Our social worker is very poor at communicating and is often mis communicatibg about procedures and expected outcomes. She had us believing a child protection conference was going to take pur kids away.
We have lost complete trust in her as she won't even acknowledge that there was miscommunication.
She outright lied on an occasion too.
We want to protect ourselves and our kids. We feel extremely vulnerable and unsafe. Our kuds were put on a protection order yesterday so my question is what is our legal rights as a parent to refuse her access alone to the child but have another agency not us there with her?
We also feel we need to record all inperson meetings with us.
The chair of the conference said categorically they would not entertain this action at all. Where do we stand legally please? I phoned a couple of family law solicitors and they say as its a civil matter they won't comment.
Can a social worker legally refuse to see the child with another appropriate adult present from another support organisa
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Whattheactualfu
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2024 6:03 pm
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Suzie, FRG Adviser
- Posts: 4996
- Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:57 pm
Re: Can a social worker legally refuse to see the child with another appropriate adult present from another support orga
Dear whattheactualfu
Thank you for your post and welcome to the discussion board. My name is Suzie, I am an online adviser and will be replying to you today. I am sorry to hear of your experiences whilst involved with children’s services. You are frustrated by poor communications and miscommunications from the social worker.
It must be difficult to work with services when you feel this way. I suggest, in the first instance, you ask for a meeting with the social worker and their team manager in an attempt to resolve the issues you have raised here.
You attended a child protection conference, and your children were placed on a child protection plan. I have added HEREmore information and guidance regarding the child protection process. Please do take a look.
I have added HEREa document that you may find helpful. It is to our ‘top tips’ page. You will see there is a section on how to work well with social workers and what you might wish to consider if things are not going so well.
If you have significant concerns about children's services and how they are/have managed your situation, you may wish to make a formal complaint. I have added HERE detailed information on how we suggest you approach this.
If the matter relates specifically to a social workers conduct, I suggest you look at Social Work England’s advice and guidance on this. They are the regulatory body for social workers. HERE is a link to their website.
You feel vulnerable and unsafe when engaging with the social worker and are seeking clarification on your rights should you refuse for you child to be alone with the social worker.
Statutory guidance states that wherever possible the social worker should see the child alone as it is part of their role (and duty) to find out what the child thinks about their situation and what they think may help the family. This guidance is called ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023)’ and you can access the document HERE .
The Social Worker should consider whether speaking to a child alone may cause distress and may ask another adult, such as a teacher or a friend to be present. However, children’s services do not have to agree to this.
Due to your mistrust of children’s services and your experiences when dealing with the social worker, you would like to record all ‘in person’ meetings. You raised this with the Chair of the Conference and was told that this was not possible. You are seeking further guidance on this.
Child Law Advice have some helpful information regarding this.
Why do people make recordings?
There are various situations where someone might feel the need to make a recording.
In meetings with professionals (e.g. children’s services, school staff or Cafcass), parents may feel they need to have an indisputable record of what was said:
• The parent might be unable to read or write, have a poor memory or difficulty concentrating (e.g. when stressed or due to a disability).
• It can be difficult to fully participate in a meeting, when trying to handwrite or type notes at the same time.
• A parent may simply not want to rely on other people's notes and want an objective record of their own. Even where minutes are taken, there can be a delay in their circulation. Parents can also find it difficult to get corrections made, especially where others at the meeting have a different recollection of what was said.
• A lack of trust may have developed, with a particular professional or with professionals in general and the parent feels that a recording is necessary to demonstrate that their version of events is accurate. For example, social work records often include notes from conversations with parents, which can be treated by professionals as conclusive because they have been made by someone in authority.
The law General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) does not prevent individuals making records for their own personal use. However, where professionals make records of meetings with parents and/or child(ren), they are likely to be processing data for the purposes of the Act and must therefore comply with its provisions.
Confidentiality issues really only arise if the recordings are distributed or published; recording it is not of itself a barrier to covert recording. Recording is not the same as publishing or distributing recordings that have been made. If this took place, then GDPR and DPA would need to be considered.
In 2018, the Transparency Project issued guidance called “Parents Recording Social Workers”, which encourages social workers to engage with and support a transparent approach to working with parents. A number of local authorities have since developed their own policies in line with this approach.
Therefore, whilst the Chair informed you recording was not possible I suggest you go back to the local authority to request their policy on this. If they have one, this may support you to challenge the Chairs decision to refuse.
