Social Services - Can't work, can't claim

FBaby

Is a move back to where you were before a possibility?

goodlife

thank you so much for the pm offer. i'll try and answer your questions and then perhaps move to pm.

Two police officers accompanied two social workers who i had had a meeting with that morning. My daughter wasn't actually home, they were looking for evidence of someone they believed was living in the property (they weren't). I know this is sounding far fetched, but believe me, i can't believe i'm in this situation.

My daughter wasn't even home, she was out with a friend, which they were quite happy about.

The police officer who suggested I get my MP involved was not one of the two from yesterday, but the person on the desk today. I called in today on the advice of nspcc to get the names and numbers of the officers involved yesterday and to start the complaints procedure against them. Sorry that's my fault, I should have made that clearer.

The social worker used to be quite happy to visit on her own, but has recently wanted to come with someone else, not because i'm violent or anything, but becaue i do tend to challenge them when they say inappropriate or incorrect things. One of the other ones is lovely though, fair and honest and reasonable and we get along great. At last conference, I did take exception to the indepenendent chair asking leading questions, the social worker says this is why she won't talk to me alone now, to make sure she 'says the right things' her words.

Over the past few months I have at times had a visit every week, sometimes every two weeks, often with 2 days notice.

The 6 months ahead ones are not a problem at all. It's things like this week for example: last week reminded social worker I found it very difficult to attend meetings when back at work, especially at short notice. This week hand delivered letter was put through my door Tuesday afternoon informing me of meeting 9:00am on Friday. I rang her and left message asking her to ring me back. She didn't make contact with me until Thursday afternoon. I picked up her message after close of business on thursday. I was unable to tell her I couldn't attend or ask for a re-schedule.

I'm expecting to lose my job this week, which on the plus side will mean i will have no problem attending meetings, however there are the obvious disadvantages of it.

goodlife

FBaby wrote: »

Is a move back to where you were before a possibility?

That is an excellent point, thank you, and something we've done a lot of soul searching over. Part of me would absolutely love to, but I have to say, despite this horrendous situation, we actually love where we live now, we have lots of friends etc around us and my daughter is very settled and happy (apart from this clearly) and is involved in lots of activities within the community.

It's a really tough one, but it's also not in my nature to run away, which is what it would feel like.

gizmo111

goodlife wrote: »

thank you so much for the pm offer. i'll try and answer your questions and then perhaps move to pm.

Two police officers accompanied two social workers who i had had a meeting with that morning. My daughter wasn't actually home, they were looking for evidence of someone they believed was living in the property (they weren't). I know this is sounding far fetched, but believe me, i can't believe i'm in this situation.

It's not far fetched - information comes from many sources and has to be verified - I'm guessing that it is someone violent they expected to be there and asked for police assistance. Social work can be a dangerous job - seen to many colleagues asaulted and too many children harmed, not to be cautious.

My daughter wasn't even home, she was out with a friend, which they were quite happy about.

The police officer who suggested I get my MP involved was not one of the two from yesterday, but the person on the desk today. I called in today on the advice of nspcc to get the names and numbers of the officers involved yesterday and to start the complaints procedure against them. Sorry that's my fault, I should have made that clearer.

What complaint do you have against the police?

The social worker used to be quite happy to visit on her own, but has recently wanted to come with someone else, not because i'm violent or anything, but becaue i do tend to challenge them when they say inappropriate or incorrect things. One of the other ones is lovely though, fair and honest and reasonable and we get along great. Depends what you consider inappropriate, everyone thinks its inappropriate their child is on a CP Plan. At last conference, I did take exception to the indepenendent chair asking leading questions, the social worker says this is why she won't talk to me alone now, to make sure she 'says the right things' her words.

Its the chairs job to ask 'leading questions' how else can they get the full picture and make decisions when safeguarding children.

Over the past few months I have at times had a visit every week, sometimes every two weeks, often with 2 days notice.

Statutory visits are a minimum of every 28 days - these are frequent visits and obviously there is hgh risk in your family causing concern.

The 6 months ahead ones are not a problem at all. It's things like this week for example: last week reminded social worker I found it very difficult to attend meetings when back at work, especially at short notice. This week hand delivered letter was put through my door Tuesday afternoon informing me of meeting 9:00am on Friday. I rang her and left message asking her to ring me back. She didn't make contact with me until Thursday afternoon. I picked up her message after close of business on thursday. I was unable to tell her I couldn't attend or ask for a re-schedule.

You could have left a message and gone out anyway if you had something planned. ask for an end of day appointment or meet near your work.

I'm expecting to lose my job this week, which on the plus side will mean i will have no problem attending meetings, however there are the obvious disadvantages of it.

Why will you lose your job - when is the baby due?

dmg24

I'm confused - your daughter was at private school on a partial scholarship, what happened to this?

teresa555

just read your post and not one thing adds up and neither do any of your previous posts or maybe its me

merlin68

What will happen to the baby when it's born, will your Dd be left in charge of them. How are you going to manage on one income then? something doesn't add up here.

goodlife

i totally understand the need for being cautious.

Nspcc advised to complain about social workers and police for insisting it was illegal for my daughter to be home on her own. They are of the opinion this is not the law at all, and suggested i make the complaints so they are logged so to speak (not sure if that is the right word).

Social workers visits occur between every one and four weeks, coupled with core meetings once a week and we had to have some family support assessment done so we did go through a phase of probably one a week. That was a particularly bad patch however, it's not always that bad. Just as an aside, the family support worker had to come out as part of the care plan, she came twice: first time we had a chat and i gave her background on the situation, second time, she said she didn't really know what to do as she couldn't see a problem or why she was supposed to be there. she hasn't been seen since.

Leading questions v independence. hmm. i take your point to an extent, but my daughter is very articulate and when she answers a question, there is a limit to how many times someone can say 'but surely that can't be the case', 'but surely you must think that ...' 'but i think that you must feel ...', without it becoming trying to coerce her. I would have thought so anyway, perhaps i'm wrong on this?


Have been asking for flexibility in meetings to fit around work since january, all i get is a blanket - these are the hours we are allowed to work, i can't help you.


About to be hounded out of my job, due to the amount of money i'm costing the company when I have to take time off at short notice.

My daughter was on a 50% scholarship at a very good girls school, she left due to being bullied badly.

goodlife

merlin68 wrote: »

What will happen to the baby when it's born, will your Dd be left in charge of them. How are you going to manage on one income then? something doesn't add up here.

A new baby would be able to go into childcare at an appropriate time when maternity leave was finished. This is common place amongst working parents.

goodlife

teresa555 wrote: »

just read your post and not one thing adds up and neither do any of your previous posts or maybe its me

This is not really very helpful at all, I have tried to answer every question asked, whether they are relevant to my original question or not, but i'm not really sure how you're expecting me to respond to this.