Baby next door crying non-stop!

HurdyGurdy

I work in Children's Services. I am not a social worker, but I am one of the first people to answer the phone when anyone, be it a professional such as a health visitor, a GP, a school, a member of the public, or a family member - including the parent - calls in with concerns for a child, and to offer advice. (Before anyone voices concern that we are not qualified social workers - we are overseen and supervised on our section by four senior practitioners and our manager also sits with us and can hear everything we say!)

I don't know if all areas work the way ours does, but I am getting the impression from posts on this thread, that Children's Services are still seen as being "child snatchers", and that it is a really bad thing to have Children's Services involvement. That is really sad, because in fact, if lulu 92 called and spoke to me about her concerns for the family next door, we would be looking at what support could be offered to the family.

I would call the mother and say that we'd had a referral (referrers can stay anonymous, we respect that) from someone who was concerned that they have heard the baby crying, and asking mum if she was struggling a bit, and if there was any SUPPORT we could offer her.

Depending on what the answers were, we would most probably suggest she asked her HV to complete an Early Help Assessment with her, which will identify areas of support she needs, and then the family can be signposted to the services that can support them. An Early Help Assessment doesn't have social worker involvement. As the name suggests, it is a pre-social-work piece of work, when a family's situation doesn't meet the threshold for a SW assessment.

We do NOT judge parents for what they are going through and we do NOT think of people as bad parents. Yes, there are those cases that need to be dealt with by a social worker assessment and those are passed to our senior practitioners, but most of the referrals we get, in all honesty, can be dealt with by our "Early Help" service.

I would urge anyone with any concerns for a child to do *something*. Children are so vulnerable, they need people to speak up for them. Anonymously, if you prefer, but not to just ignore it. If something just doesn't feel right, then that's enough justification for calling. And better we get "nothing" calls, than someone doesn't want to "snitch" or get involved, and we miss a case that needs intervention.

Please lulu 92 - call your local Children's Services. I think the poor parents must be utterly exhausted with the stress of all this, and there is also the older child who is also being affected by it too, and they will benefit from support also.

It is not "snitching", or telling tales. It is voicing concern for a vulnerable family who may or may not know how to cope with this. They are not obliged to take any offer of support, but at least it will be there, and they will know where to go if they decided later that they do.

If you don't want to contact Children's Services directly yourself, you can contact the NSPCC, who will refer to Children's Service for you. But, as I have said before in other threads, if you do this, PLEASE give proper information. By all means be anonymous, but at least give a full address, or if possible, the name of the child(ren) involved. Honestly - we had a referral last week from someone and the only information they gave us was that the child's grandad's name was "Joe Bloggs". Not a cat in hell's chance of tracking down the family from that