This post is to give all of you hope and to tell you not to give up.
When children's services took my two children away six years ago I was told I would have them returned within 3 years all I had to do was complete therapy. I honestly feel this was a lie and I honestly felt like giving up about 3 years ago.
So without going into too much detail I've had many workers over the years about two and a half years ago I had a new worker, whom I thought would help to point me in the right direction for reunification.
There had never been any issues when the children were seeing me and there was talk of increasing my contacts and looking at making it unsupervised. Long story short that worker lead to me placing a complaint against children's services. Basically because it got to the point that at the start of this year that worker would laugh at me, literally every time I asked why things that had been agreed at lac reviews were not being implemented. About five months ago the case got transferred to another team as the previous worker had ran out of excuses why they couldn't do my parental assessment and decided to go off sick for six months. Conveniently on the day my assessment was due to take place. Which is what pushed me over the edge and led me to logging a formal complaint.
When the new team got the case they contacted me straight away, my complaint was still being investigated at this point at stage two. Complaint has been resolved now with a apology letter and action plan of how basically they're not going to fail the children in the future.
So next thing you know the new team book in to do my parental assessment unfortunately that worker went off sick and another worker had to cover them. I had to wait 4 weeks. After what felt like forever (only a further two weeks). I had the results. I had passed the initial assessment meaning I could now have a full assessment along with an independent risk assessment of my partner. This is where things really took off but also came to a standstill. So within hours of finding out I had passed the first stage/assessment they had asked to come the following day to start my full assessment, however my partners was due the following month (Nov). Fast forward to last week which for myself really did feel like an eternity coming as I have waited seven weeks from when my assessment finished and three weeks since my partner's assessment ended. To find out we have passed and in another two weeks we have the reunification return home meeting booked in to discuss the return home plan. I know for many of you you're going through a hard time right now you may have given up all hope. I certainly understand that feeling especially after having a worker that would literally laugh at me. When I was asking why they couldn't basically be bothered to do assessments or to increase my contact or to make it unsupervised.
And yet since the new team has taken over I am seeing my children every week, unsupervised and they're coming to my home. And we're now discussing them coming home permanently. This is why I wanted to post because you're gonna have a long road ahead. But don't ever give up there has been so many times I have asked myself why do I keep going or why do I keep asking or why do I keep pushing but it was for this very reason. As a parent we want what's best for our children and sometimes things don't go the way we'd hoped. But just don't lose sight even though it may feel like there isn't light at the end of the tunnel you'll get there eventually. And if any of you need advice and guidance I can strongly recommend family rights advice line. Not only do you speak to friendly people but they're also very knowledgeable. The amount of times I have asked them for help over the years I've lost count. But the best piece of advice I have ever had was to raise a formal complaint, get my local MP involved and tell children's services that I have been speaking to family rights group because they know exactly who they are and as soon as you mention you're getting advice from this wonderful group of volunteers. Just watch how quickly that social workers attitude changes because for me they started treating me with more respect. They stopped laughing at me and surprisingly the complaint and knowing I've been getting advice here was the reason why they transferred us to a different team. I wish you all the best and remember to keep going.
I am sure I will be ringing or using the forum at some point in the future if I need any further advice myself.
And I would just like to thank family rights for the help and advice you've given me so far
