Social workers proceeding with case without more evidence

[anon12016]

Hi there, need some advice really me and my partner have a child protection plan in place this was before our baby was born through domestic violence, everything they have told me they want us to do we have done and carried on doing it, then our baby arrived 10 weeks early and is still in neonatal doing amazingly me and my partner are there all the time.
Our social worker (who we had only see once before he was born) asked us to come see her so we went and she put court paper infront of us with no reason why they were taking it further)!!! Then last Wednesday me and my partner were in the kitchen in the hospital sterilising baby's stuff and a nurse came in saying there was a social worker looking at our baby so I came in and said I have asked for no one to come in without a parent present (which are the rules anyway in neonatal) and she said ur parental desion is over ruled by them then a nurse asked her to go out side to speak to me and she said no I need to see the child first, then when we got to speak to her we explained we had not seen or spoken to our social worker and said we didn't understand the court letter and she said it was part of our child protection plan (we have looked there is nothing that says this) and that I had been seen with a bruise - am I not allowed to bruise anymore?

My question is can a social worker see my newborn in neonatal without me being present or me even knowing?
And why would they be taking us to court even tho we have done everything they have asked and more?

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear anon12016

Welcome to the Family Rights Group Parents’ Discussion Forum.

My name is Suzie and I am an Adviser at Family Rights Group.

I am going to give a little more detail on the quick advice you were given just before Christmas. Once again, congratulations on the birth of your baby, it is great that the baby is doing well in the neonatal unit. I am sorry that you are having a difficult time because of children services involvement at the moment.

You say in your post that children services are involved because of domestic violence and there is a child protection plan in place. Have you and your partner as part of the plan been involved with domestic violence services? Did the plan provide for a risk assessment of your partner to consider the risk that might exist once the baby is at home? I am supposing that all of this would have been discussed with the social worker and how it would work once the baby arrived. As your baby arrived early maybe not everything that should have been done was completed. I am including a copy of our advice sheet on child protection procedures for your information.

If you were given court papers then it is important that you instruct a solicitor as soon as possible and your partner should do the same. You should both make sure that the solicitor is on the Law Society Children Panel with experience in care proceedings. The papers should tell you the date and time you have to attend court. Do you have a hearing date? A copy of our advice sheet relating to care proceedings is here to help you understand the process.

Since your baby is in the neonatal unit and not in danger there does not appear to be any reason why the social worker need to see your baby without you or the father present.

Sometimes, children services can issue a PLO (public law outline) letter, which states that they will go to court if the child protection plan is not working. If they do give this letter, you should find a solicitor, your solicitor will be able to attend the PLO meeting with you.

Without a court order, children services do not have parental responsibility for your child and only you and the father, if he is named on your child’s birth certificate share parental responsibility. It is not clear why you are being told that your parental responsibility can be overruled. You can ask the hospital to ensure that you are present for any visit. Since the social worker is not able to interview your baby as part of child protection procedures, he or she should adhere to your wishes. If you child was older then a social worker can see him or her on their own. The social worker should inform you of her visit.

The worrying thing mentioned in your post is the fact that you were seen with a bruise. The social worker will be concerned about this especially as children services became involved because of domestic violence. It will be of concern if they think the domestic abuse is still happening. Have you been able to explain to the social worker how you came to be bruised? To be totally honest with you, in the circumstances of children services involvement, it is better that you do not have a bruising. If you do it is likely that children services will think there has been no change and will be concerned for the safety of the baby in your care.

It is not clear what the child protection plan asks you to do as far as your child’s father is concerned. You need to do whatever is asked of you as if you do not it will be seen as the plan not working and children services will take the matter to court.

Children services are required to work with you in an open and transparent way and should let you know why the decision to take the matter to court has been made. I suggest that you put in writing to the social worker a request for an explanation of why they are thinking of going to court. Ask for a written response. You should send a copy to the social worker’s Team Manager as well and keep a copy for yourself.

