hi, ours is a long story so ill try & keep it short & give more info if u need it...
our 12yr old daughter is in foster care as she displays very violent & challenging behaviour & we have younger children who were at risk because of this. She is there on section 20 - we reluctantly agreed as we had no one who could look after her to give us a break and she had been getting worse & worse. She was on a waiting list for cahms but we asked social care for help in expressing the need for her to be seen asap - which they did.
She has been in care since april - we never thought it would be this long but after our daughter kicked a social worker they started to see what we had been trying to cope with for years. We have had 3 social workers so far, the one we have now speaks to us like we are parents who have had their child taken under compulsory arrangements - she doesnt discuss things with us and when she does she just says what her plans are without allowing us to have a say.
We just found out that our daughter is going into respite for a weekend while foster carers are away, we were not consulted about this and have said we do not give consent for this as out daughter is supposed to be coming home very soon and her contact is building up to her coming back. She has done really well the last few months and theres been no violence for some time, we have support from close friends who will help us if we need it when shes home and have a clear plan of getting the other children to a safe area should we need to. We have insisted that our daughter stays here instead of the respite place and we said we wanted to withdraw the voluntary agreement when the social worker said no. She said it would be against their wishes but we said if we have to fight this then we will as social care have failed us just about every step of the way so far. She then agreed to our daughter staying here for that weekend and said she'd email us to confirm this - but guess what..? she then went on leave and we have no written confirmation of the plans. She tried saying she told us about respite - which she didn't, then she said it was discussed at our daughters review - which it wasnt. I just dont trust a word she says as all we have had so far are lies. What are our rights? Can we withdraw voluntary? but if we do - could they say our others are at risk from our daughter and taken them? we want to work with social care - we asked them for help as all we want is to get help for our daughter - yet they are destroying us - they have messed about with our contact, kept telling us certain things were going to happen that would help us - but nothing has ever been done & they just make excuses. I work in social care (adults) and this has really shocked me at how bad the 'system' can be!!
do we have any rights?
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Suzie, FRG Adviser
- Posts: 4996
- Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:57 pm
Re: do we have any rights?
Hello Emwol2
My name is Suzie and I am an adviser at Family Rights Group.
Welcome to the discussion boards and thank you for your post. I am sorry to read about the difficulties you have had in trying to secure appropriate support for your family and the difficult situation you are currently in.
As your daughter is accommodated voluntarily under section 20 of the Children Act, Children’s Services must seek your agreement to her care plan (See our advice sheet on the duties of Children’s Services when an child is in the care system). You have every right to withdraw your consent to the accomodation and ask for her to be returned to your care. Children’s Services cannot overrule you on this. They do, however, have the right to take further action if they feel that your decision places your daughter, or your other children, at risk of harm.
In order to continue accommodating your daughter against your wishes (or remove your other children from your care), Children’s Services would have to take the matter to court and ask for a care order. If granted, this would give them shared parental responsibility.
Alternatively, Children’s Services could begin a child protection investigation. This may result in a child protection conference and the children being made subject to child protection plans.
It certainly sounds as though you have acted very reasonably in informing the social worker of your concerns, expressing your own clear plan for your daughter and explaining why this is in her best interests.
Obviously I would advise caution in how you manage this current situation. It seems that you have worked extremely well with Children’s Services to date and it is important that you do not do anything that will cause them to question your ability to understand their concerns or prioritise the children’s needs.
You do retain full parental responsibility for your daughter, however, and it is right that you should question Children’s Services when you feel their plans are not appropriate and that you should be clear about what you believe is in the best interests of your children.
I would advise that you put your position in writing to the team manager and either email or hand deliver this today. You may wish to forward a copy to your daughter’s independent reviewing officer also.
· Emphasise that you your children are your priority, that you have worked in partnership with the local authority throughout and that you fully intend to continue this partnership working in the best interests of the children
· Set out your concerns about the current plan, the alternative plan that you have arranged (including all of the safeguards that you have mentioned) and the reasons why this is in the children’s best interests
· Give a summary of your discussions with the social worker, including her eventual agreement to your plan and assurance that she would confirm this in writing
· Set out your intentions for this weekend- I would advise that you suggest your daughter will spend the weekend with you but that you will then return her to her current carer so that you can continue with the gradual rehabilitation plan that has been going well
· Ask the team manager to contact you urgently to discuss any specific concerns s/he has about this plan so that you can work together on the best way forward
You may wish to make a complaint about your daughter’s social worker and her handling of this situation at some point. I would advise, however, that you focus on resolving the current situation for now and consider your option once things have settled down.
I hope this is helpful. Do let us know how things go and if there is anything further we can help with.
Best Wishes
Suzie
FRG Adviser
My name is Suzie and I am an adviser at Family Rights Group.
Welcome to the discussion boards and thank you for your post. I am sorry to read about the difficulties you have had in trying to secure appropriate support for your family and the difficult situation you are currently in.
As your daughter is accommodated voluntarily under section 20 of the Children Act, Children’s Services must seek your agreement to her care plan (See our advice sheet on the duties of Children’s Services when an child is in the care system). You have every right to withdraw your consent to the accomodation and ask for her to be returned to your care. Children’s Services cannot overrule you on this. They do, however, have the right to take further action if they feel that your decision places your daughter, or your other children, at risk of harm.
In order to continue accommodating your daughter against your wishes (or remove your other children from your care), Children’s Services would have to take the matter to court and ask for a care order. If granted, this would give them shared parental responsibility.
Alternatively, Children’s Services could begin a child protection investigation. This may result in a child protection conference and the children being made subject to child protection plans.
It certainly sounds as though you have acted very reasonably in informing the social worker of your concerns, expressing your own clear plan for your daughter and explaining why this is in her best interests.
Obviously I would advise caution in how you manage this current situation. It seems that you have worked extremely well with Children’s Services to date and it is important that you do not do anything that will cause them to question your ability to understand their concerns or prioritise the children’s needs.
You do retain full parental responsibility for your daughter, however, and it is right that you should question Children’s Services when you feel their plans are not appropriate and that you should be clear about what you believe is in the best interests of your children.
I would advise that you put your position in writing to the team manager and either email or hand deliver this today. You may wish to forward a copy to your daughter’s independent reviewing officer also.
· Emphasise that you your children are your priority, that you have worked in partnership with the local authority throughout and that you fully intend to continue this partnership working in the best interests of the children
· Set out your concerns about the current plan, the alternative plan that you have arranged (including all of the safeguards that you have mentioned) and the reasons why this is in the children’s best interests
· Give a summary of your discussions with the social worker, including her eventual agreement to your plan and assurance that she would confirm this in writing
· Set out your intentions for this weekend- I would advise that you suggest your daughter will spend the weekend with you but that you will then return her to her current carer so that you can continue with the gradual rehabilitation plan that has been going well
· Ask the team manager to contact you urgently to discuss any specific concerns s/he has about this plan so that you can work together on the best way forward
You may wish to make a complaint about your daughter’s social worker and her handling of this situation at some point. I would advise, however, that you focus on resolving the current situation for now and consider your option once things have settled down.
I hope this is helpful. Do let us know how things go and if there is anything further we can help with.
Best Wishes
Suzie
FRG Adviser
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princess27
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Sat Sep 21, 2013 8:20 pm
Re: do we have any rights?
If you withdraw her you will be ordered to court and they will make an order against her the best thing is to agree and work with them
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