Social Services Complaint

sunshine_1988

If these issues which you are talking about occured over 4 years ago when he came to you, the LA wouldnt actually have to consider your complaint as they do not have to consider issues which happened over 12months ago as these are deemed historic.

Getting a procedure changed is not something which complaining would achieve either unfortunately, a complaints team do not have the authority to change procedures or policies.

If you feel that you come across badly in the assesment, contact the social worker and ask if an anendum could be applied, just giving your thoughts.

What is situation now with the boy? Do you have supervised/unsupervised contact with him? Where are his birth parents?

Asking for compensation would also not be a matter for a complaints team, this is a legal matter.

Basically, from what I can gather you feel that if you were given more support, he would still be with you? But it appears that you wanted him to go into care as you felt you simply couldnt look after him? I think if you are going to write a complaint you need to clearly define each point and what outcome you want...although a lot of it looks historic.

forchristsake

Ok....

we all say social services have to act like this...or that, have procedures, policies etc etc. Do they always adhere to them? I think not! Baby P being one example!. Social services are not always blameless.

If a child goes into foster care - whether it be a section 20 or other - the child is still a "looked after child" and yes, social services have shared PR.

The parents are obviously out of the picture and not competant to look after their son.

I think what the writer is getting at is

1. There options were not explained to them fully in the beginning. They should have been given all their options in regard to this child - not just told you have to take a residency order!

Arnt social services meant to do whats in the best interests of the child and not what is cheaper and less work for them?

a residency order and them clearing off with what was an emotinally challenged child seems a little naive and poorly planned? Where are the risk assessments, impact on family?

What it really was .... tell them to take a residency order - then we can shut the books...less workload on us! Is that what was best for the child?

Is it ok for social services to make continuous errors... fob people off for as long as they can as "lay" people not knowing the ins and outs of child protection laws etc?? and if they do this over a period continuously for longer than 12 months its ok, cant be dealt with as its historic??

Is this how they get away with so much?

Dont worry its happened now - its historic?

This is peoples lives that are at stake - emotions, young minds being impressionable, maybe damaged forever. But its Historic, so nothing can be done?

I am confused

gizmo111

If a child goes into foster care - whether it be a section 20 or other - the child is still a "looked after child" and yes, social services have shared PR.

No they do not have shared PR on a S20.

forchristsake

sunshine_1988 wrote: »

Basically, from what I can gather you feel that if you were given more support, he would still be with you? But it appears that you wanted him to go into care as you felt you simply couldnt look after him? I think if you are going to write a complaint you need to clearly define each point and what outcome you want...although a lot of it looks historic.

If they were given more support...from the beginning - maybe it wouldnt have got to the point where they wanted him to go?

Maybe after fighting with social services and getting nowhere the situation got worse to a point they couldnt help the boy anymore?

Maybe ...just maybe

DitaVonTee

Have a look on the fassit website, see if you can make contact with someone from there.

http://www.fassit.co.uk/

Everything is on there concerning complaint proceedures, and what to do when everything goes wrong, good luck

DitaVonTee

gizmo111 wrote: »

The phone calls will be logged under the childs record and she won't be able to see those but she can ask for a list of all the times she has rang but not really sure how that would benefit her unless they are denying she has rang.

I would have thought while the child were in residence with his/her aunt she would be entitled to see ANY records held on her concerning a child she were looking after, you are allowed to see and obtain copies concerning information social services have on you, not just read them.

http://www.fassit.co.uk/access_records.htm

Above link explains how to obtain those records.

forchristsake

If a person who knows this child well wants to take him on with help and support (I.e Foster them). what does LA have to do to facilitate this?

gizmo111

forchristsake wrote: »

If a person who knows this child well wants to take him on with help and support (I.e Foster them). what does LA have to do to facilitate this?

Depends on the situation, its not that simple as wanting to do it, there must be reasons and risk of significant harm before they will agree to teh child not living at home, and then fostering is not always the solution.

jayII

forchristsake wrote: »

If a person who knows this child well wants to take him on with help and support (I.e Foster them). what does LA have to do to facilitate this?

They don't necessarily have to do anything. If the child is well settled where he is, and being well cared for, it may not be in his best interests to move him to yet another foster placement. It would be different if the person 'who knows him well' wanted to adopt him, and that was considered in the child's best interests.

If the child is in a short term or emergency placement and this person is offering a long term (until 16) placement, the local authority may decide to assess this person as a potential long term foster carer.

Extra help and support might not be offered. It depends if the child is assessed, by professionals, as having some sort of additional needs.

The main issue is what is best for the child, not for his relatives.

puddy

everything gizmo has said is correct and OP has not answered some vital questions

where was the child living before the RO and where are his parents.

OP needs to understand that she still has PR for this child and shares this with the parents

OP needs to clarify what her complaint is, she seems to be saying that she wanted 'support' to deal with the child's challenging behaviour but then talks about finances.
What support exactly was needed for the behaviour, CAMHS, mentoring, statementing by LEA?? did any of these things happen?

Why would fostering have had a different outcome for the OP, is it because you perceive the fostering allowance as more than the RO allowance? Why would this make it easier to work with the behavioural difficulties?

If you were unwilling or unable to complete the financial forms for the RO allowance why and how did you think that you would be able or willing to complete the forms for your fostering assessment which will ask for verification of income and outgoings (I ask for bank statements, debt payments, benefit income and payslips as proof. this all needs to be documented in the fostering assessment)