It is difficult to say why children services are considering going to court on the information you have provided. However, it may be because they have concerns about the domestic violence in the relationship and have concerns that your baby would not be safe living in an environment where there domestic violence. Children services have to have a reason to go to court as the court will want to have evidence of the concerns they have and whether this is enough for the 'threshold criteria' to be satisfied. This is that your child has suffered harm and is likely to suffer significant harm in the future due to care he or she will receive. This is explained more in the advice sheet on care proceedings.

My advice is that you should continue to engage and work with Children Services as this is the best way to achieve a positive outcome for your family.

You can telephone our free confidential advice line on 0808 801 0366 to speak to an adviser. The advice line is open Monday to Friday from 9.30 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.

I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie

[anon12016]

Hi susie

Sorry took a couple day have been dealing with child services I'm going to answer questions and give you more details then give you what's happened since!

Domestic violence services my partner is doing probation which covers domestic violence and since Monday (the social worker was meant to set it up but forgot and when she visited us she went oh I have referred you, must be busy but the company I am with have told me and willing to give a written statement saying she only referred us the day she saw us which was the 30th)!
I do not believe they have provided a risk assessment on us individually or together (he will only be stay 1-2 nights a weeks as he live on camp) that we know of I would believe they would tell us but my company which deals with domestic violence did on me and they said I scored very low!
We have not had a hearing date yet but both had solicester's!
Since the one incidence they have not come and seen our baby without our knowledge (to our knowledge)!
The bruise I was able to explain and they were also concerned over I had a bruise I can into hospital which was through falling two steps on the stairs because I was watching my god daughter and her mother was there and is happy to give me a statement to say what happened and my partner wasn't there that day or night as it was a weekday, and a bruise on my breast which was through breast pump and as soon as it came up I showed a midwife and it was through me not putting my nipple in correctly to the hand pump and since then used electric pump.

With domestic violence I still call him my partner as he's my partner with our baby but we have not been in a relationship since August and the child services told us that we should have been in a relationship on the 30th so we agreed we were then said we shouldn't on 5/1/16 so we said we were both agree yes we share a bed and have a good relationship but as parents and friends no more!

Child services we believe haven't worked with us she was meant to see us every 10 days from 16th November but before our baby was born it wasn't until 4/12/15 and then it was as she said 'introduction and she didn't asked about the plan) and then they say they have a problem it's annoying cause we do what they say!

Since then our baby hasn't been allowed out of hospital with me and ***
They don't want me and *** together so we said well we arnt but we are together as parents but that's all and she said of what about 3years from now what is u want to be together (it's like 3 years from now we don't no) and they said 'they hope to keep him with me' (I'm breastfeeding and he's lactose intolerant so my milk is best)' and we were meant to be allowed out Friday just gone to my partners parents address but still waiting to be assessed and the annoying thing is we are moving so we would all be going there anyway till we move but now they want to give them some parental rights to his parents which I know they can't as I'm his mum with full parental rights and where ever I go he can come with me and me and dad agree we can have supervise visits with his parents but as he's a newborn would like to have flexibly also cause of his job baby is healthy and fine and at the moment we all feel in limbo

Thanks ****

***edited by Suzie to remove names.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Anon,

Thank you for your post.

I can see that children services are worried about dads past violent behaviour. They are worried that he might hurt you while you are holding your baby and that your baby might be in danger.

Children services will want assess dad so they can be sure that he is not dangerous to your baby.

It is important that you cooperate with children's services while they assess dad. If they thought you were not protecting your baby from him they could seek a court order to remove baby from you.

Here is some information for mothers about domestic violence.


Your parental rights


You are right to say that mothers have legal parental responsibility of their children. But in certain circumstances, your parental rights can be overruled.

This means mothers can make decisions about their baby. So, for example, you can decide where your baby lives and who he sees. So when children services are making plans for your baby, they should speak to you about this.

But if children services thought that you were putting your baby in serious danger, due to domestic violence, they could ask that:

• You agree to your baby going to live with someone else such as his grandparents.
• Or they could seek a court order giving them parental responsibility so they can decide where your baby lives.

So a court can overrule your parental rights.

To make sure this doesn't happen, please work carefully with your solicitor and with the social worker.


To discuss this further, you can also call our advice line on 0808 801 0366.

Best wishes,

Suzie