urgent enquiry-social services intervention case

[LONGNIGHT]

Dear FRG experts:

Here I am writing to ask for your professional advice about a case of social services intervention happened on my friend. He can't do this because of his language level.

Mr. L has has been separated from his family (wife and two kids) by the local Social Services for one year. According to him, his case, suspected holding children porn video and pictures (case issued in June 2012), has been closed in May 2013 by the local police station due to inadequate evidence. However, he is still isolated from his family by the social worker because he is deemed as “highly risky” to impose sexual abuse on his children.

Mr. L says that he has low trust with the Social Services as the social workers made the first assessment report about him on the basis without any evidence. And as he knows, to protect children and avoid any mistakes, social workers tend to assess someone as the highest “risk” level. Therefore, he refuses to see social workers since a few months ago, and refuses to have another test which is a key basis to judge whether he is still “highly risky”. Besides his distrust, he also says that he is told that the test would last for a few months and he has to pay for the transports during the test. However, as an asylum seeker, he is now living by his wife’s benefit, so he can’t afford the cost for the test.

Above all, Mr. L thinks that the Social Services have totally ruined his reputation and his family life. He is missing his family every day away from home. He is eager to reunite with his family. He hopes to defend his basic rights.

Here we have some questions for you. It would be greatly appreciated if you could help with these important questions about Mr. L’s case:

1. Since the police have closed Mr. L’s case, why the Social Services still deem Mr. L has “potentially high risk” to assault his children? Whose authority has priority (is bigger) in this case?

2. Is there a time limit for a person being “isolated” from his children for children’s safety protection sake? Would Mr.L be not able to reunite with his children until they are over 18 if he maintains the status quo?

3. What should Mr. L do if he would like to go back home to live together with his wife and children?

4. What should Mr. L do if he doubts on the job of a social worker? I.e. What if he doesn’t cooperate with social worker?

5. How would you suggest Mr. L do to resolve the current situation and end the separation?

Thank you very much for your advice on the case ASAP.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Longnight,

Thank you for joining our board and seeking help on behalf of your friend. I shall answer the questions as you have set them out.

1. Since the police have closed Mr. L’s case, why the Social Services still deem Mr. L has “potentially high risk” to assault his children? Whose authority has priority (is bigger) in this case?

First of all, it is not correct to think of who has “higher authority”. The police and Children’s Services, the new name for social services are two different organisations doing different jobs. They work independently of each other and one can continue their case even if the other is not.

The role of the police is to investigate whether a criminal office has been committed. With guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service, they will be looking at whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute the case and prove your friend is guilty “beyond reasonable doubt”. That means you have to be about 90% sure he is guilty.

Children’s Services on the other hand will be concerned about whether there is a risk of significant harm to the children. The Children Act 1989 introduced the phrase "significant harm" to describe the amount of harm that a child must be suffering before Children’s Services become involved in family life against the family's wishes. For example, Children’s Services must:
• carry out child protection enquiries if they suspect a child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, and
• take steps to protect a child whom they have reasonable cause to believe is suffering, likely to suffer, or has suffered significant harm - either in agreement with the family or through the court.

"Harm " means "ill-treatment or the impairment of health or development". It includes physical abuse, sexual abuse, damage to mental or emotional well-being (emotional abuse), and neglect. It can include a child seeing or hearing another person being ill-treated.
There is no definition of "significant" but the law requires local authorities and the courts to compare your child's health and development with a similar child to establish whether the harm is significant.

For more information about this please read our advice sheets on child protection procedures and
care proceedings.

2. Is there a time limit for a person being “isolated” from his children for children’s safety protection sake? Would Mr.L be not able to reunite with his children until they are over 18 if he maintains the status quo?

There is not a time limit that applies to the time your friend can live apart from his children; it can be for as long as is necessary. Children’s Services should give an indication though of what they want to happen before they would be happy with him returning to the home – they seem to have done this by requesting he do certain assessments.

Throughout this period however your friend should have been having contact with the children. It is very likely that Children’s Services would require it to be supervised, either by a family member or in a contact centre. Depending upon the legal status of the children, it would vary the way your friend would approach trying to obtain contact. If Children’s Services have an Interim Care Order (please see advice sheet above) they would make the decision as to what contact he has and if he can’t agree with them, he would make an application to court against them.

However what seems more likely from what you have written is that Children’s Services do not have a court order but are going through the child protection process and might have recommended to you friend’s wife that she doesn’t allow any contact. If that is the case, he needs to try to agree contact with his wife, with guidance from Children’s Services as to the amount of contact and how/when it will happen. If he can’t reach an agreement in this case then he needs to make an application to court for contact against his wife.

Both he and his wife would need to be very careful about making an agreement that Children’s Services do not agree with as it could lead to Children’s Services applying for an order to remove the children if they think neither parent can protect them.

3. What should Mr. L do if he would like to go back home to live together with his wife and children?

Children’s Services cannot force your friend to live away from the home. It has to be with his and his wife’s agreement. However, as I have just stated above, I would urge him to be very cautious about him returning to the home without the agreement of Children’s Services in case it leads to the children being removed. If this is something he wants to consider, he should discuss it first with the social worker and find out what the consequences of doing so would be.

4. What should Mr. L do if he doubts on the job of a social worker? I.e. What if he doesn’t cooperate with social worker?

If you friend has concerns about the way the social worker has conducted his case e.g. they have not shared information with him, then he could make a complaint. There is not enough information in your post for me to have a view on whether a complaint would be justified.

Your friend can also request a new social worker but it is not guaranteed he will get one, it is at the discretion of Children’s Services and often depends on staff availability.

You said that your friend refuses to be involved with the social worker anymore. The difficulty of not co-operating with the social worker – and by that I mean working with them as opposed to agreeing with everything they say, is that your friend can’t demonstrate whether or not he is a risk to the children, he can’t disprove what is being said about him because he is refusing to engage so therefore the social worker will have to err on the side of caution. The social worker should be working as much with your friend as they are his wife but if your friend is refusing too, the social workers hands are tied somewhat.

5. How would you suggest Mr. L do to resolve the current situation and end the separation?

I think I have answered this in the other questions but I will summarise here:
• Try to build a working relationship with Children’s Services. If he doesn’t agree with something they say, explain so but in a calm, not aggressive, manner.
• Establish some regular contact with the children in a way that Children’s Services are happy with.
• If he is to return to the family home make sure both his wife and Children’s Services are in agreement. He doesn’t want to make things worse.

I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes,

Suzie.