Custody battle

lynzpower

I to like Loretta found working for social services totally frustrating.

My advice therefore is to ring the NSPCC without delay and explain to them your concerns. they will then liaise with the bournemouth social services. In my experiene the minute NSPCC gets involved the local authorities get thier fingers out. Please do this asap. tell nspcc as well about all the times that olly has been seen by "the state" and how they have missed all these events.

Ollies age makes absolutely NO bearing on whether investigations should take place, in fact it should make it all the more important as he is so small he is not able to explain what happened and therefore adults should be taking extra care of him.

xx

rchddap1

What an awful situation. No reall advice here, just support to continue to fight for the little chap. There will be someone out there who can and will do something. You just have to keep going until you find them.

A child of 3 can express themselves. My little girl is not yet 2 and its obvious when she's upset, or doesn't want to do something. Just because the words aren't coming it doesn't mean they can't tell people what's going on. They just have to use their eyes rather than their ears and mouth in order to get the answers.

darrenm

god am i so glad you said that lynzpower, i emailed the nspcc with photos of cuts and bruises, and they emailed back asking for a detailed report of all we have as they feel this warrants a full investigation, so i did i even expalined the lack of interest we have recieved from bournemouth social services, and i was totally gutted when they emailed me back just to say that they have passed all the info back to bournemouth ss, so they can decide what action should be taken, it was like having a door slammed in our faces??, why on earth would they go and do that after what i had tod them, bournemouth ss have been at best complacent, uninterested and almost mocking in thier lack of action??

we are still in despair

lynzpower

no dont think that Darren please

Heres my experience.

A child I knew was being abused was geting no attention whatsoever from the social services dept I worked with and simply told the useless health visitor to "monitor" My manager simply couldnt/ didnt want to accept that this was happening and there was !!!!!! all I could do about it.

Then about 3 weeks later the NSPCC sent a report through, similar to the one you describe of an event where they believe the child was abused ( yes the same one I already knew of) and alrted them.

Im sure loretta will confirm in her experience too, the minute NSPCC start getting involved ( ie a fax header comes out the machine) suddenly the wheels whirr into action. that child was taken into care immeidately, as the social worker adn the police went around there WITHIN 24 hours , unannounced and were horrified at what they found. the nspcc will phone to find out what th eprogress is EVERY DAY. they do not like what is termed "drift" one little bit. indeed if they dont get acceptable answers from the social workers/ managers they will go as highas the director and wont drag thier heels about doing it.

I always recommend telling NSPCC AS WELL as any social work team, NSPCC just kick !!!! - knowing they were on the case certainly made my manager step up and take responsibility, however I totally agree that its shocking that it sohuld come to this.

Do not fear calling NSPCC for updates, again in my experiecne they are very supportive.

Do keep us all posted xxx

Tashja

I just wanted to send the OP, his family and Ollie a big ((hug))

I really hope this sorts out soon and Ollie can be with a loving family.

T xx

moggylover

Just wanted to add my own wishes for good luck in this. Hope little Ollie gets to stay with you.

Big hugs to you all.

Loretta

lynzpower wrote: »

no dont think that Darren please

Heres my experience.

A child I knew was being abused was geting no attention whatsoever from the social services dept I worked with and simply told the useless health visitor to "monitor" My manager simply couldnt/ didnt want to accept that this was happening and there was !!!!!! all I could do about it.

Then about 3 weeks later the NSPCC sent a report through, similar to the one you describe of an event where they believe the child was abused ( yes the same one I already knew of) and alrted them.

Im sure loretta will confirm in her experience too, the minute NSPCC start getting involved ( ie a fax header comes out the machine) suddenly the wheels whirr into action. that child was taken into care immeidately, as the social worker adn the police went around there WITHIN 24 hours , unannounced and were horrified at what they found. the nspcc will phone to find out what th eprogress is EVERY DAY. they do not like what is termed "drift" one little bit. indeed if they dont get acceptable answers from the social workers/ managers they will go as highas the director and wont drag thier heels about doing it.

I always recommend telling NSPCC AS WELL as any social work team, NSPCC just kick !!!! - knowing they were on the case certainly made my manager step up and take responsibility, however I totally agree that its shocking that it sohuld come to this.

Do not fear calling NSPCC for updates, again in my experiecne they are very supportive.

Do keep us all posted xxx

You are completely right in everything you have said. It was the dithering and everyone not wanting to be the one that took esponsibility that drove me mad.

I started working in this job shortly after a very high profile and particularly horrific case, one of the first to become public, had just been in the papers and the law was changed because of it this was mid 70s. I would have thought, as I sat in my office where I could see this child's grave that my LA would move heaven and earth to make sure nothing like that ever happened again in their patch at least. In fact the opposite happened and the Director at the time was desperate that nothing would ever be in the papers again, not wouldn't happen just would not get any publicity which i thought was wierd. No one wanted to be the one to say, there is a problem and we must do something. If I ever asked my boss if I could do something that word 'monitor' that you mentioned was what I was always told, it actually means don't do anything. No one wanted to take the responsibility of making a decision in case they were wrong, they didn't seem to understand that not doing anything when it was so obvious something was badly wrong could end with a death.

I was called down to reception one day where an almighty fight had broken out, chairs, nails, teeth the whole wild west thing, women! I was told afterwards that my boss had told the receptionist 'get Loretta down here it looks like one of hers, (charming!) I am out in meetings for the rest of the day and not to be contacted' and I saw him actually climb out of his office window, briefcase in hand, rather than have to go through the reception area in case he somehow got involved!! that says it all really

The only way to get anything done was to do something about it in the middle of the night, police sometimes helped then, a judge will give you an emergency order at 2.00am just so he can go back to bed but of course you then very much become the trouble maker.

The NSPCC can be very good, or an MP, like you said as soon as that fax comes through it goes straight to the top and everyone starts running around as if it is the only case that is going on at that time. It saves the big boss having to stick his neck out or take any responsibility as someone else has decided that it is serious and should be looked into. I would have thought it would be embarrassing to have someone else tell you to do your job properly. I found them very helpful on numerous occasions when I had to contact them to tell them I was getting nowhere and could they step in.


I think maybe that because the NSPCC is a charity they somehow had to prove that they were doing something to make sure the donations came in and probably liked to show that they were doing a better job than Social services who perhaps get a bit weary.

Please don't take this as a bad sign, like I said previously tell everyone you can think of and someone will step in and they have. Social Services will have to act now because someone is watching what they are doing so they will not dare just leave it now

You are on your way now, don't worry and good luck

Keep us posted

lynzpower

Loretta,

Please do not carry the regrets that I had, I left the job as I could no longer manage the amount of risk that was laden on me by management being so shonky.

Have you thought about reporting your managmenet to the GSCC? Iwish I had done this, I shudder to think what has happened since I left, with these shonky "practiotioners."

Surfbabe

Hope everything turns out ok. You sound like a loving, caring family and so are doing the right thing by keeping your little boy as safe as possible.

darrenm

thanks so much to all who have helped, the same email i sent to the nspcc i sent to the MP for bournemouth and he replied today saying he has written to bournemouth social services "demanding" a full investigation, my partner is speaking to her solicitor thursday and it looks like it's going back to court.

will keep you all informed thanks so much to all, and god bless xx