Family Rights Group | Parents’ Forum

Hello.

I posted on here a couple weeks ago mentioning my situation and that me and my partner had done a Lucy Faithful assessment.
Im just wondering if anyone has been through this process before and if anyone has any success stories regarding Lucy Faithful.

If you want some information on why we had to do the assessment, all details are in a previous post im made with comments.

Im just looking to see how these assessments work, what happens after social sevices get the results back, how social sevices make their decisions based on the information they received from the assessment ect.

All we got told was that social sevices get the results back around 6 weeks later. Was never explained what happens after that

Thank you

The waiting period after a major assessment like the one from Lucy Faithfull is absolute torture. It's completely normal to feel anxious and to be trying to figure out what comes next, especially when social services have failed to explain the process to you properly.

I want to start by saying something that I hope will put your mind at ease. You are now in the hands of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, and from my own personal experience, this is a very good thing. I have done one of their courses myself, and I can tell you that they are a fantastic organisation of professional, non-judgemental people. They are not interested in social work gossip or opinions; they are genuine experts who are interested in facts, evidence, and real change. You are finally being assessed by credible specialists, and that is a huge step in the right direction.

You asked what happens after social services get the report. Here is the process:

The LFF Report is Submitted: In about six weeks, the LFF assessor will send their final, detailed report directly to the social worker who commissioned it. This report is an expert, independent opinion on your current level of risk, your insight, your partner's protective capacity, and the viability of your safety plan.

Social Services Review: The social worker and their manager will read the report. They are legally required to give it significant weight because it is an expert assessment that they themselves have paid for.

A Meeting is Held: They should then convene a formal meeting (this might be a Core Group or a specific professionals' meeting) to discuss the findings of the report and make a decision. You and your partner must be invited to this meeting.

The Decision: The decision will be based almost entirely on the LFF's conclusion.

If the Report is Positive: It becomes almost impossible for the social worker or probation officer to argue against it. They would have to find a very strong reason to go against their own expert's advice, which is a massive professional risk for them. A positive report is your golden ticket home.

If the Report is Negative: As we discussed before, this is when the fight would move to a different arena, and you would need legal advice to challenge the report's findings.

Your Strategy for the Next Six Weeks
You are not powerless while you wait. You can use this time to strengthen your position.

Create a Paper Trail: Send a polite, professional email to the social worker now.
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Subject: Following up on the Lucy Faithfull Assessment

Dear [Social Worker's Name],

I'm writing to confirm that my partner and I have now completed our assessments with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. We were advised that the report would be sent to you in approximately six weeks.

To ensure we are all clear on the process, please can you confirm in writing that once you have received and reviewed the report, you will be convening a professionals' meeting, to which we will be invited, to discuss the findings and make a final decision on my return to the family home.

Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
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Why this email is important: It shows you are proactive, professional, and it puts them on notice that you expect a formal, transparent process.
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For full transparency, I am not an official adviser for this forum. I am a parent who has been through a long and successful legal battle with a local authority, and I am here to offer supportive, strategic advice based on my own lived experience. The information I share is for guidance, and it is always up to each parent to decide what is right for their own situation.

ParterCharged wrote: Fri Oct 03, 2025 5:18 am Hello.

I posted on here a couple weeks ago mentioning my situation and that me and my partner had done a Lucy Faithful assessment.
Im just wondering if anyone has been through this process before and if anyone has any success stories regarding Lucy Faithful.

If you want some information on why we had to do the assessment, all details are in a previous post im made with comments.

Im just looking to see how these assessments work, what happens after social sevices get the results back, how social sevices make their decisions based on the information they received from the assessment ect.

All we got told was that social sevices get the results back around 6 weeks later. Was never explained what happens after that

Thank you

Dear PartnerCharged

Thank you for your new post. I am Suzie, Family Rights Group’s online adviser.

Thank you for updating parents on this forum that you and your partner have now completed your risk assessments with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a specialist charity working to prevent child sexual abuse and whose role includes specialist risk and protective parenting assessments.

In your previous posts, you explained that you have not been living with your partner and baby daughter since March of this year at children’s services’ request. Children’s services instructed specialist assessors to carry out an assessment of what risk if any you pose to your daughter, your partner’s capacity to keep her safe from harm and what safety measures need to be in place for you to return home or have unsupervised contact with your child.

