Section 47 and case conference

[RJT31]

Advice needed please.
I left my husband is September due to domestic abuse mostly coercive control, anger issues and at times hitting and betraying my 2 boys. Prior to this I asked the early help hub to help with my 10 year old due to his behaviour. Upon being visited at school, my children divulged how much their dad drinks and that he can be abusive. Things then spiralled and I left him and bought a new house for my kids and I. I work shifts so my husband looks after them when I work. On 3 separate occasions, my chick have disclosed to a family worker that their dad has hit them when they were being naughty. When this happens social care insist they have no contact with their dad meaning no childcare therefore I have to take time off from work. I have done everything in my power to protect my kids but I do have to work or I’ll lose my home. I have always complied with social care but often feel kept out of the loop and find out information third hand. Social care has now involved the police and my ex has to go and talk to them about hitting the children. Information is not volunteered by social care and I have to demand it. I’ve since found out they are conducting a section 47 enquiry and that there will be a case conference to decide if my kids will be put on a child protection plan.
Please can someone offer any advice
Thank you

[Winter25]

Hi RJT31,

I’m really sorry you and your boys are going through this. I want to say this clearly at the start, you did the right thing by leaving, by securing a new home, and by asking for help when you were worried about your child’s behaviour. None of that points to neglect or failure as a parent on your side.

That said, I also want to be honest with you about how social services are likely viewing the situation right now, so you can protect yourself and your children at the conference.

What has triggered the Section 47 is not your parenting overall, but the continued contact with their father after repeated disclosures that he hit them. Even though you were trying to work and keep a roof over your heads, social care works on a very rigid safeguarding model where any contact with an alleged perpetrator during an investigation is treated as a risk issue, regardless of the practical realities.

This is where many parents get caught out. From their perspective, using him for childcare, even temporarily, looks like a safeguarding gap. That does not mean they think you’re abusive, but it does mean they may question whether the children are fully protected unless very clear boundaries are in place.

A Section 47 enquiry means they believe the children may be suffering, or are likely to suffer, significant harm. The case conference (ICPC) is where they decide whether a Child Protection Plan is needed. It is not a court, and it is not about punishment, Its not a legal meeting but it does shape what happens next in their eyes.

You have important rights here. You should be given the social worker’s conference report at least two working days before the meeting. If you haven’t received it yet, email them now and ask for it. You are entitled to know exactly what concerns are being presented and to correct anything that is inaccurate or unfair.

At the conference, how you present your position is crucial. This is not the space to justify his behaviour or to explain that you felt you had “no choice” because of work. Social care are not focused on employment pressures; their focus is solely on the children’s safety and the fact that they were harmed while in his care. Even though your situation is completely understandable in real life, the conference will be looking for clear evidence that you recognise the risk and that you have taken decisive steps to remove it.

What usually helps is being very clear and calm, along the lines of:

“I left the relationship to protect my children. I recognise that relying on their father for childcare after the disclosures was not safe, and that has now stopped. I am committed to ensuring there is no further contact while these concerns are being investigated.”

Then, crucially, you bring it back to support:

“I want to work, keep our home, and keep my children safe. I am asking for support with safe childcare arrangements so I can do that without putting them at risk.”

That shifts the focus from blame onto what support the local authority should be providing, which is exactly where it belongs.

If they propose a Child Protection Plan, it does not automatically mean removal. In many cases it is used to formalise boundaries, such as no contact with the fathe, and to put services in place. What matters is that the plan reflects the reality that you are the protective parent and that the risk comes from him, not you.

It’s also okay to say you feel communication has been poor and that you need clearer information. You should not be finding things out third-hand. Ask who your main point of contact is and how information will be shared going forward.

You are doing the right thing by asking questions now, before the conference. If you can, write down your key points and take them with you so you don’t feel flustered on the day.

