Social services stonewalling me and moving my child without my knowledge or consent

[Rebelliouswreck24]

DD has been on an FCO for around 10-11 years. She was in kinship care, then foster care, then returned to my care, then back to a foster carer and now in a care home. Things have escalated so far with her behaviour that she's been arrested for attacking staff. There have been a huge number of incidents including numerous missing from home and I am being ignored by everyone in social services. I have tried contacting the social worker, her manager, her managers manager, the head of children's services in my area, the iro, even the area manager of the home have tried to contact them to contact me on numerous occasions and they are refusing to do so. I haven't spoke to anyone since Oct last year. My daughter informed me on Saturday that they are moving her 6 hours away from me on Monday morning and STILL nobody has contacted me. I'm obviously calling a solicitor first thing in the morning but does anyone have any knowledge on what I do from here? I've tried making complaints but because they are dealt with in house they are also being ignored. I'm gobsmacked they can legally get away with any of this. I've tried stating numerous times that I have parental rights and I'm still being ignored I'm at a loss now if anyone can advise I'd be grateful!

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Rebellious Wreck,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the Parents’ Forum.

My name is Suzie. I am an online adviser and I will be replying to you today.

I am sorry to hear about all the changes of placement that your daughter has experienced.

You say that you are feeling ignored by professionals and that your daughter recently told you she is being moved to another placement a considerable distance away. You are concerned that you were not made aware of this move by children’s services, and point out that under a Care Order you retain parental responsibility for your daughter and should be consulted.

Information about care orders and parental responsibility and children’s services’ responsibility to consult can be read here. Care Order

When making significant decisions about a child or young person in their care, children’s services should consult with parents and find out their wishes. I would advise you to contact the Independent Reviewing Officer and ask to see the Care Plan. I appreciate that you have done this in the past and feel that you did not have a satisfactory response. I am sending you a link to information about the role of the Independent Reviewing Officer so that you can be clear about their duty to monitor and ensure that the child’s Care Plan is carried out in making this fresh request for support. You can read more about Care Plans here. Care Plan .

You imply that you have made formal complaints in the past about the lack of communication but are frustrated by the responses received as you believe that complaints are dealt with ‘in house’.

There are three stages to the complaints process, so if you remain dissatisfied after the first stage response to a complaint you can escalate the matter to the further stages where the issue must be dealt with by people independent of the case.

If you have gone through all three stages of the complaints process but the issues remain unresolved you can take your complaint to the independent Local Government Ombudsman.
Detailed information about the complaints process is here Complaints

I hope that you found this information useful.

If you would like any further advice or information then please post back on this forum. If you prefer, you can speak to an adviser on our freephone advice line (0808 8010366), Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm (except bank holidays), send an advice enquiry or use our webchat facility.