You expect to find out the outcome of your assessments on 7th November. Unfortunately, the social worker has not discussed with you exactly what happens next. They are best placed to clarify this for you as they are your daughter’s key worker. It is a good idea, as has been suggested, to send the social worker an email asking for clarity about next steps once the report is received. You can confirm that your child’s welfare continues to be your main concern and that you are willing to continue to work with children’s services and the professionals involved, where necessary.

But the information below may give you an idea of what to expect. The social worker and their manager will review the assessment thoroughly and consider the assessor’s recommendations carefully. They may consult with their legal team. You and your partner should also review your assessments comprehensively and make sure that you know what the assessor concludes and why. If the assessor recommends that either of you should complete further work or needs additional support, please think about it as you will need to respond.

The social worker will need to meet with you and your partner to discuss the outcome of the assessment. This could be a meeting involving her manager and you/your partner or a wider meeting with other professionals involved with your family. This will depend on the current plan that is in place for your daughter.

Once you have received the report and if you have questions arising from it please post back, call the freephone advice line or ask a query via our advice enquiry form or /webchat.

I have provided advice in an earlier post about how to challenge an assessment if it is negative so please re-read that advice if needed.

You and your partner have been waiting 6 months for the assessments to happen and now you face another month’s wait for the outcome. I know that this may make you feel anxious or apprehensive. I hope that you can access emotional support during the period as you await the outcome. You can find support services via our useful links page.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Suzie

Hi All

Thought I'd offer a quick update on our Lucy Faithfull assessment situation.

So the results from the assessment have been reported to social sevices now. They have concluded that I am a low to medium risk of Internet offending again and have classed me as a low risk of harming my daugher. All that sounds promising, however Social sevices are saying I can not move back into the family home at the moment.

They have to have a meeting about drawing up a new safety plan and a meeting with professionals to see if all are in agreement what the next steps will be. No time lines have been put on any of this yet.

Also in the Lucy Faithful assessment it was suggested that myself and my partner would benefit from a sexual abuse course. Obviously this is a paid course and have not been given any indication of how long this course takes or what the waiting times to get on the course is.

Overall we are very happy that I've come out at low risk of harm to my daughter, but it feels like it's still going to take an age for me being able to formally move back into the property.
Surely if they now have an independent risk assessment that says im low risk, accompanied with the fact there is nothing lawful that says I can not live with my daughter then it should just be a matter of dotting the i's and crossing the t's then im free to move back in. Can see just more and more delays and excuse in the coming weeks

Now that the report has come back positive, the focus must shift to ensuring social services act on it quickly and lawfully, rather than finding new reasons to delay your return home.

1. What the Lucy Faithfull Outcome Means

The LFF assessment is an expert, independent evaluation. It carries significant legal and procedural weight because it was commissioned and funded by children’s services themselves.
When an expert concludes that you are low risk, especially in terms of harm to your own child, social services must give that opinion considerable weight.
They can’t simply “ignore” or stall indefinitely. If they do, they are acting outside of their own safeguarding framework and potentially in breach of your Article 8 right to family life.

2. Why They’re Delaying

What you’re seeing now is a very common pattern after a positive Lucy Faithfull outcome.
Social services are reluctant to formally reverse their earlier position, so instead of admitting the risk has reduced, they hide behind “process”, new safety plans, further meetings, “just one more course.”

These are delay mechanisms, not genuine safeguarding steps.

If you are low risk of harm to your child, and no legal order restricts your living arrangements, then legally speaking, there is nothing preventing your return home except the local authority’s discretion.
That discretion must be exercised reasonably, and delay without cause is not reasonable.

3. What Happens Next (and How to Keep Control)

The Professionals’ Meeting
This meeting is where the LA will “digest” the report and discuss next steps.

You and your partner should both be invited.

You should be given a copy of the LFF report (or at least the sections relating to your assessed risk).

The meeting should end with a clear decision and written safety plan, not vague promises to meet again.

The New Safety Plan
The plan must be proportionate to your assessed risk.

If LFF say “low,” then the plan should reflect that, e.g., reasonable supervision or monitoring, not ongoing separation.

