social services are t**ts

mumof3girls

My bother and wife are in a bitter situation with his ex-girlfriend (sarah) regarding thier daughter. Sarah has been leaving my neice (aged 9)in the house on her own in the moring before school and some times at night (while she goes down the pub) with her two little siblings ( 1 &2). I know this is wrong as I have been told 11 to be on thier own and 14 to lokk after others.
Anyway my sister inlaw called social services to tell them and they said thats fine. She then called the police who said its nothing to do with us.The police must have contacted social services as sarah the next day got a letter to call her in regarding the matter. sarah went to speak to social services on friday and the woman told her where the information had come from. up untill this point sarah had thought it was some one else from her boyfriends side. My neice and sarah have gone this morning to discuss the issue, but sarah has been telling her that they are going to take her away if they know that she has been left on her own so my neice to going to say that mummy does not leave her. My sister in law called social servies this morning to check that sarah was definatly told her name . She spoke to the woman direct and she comfirmed that yes she told sarah as she had not specifically stated that she wanted to be annoymous!!!! Common sense tells you !!!!!! My sister in law now wants to make a formal compliant against the woman at social services. how do you go about this and what would you put in the letter.
needless to say my bother is now having to go back to court again to get access to his daughter.

patchwork_cat

Hi
Your niece's mum is not breaking any law as the law does not state the age that a child has to be to be left on their own. The law only states that if something happens to the child then you can be prosecuted.

Common sense does say that a 9 year old is not old enough to babysit. As far as the complaint is concerned I am afraid that I can't answer that and although it does seem very short sighted of the social worker I doubt that they are breaking any rules.

mrsb_5

oh god what an awful situation. Regarding the letter, I would lay it on heavily as to how there is now a lot of bad feelign in the family and it is difficult for him to see the children because of it etc. They had no right at all to give out names - they are meant to be kept confidentioal so definately make a complaint. Also if you ever know for definate that the mother has left her children alone, ring the police there and then so they get round there while they are on their own. I have looked into this previously and ridiculous as it sounds, you are allowed to let children of any age stay at hiome on their own - it is only if something happens to that child while they are on their own that the parent or carer will be charged with neglect - this came fo mmy local police station

TAG

I can only echo the comments of patchwork cat and mrsb.

Shocking as it may seem they are both correct in that there is no age limit on when a child can be left on their own or to look after other children. So long as nothing happens whilst they are alone.

I was totally amazed when I found out this was the case and I think the law does need to be changed.

Can't help with regards to your complaint but good luck anyway.

Contains_Mild_Peril

Though there are no absolute rules about the age at which a child can be left alone or in charge of younger siblings, it is not necessary for harm to befall a child in order for prosecution to be possible (at least not in Scotland, and I think it's the same South of the Border). I actually know a single dad who was charged with wilful abandonment for leaving his kids at home alone for a few hours the day before the eldest's 16th birthday! Unsurprisingly, this did not result in a prosecution.
Social Services can be complete muppets. One should never assume that they will exercise common sense: it's not a quality for which their profession is noted. Sorry to any social workers reading this: I know they do a hard job in difficult circumstances, and I know there are some who do their job very well, but a little paranoia may be a sensible default position until you know enough to trust the one you're dealing with. By all means complain, as it might encourage them to use some common sense next time, but I'm fairly sure they haven't actually broken any rules if there was no specific request for anonymity.

black-saturn

I'm afraid unless something happens social services won't do anything. It's not illegal to leave your children in the house on their own. We all know it's wrong though no matter what time of the day it is.

lynzpower

Ive 5 years of experience in working in social services. Yes, this is fully correct, there is no legislation that states when children can and cannot be left alone, but yes, if anything goes wrong then the parent can be proscuted for neglect.

If the child is FOUND alone by policer/ social services/ teachers/ bin man whoever, then usually a strategy meeting will take place between social services & police, in order to work out how to assess the risk of emotional neglect & abuse from being left alone. Im not too sure why this hasnt happened, except to say, that the law being the way it is ( unworkable and bloody stupid) its interpreted every which way when it comes to child protection.

As for the confidentiality thing, you ( meaning whomever ) should have expressed that you ( they) wanted to remain anonymous. If you didnt you cannot blame someone else for that.

Sarahsaver

You shouldn't post their name on here though. That's not very confidential either!

crutches

why are yr brother and sisterinlaw not offering to babysit to "give (Sarah) a break"? Then they would know their daughter was safe.

If there are legal problems court welfare is the way to go NOT social services.

Having had a similar situation before Social Services find it hard to keep things confidential especiallyat the beginning of a case when they are making preliminary enquiries.It is not common sense to assume something would be confidential.So many false allegations are made unfortunately this situation is putting the onus on the child.It is her word against her mums.

It takes a brave child to risk losing mum and siblings by telling the truth.
I hope no harm comes to her.What would happen in an emergency or if she was frightened?Hopefully someone impartial will discover the situation soon and something may be done.

tawnyowls

Sarahsaver wrote:

You shouldn't post their name on here though. That's not very confidential either!

What name? Sarah? Are we therefore to believe there's only one person named that in the entire length and breadth of the UK? Assuming of course this is even the real name. Apart from that, the OP hasn't even identified what area of the country they're living in. This could hardly be construed as breaking confidentiality. Seems it's not only the social workers needing a little common sense here.

Sarahsaver

tawnyowls wrote:

What name? Sarah? Are we therefore to believe there's only one person named that in the entire length and breadth of the UK? Assuming of course this is even the real name. Apart from that, the OP hasn't even identified what area of the country they're living in. This could hardly be construed as breaking confidentiality. Seems it's not only the social workers needing a little common sense here.

Ouch!

She posted enough details for someone who vaguely knows them to identify who it is. I have a lot of common sense thankyou.