Social Services

gizmo111

Errata wrote: »

She needs a solicitor which Social Services will pay for. If she has LD she also needs a social worker for herself.

Social Sevices will not pay for a solicitor - she needs to get a solicitor who is on the childcare panel and she will be publically funded by LSC (old legal aid).

You say she is being charged with neglect - do you mean the police are charging her?
Have SS started care proceedings? Who told her that the plan was adoption - they have a long route to go down before they can ask for the order for this.
With children aged 8 and 1 adoption is more or less definite for the youngest but the older ones are harder to match, very few adoptions have contact with their family.
What risk does she pose to her sister's children? Who assessed this?
Parenting assessments aren't always ordered in court, it depends on the evidence presented if one is needed.
Is the children's father about at all?
Is there anyone in the family who would have the children permenatly.

sarahlou89

gizmo111 wrote: »

Social Sevices will not pay for a solicitor - she needs to get a solicitor who is on the childcare panel and she will be publically funded by LSC (old legal aid).

You say she is being charged with neglect - do you mean the police are charging her?
Have SS started care proceedings? Who told her that the plan was adoption - they have a long route to go down before they can ask for the order for this.
With children aged 8 and 1 adoption is more or less definite for the youngest but the older ones are harder to match, very few adoptions have contact with their family.
What risk does she pose to her sister's children? Who assessed this?
Parenting assessments aren't always ordered in court, it depends on the evidence presented if one is needed.
Is the children's father about at all?
Is there anyone in the family who would have the children permenatly.

She does have a solicitor, when i asked her what her solictor had said she just said the solicitor asked her what she wants.
Social services are the ones who have said she is a danger to her sisters children and have been trying to get her out of the house since xmas.
Her sister said she could have the two eldest but not the baby.
No the childs father is not around, he is not allowed access to the children, when they were married he was abusive and was drugging her so she would go to sleep and then he would bring women home and sleep with them in the same bed were his wife was sleeping. He has also been abusing the second child, and charges towards him are been brought.

It is all very confusing if i must say so my self, mainly because of the fact she does not understand properly.
She does have a social worker, whom she says does not like her and has not from day 1. She will be getting a new social worker next month.

I'm not too sure how they came to the conclusion that she was a danger to her sisters children as the neglect is all about school and headlice.
She is now living with us, which is not ideal but we are the only people she knows without children.

I was thinking of going with her to the solicitor and also going with her when she has an appointment with social services so then i will know properly what is going on and then could help her then.

She has told me she has signed papers etc to do with social services but she does not know what she has signed as she cannot read.

gizmo111

Get her to gather all the paperwork she has so far and sit down and have a good read. Make an appointment with the solicitor with her and see what action SS are actually taking - what evidence have they provided to the court.
Get her to sign a form that she can give to the social worker agreeing that she can share information with you.
Make sure her solicitor is on the childcare panel and not just a family solicitor.
I suspect that she has only signed a partnership agreement, which is not legally binding even if she could read, people sign them and tear their copies up and throw them in my face all the time!

Headlice and not attending school do not make her a danger to other children - there must be more to this, have you spoke to the sister to get more details? If the sister can have 2 of the children then she (mum) should be asking her solicitor to request viability assessments of her, can the sister have the 2 eldest now or would that mean seperating them? How long have they been in care? You say contact is 2 -4 times a week, what are the exact arrangements and who supervises?

When is the next court hearing?