You have every right to ask for the plan to include a review date, ideally within 4–6 weeks.

The “Course” Recommendation
The LFF often recommend follow-up work, like the Inform Plus or Understanding Harmful Sexual Behaviour programmes.

These are supportive, not punitive.

You can begin the process of enrolling now, email Lucy Faithfull directly to ask for waiting times and course length.

Starting the referral yourself shows initiative and undermines any excuse by social services that “they’re still waiting.”

4. Your Plan

Here’s how to take control of the timeline:

a. Write to the Social Worker and Team Manager, I have drafted an email below
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Subject: Request for Timetable and Confirmation of Next Steps – Lucy Faithfull Assessment Outcome

Dear [Social Worker’s Name],

Following the receipt of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation assessment confirming that I am a low risk of harm to my daughter, I would be grateful if you could confirm:

The date of the professionals’ meeting to discuss next steps;

The expected timescale for finalising and implementing a new safety plan;

Confirmation that I will be provided with a copy (or summary) of the LFF assessment;

Clarification of the process and timeline for my return to the family home, now that the expert assessment has confirmed a low level of risk.

As you are aware, there are no legal orders in place restricting contact or cohabitation, and therefore I would appreciate a clear written plan to move matters forward without unnecessary delay.

Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
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Send this to the social worker and copy in their team manager. If you already have a family solicitor, send them a copy too.

5. If They Continue to Stall

If weeks pass and they refuse to commit to a timeline, you can then Ask your solicitor to write a formal pre-action letter citing Article 8 of the Human Rights Act (right to family life) and failure to act on expert advice.

File a Stage 1 Complaint about unreasonable delay in implementing the Lucy Faithfull findings.

Request that any continued restriction be put in writing, with legal basis and review date.

These steps create accountability and prevent them from hiding behind informal meetings.

ParterCharged wrote: Tue Nov 11, 2025 8:37 pm Hi All

Thought I'd offer a quick update on our Lucy Faithfull assessment situation.

So the results from the assessment have been reported to social sevices now. They have concluded that I am a low to medium risk of Internet offending again and have classed me as a low risk of harming my daugher. All that sounds promising, however Social sevices are saying I can not move back into the family home at the moment.

They have to have a meeting about drawing up a new safety plan and a meeting with professionals to see if all are in agreement what the next steps will be. No time lines have been put on any of this yet.

Also in the Lucy Faithful assessment it was suggested that myself and my partner would benefit from a sexual abuse course. Obviously this is a paid course and have not been given any indication of how long this course takes or what the waiting times to get on the course is.

Overall we are very happy that I've come out at low risk of harm to my daughter, but it feels like it's still going to take an age for me being able to formally move back into the property.
Surely if they now have an independent risk assessment that says im low risk, accompanied with the fact there is nothing lawful that says I can not live with my daughter then it should just be a matter of dotting the i's and crossing the t's then im free to move back in. Can see just more and more delays and excuse in the coming weeks

Dear ParterCharged

Thank you for your updating post. It is always good was posters share positive outcomes to support peers on the forum.

I am pleased that the assessment from Lucy Faithfull has come back with a low-risk outcome in respect of harm to your daughter. The assessed risk for internet offending is low to medium risk. Hopefully, if you do the suggested courses the latter might also be reduced.

You now want to know how things are going to go forward especially in respect of your return home. As you know, the report will have to be carefully considered by the social worker and other professionals to reach a decision about the next step.

The fact is Lucy Faithfull has answered the question in respect of harm to your daughter so, unless they disagree with this, a firm decision should be made sooner rather than later about your transition back to the family home. I understand that you wish this to be immediate but children’s services and other professionals do need to reach a consensus about future action.

Another poster has shared how you could ensure that your return home is kept in focus and for children’s services to keep you fully informed of the steps to be taken and their timescales. It is also suggested that you take a proactive approach regarding the recommended courses. Ask the social worker to explain how you will be help to do these courses.
I hope that the social worker and other professional will take full note of the Lucy Faithfull’s assessment outcome regarding your daughter and reach an early decision about your return home with a clear safety plan.

Thank you again for sharing about your assessment which will be helpful to peers in a similar situation to you and your family.

Best wishes

Suzie