Lastly, you may wish to seek the support from an advocate to help you with the child protection process. This can be a formal advocate or a trusted family member. An advocate's role is to support you to express your views, help you to understand the process and to provide emotional support. I have added a link HERE to our Template letter page. You will see Letter One is to request an advocate from children's services when the child protection process is in place.
I hope you find this information helpful. There are many ways to contact Family Rights Group, please do look at our website for further information about this or post again here if you have further questions.
Best wishes, Suzie
Thank you for your post and welcome to the discussion board. My name is Suzie, I am an online adviser and will be replying to you today. I am sorry to hear of your experiences whilst involved with children’s services. You are frustrated by poor communications and miscommunications from the social worker.
It must be difficult to work with services when you feel this way. I suggest, in the first instance, you ask for a meeting with the social worker and their team manager in an attempt to resolve the issues you have raised here.
You attended a child protection conference, and your children were placed on a child protection plan. I have added HEREmore information and guidance regarding the child protection process. Please do take a look.
I have added HEREa document that you may find helpful. It is to our ‘top tips’ page. You will see there is a section on how to work well with social workers and what you might wish to consider if things are not going so well.
If you have significant concerns about children's services and how they are/have managed your situation, you may wish to make a formal complaint. I have added HERE detailed information on how we suggest you approach this.
If the matter relates specifically to a social workers conduct, I suggest you look at Social Work England’s advice and guidance on this. They are the regulatory body for social workers. HERE is a link to their website.
You feel vulnerable and unsafe when engaging with the social worker and are seeking clarification on your rights should you refuse for you child to be alone with the social worker.
Statutory guidance states that wherever possible the social worker should see the child alone as it is part of their role (and duty) to find out what the child thinks about their situation and what they think may help the family. This guidance is called ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023)’ and you can access the document HERE .
The Social Worker should consider whether speaking to a child alone may cause distress and may ask another adult, such as a teacher or a friend to be present. However, children’s services do not have to agree to this.
Due to your mistrust of children’s services and your experiences when dealing with the social worker, you would like to record all ‘in person’ meetings. You raised this with the Chair of the Conference and was told that this was not possible. You are seeking further guidance on this.
Child Law Advice have some helpful information regarding this.
Why do people make recordings?
There are various situations where someone might feel the need to make a recording.
In meetings with professionals (e.g. children’s services, school staff or Cafcass), parents may feel they need to have an indisputable record of what was said:
• The parent might be unable to read or write, have a poor memory or difficulty concentrating (e.g. when stressed or due to a disability).
• It can be difficult to fully participate in a meeting, when trying to handwrite or type notes at the same time.
• A parent may simply not want to rely on other people's notes and want an objective record of their own. Even where minutes are taken, there can be a delay in their circulation. Parents can also find it difficult to get corrections made, especially where others at the meeting have a different recollection of what was said.
• A lack of trust may have developed, with a particular professional or with professionals in general and the parent feels that a recording is necessary to demonstrate that their version of events is accurate. For example, social work records often include notes from conversations with parents, which can be treated by professionals as conclusive because they have been made by someone in authority.
The law General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) does not prevent individuals making records for their own personal use. However, where professionals make records of meetings with parents and/or child(ren), they are likely to be processing data for the purposes of the Act and must therefore comply with its provisions.
Confidentiality issues really only arise if the recordings are distributed or published; recording it is not of itself a barrier to covert recording. Recording is not the same as publishing or distributing recordings that have been made. If this took place, then GDPR and DPA would need to be considered.
In 2018, the Transparency Project issued guidance called “Parents Recording Social Workers”, which encourages social workers to engage with and support a transparent approach to working with parents. A number of local authorities have since developed their own policies in line with this approach.
Therefore, whilst the Chair informed you recording was not possible I suggest you go back to the local authority to request their policy on this. If they have one, this may support you to challenge the Chairs decision to refuse.
Lastly, you may wish to seek the support from an advocate to help you with the child protection process. This can be a formal advocate or a trusted family member. An advocate's role is to support you to express your views, help you to understand the process and to provide emotional support. I have added a link HERE to our Template letter page. You will see Letter One is to request an advocate from children's services when the child protection process is in place.
I hope you find this information helpful. There are many ways to contact Family Rights Group, please do look at our website for further information about this or post again here if you have further questions.
Best wishes, Suzie
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