD2
Welcome to the forum and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie, I am an online adviser and will be responding to your two posts today.
I am sorry to hear of your distress. It is has been a very stressful time for you. You are caring for your young twins and other children whilst trying to work with children’s services to keep your children safe from harm. I hope the information provided is helpful to you.
Your children are placed on a
child protection plan under the category of emotional abuse due to domestic abuse from your ex-partner to you. You have separated and your ex partner’s mother is in the process of being checked as a suitable person to supervise contact between the children and their father. This will offer you some respite but is taking a considerable amount of time which is frustrating for you as you are sleep deprived and in need of support now. You have many friends that can support you with child care now but children services are saying that only people approved by them are allowed to do this. You are seeking advice regarding their stance.
I will assume that you have made the social worker aware of your need for some child care support now to enable you to get some rest. If this is not the case I suggest you do so in writing to her and the other professionals involved in the child protection plan and Core Group meetings. Sleep deprivation can result in exhaustion and raised anxiety and it is important that professionals are made fully aware of why you need child care support at this stressful time. Hopefully they will have knowledge of and can explore with you whether there are any school breakfast and/or after school clubs for the children. Whether there is potential for a registered child minder to provide child care now and in the longer term. This could potentially be the swiftest way to secure some immediate support. A childminder would have safeguarding checks already in place. Further to explore what other facilities are available in your area, such as Children’s Centres and Home Start centres. You do not need to wait for the next Core Group meeting to do this.
The children are subject to a child protection plan. Under this framework, children’s services to not have any legal authority to enforce their request. However, it is important for you to know that should you not follow their request, they may escalate the matter. We would advise you to work with children’s services to demonstrate you willingness to prioritise the children. We have a ‘top tips’ guide to working with social workers and you can find the link
HERE.
I would suggest you speak to the social worker to ask for a
family group conference. A family group conference is a family-led decision-making meeting. A child’s wider family and support network come together to develop a plan to support a child and keep them safe. This network may include grandparents, aunts and uncles and sometimes close family friends. The meeting is supported and facilitated by a trained and skilled independent coordinator. They help the family prepare for the meeting and attend to support.
You say it was agreed that the social worker would refer you to a support service but a referral has not been followed through. I suggest you email the social worker and other members of the Core Group to query why the referral is yet to be made and to ask for a response in writing.
Whilst you say you have many friends that could offer support, I would suggest that you put forward say, the ‘top’ three who you feel are the most suitable and ask the social worker to assess them as a priority and to ask for a timescale for this to avoid drift. It may be that if they already have a DBS in place, seeking another one quickens the process.
Lastly, if you feel the child protection plan is subject to drift and you are not being provided with the support which has been agreed within the child protection plan, you may wish to make a formal complaint. I have added a link
HERE which offers advice and guidance regarding this.
You do not say how long the children have been subject to a plan. Whilst children’s services have not raised concerns regarding your day to day parenting, they are concerned that you may be vulnerable to spotting the signs of domestic abuse and of resuming your relationship with your ex-partner. Given this they are likely to want to see change over a sustained period of time. Whilst I cannot say whether the children will be stepped down to a child in need plan at the next
review child protection conference , it would be a good idea to link into a domestic abuse programme, such the
Freedom Project for support and to evidence change, if you have not already done so.
I hope you find the information helpful. You can ring our freephone advice line to discuss this with an adviser if you would like to; our number is 0808 8010366 and we are open from 9.30 am to 3.00 pm, Monday to Friday (except bank holidays). Or of course, you can post again on here if you need further advice.
Best wishes, Suzie.
) thankyou for your reply, and thankyou for trying to find out more information on this, as im just at a loss with it, we have a CP review coming up in the next few months so im hoping and praying they will see that iv left the relationship for good and will drop it back down to a child in need so that im given a little bit more freedom and can finally allow people to help me out again!