You’ve already shown you can take decisive steps to protect your boys. This stage is about making sure the system recognises that, and about getting the practical support you need to keep moving forward.
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For full transparency, I am not an official adviser. I am a parent with lived experience of the family court system, offering strategic guidance

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Advice needed please.
I left my husband is September due to domestic abuse mostly coercive control, anger issues and at times hitting and betraying my 2 boys. Prior to this I asked the early help hub to help with my 10 year old due to his behaviour. Upon being visited at school, my children divulged how much their dad drinks and that he can be abusive. Things then spiralled and I left him and bought a new house for my kids and I. I work shifts so my husband looks after them when I work. On 3 separate occasions, my chick have disclosed to a family worker that their dad has hit them when they were being naughty. When this happens social care insist they have no contact with their dad meaning no childcare therefore I have to take time off from work. I have done everything in my power to protect my kids but I do have to work or I’ll lose my home. I have always complied with social care but often feel kept out of the loop and find out information third hand. Social care has now involved the police and my ex has to go and talk to them about hitting the children. Information is not volunteered by social care and I have to demand it. I’ve since found out they are conducting a section 47 enquiry and that there will be a case conference to decide if my kids will be put on a child protection plan.
Please can someone offer any advice
Thank you

Dear RJT31,

Welcome to the parents’ forum and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I am the online adviser at Family Rights Group. I hope that the following information and advice is helpful. You can click on the hyperlinks below to take you to more information on our website.

Firstly I am sorry to hear that your husband was abusive towards you. This must have been a very difficult time for you, and you have shown great strength in leaving the relationship and caring for your children alone whilst also juggling your work. You are understandably finding that the juggle of being able to provide financially for your children and keeping up with payments on your house means that you do need to seek childcare support when you are working. Unfortunately at the moment it seems that the children’s father is the only person who is able to offer this.

You say that your children have continued to say that their father is hitting them. This is why children’s services involvement has escalated to the child protection process. (Please click HERE for more information about the child protection process). Ultimately the situation cannot continue like this; if the children’s father continues to hit the children then they are not safe in his care and are being harmed. It is important that at the child protection conference you focus on this and ensure that the professionals understand that you recognise that the children are not safe in his care. I would suggest that you ask the professionals to work with you to find alternative arrangements so that the children are protected from harm. The difficulty that you face is the practical problem of who will care for your children whilst you are working, and you can ask children’s services to help you work out a solution to this problem.

It may be helpful to ask children’s services to arrange a family group conference. A family group conference is a family-led decision-making meeting. The wider family and support network come together to develop a plan to support a child and keep them safe. This network may include grandparents, aunts and uncles and sometimes close family friends. The meeting is supported and facilitated by a trained and skilled independent coordinator. They help the family prepare for the meeting and attend to support. This may be a helpful way to explore if there is any other support that you can lean on whilst the children are not safe to be in their father’s care. Sometimes people feel that they don’t have anyone who can offer support, but are surprised by how many people do offer to support when they become aware of the situation. Please remember that this includes friends and not just family members.


I am sorry to hear that you feel kept out of the loop and that children’s services do not communicate properly with you. I would suggest that you speak with the social worker or their manager and ask them to come to an agreement about how they will communicate more promptly with you. If you feel that this continues to be a problem then you could consider making a formal complaint. See HERE for more information and advice about doing so.

We also have information and advice about the child protection process HERE, including THESE VIDEOS which explain what to expect at the child protection conference. There is also written information about the initial child protection conference HERE.


I hope that this is of some help. Please post again if you have any further queries or you can call our free, confidential adviceline on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm). We also have a webchat which is currently open on Monday and Thursday afternoons.

Best wishes,
Suzie

[RJT31]

Thank you ever so much for the advise. I’m very grateful

[MotherGoose80]

Hello,
I don't have any advice, but I wanted to assure you that you aren't alone. I made a similar mistake in that I allowed my husband to help with practical tasks at home because he was my carer and I am disabled. Even though he was supervised, my children are now on CP. They are still at home with me.
The support from FRG is great. Make sure you document everything that Children's Services do, they make a lot of mistakes and it is hard to hold them to account for it.
Best of luck to you/