Social Services

sakiblateef

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Hi lads,

I'm very concerned about my neighbours. Although its none of my business but they have recently had social services on their back claiming they have abused their son who is 15 years old. Now I have known this family for years and know they could never harm him or any of their children. They have turned to me today for some advice as they don't know what to do and the case has also gone to court for charges of child abuse. Also the police came to their house this morning unannounced and confiscated a few things from their house they claim was used to abuse the child and also took them for questioning. Is this allowed?

I did advice them to get a good solicitor but since I don't know much about how social services work etc I wasn't able to give any other advice to them therefore I decided to post on here and ask your views regarding this matter and what they should do? The child in question suffers from learning and other difficulties and is easily lead by anyone who approaches him.
 
Time for a visit to the solicitors.

Citizens advice would also be good as they can explain everything the police can and cant do. That goes for social services as well.
 
Hi lads,

I'm very concerned about my neighbours. Although its none of my business but they have recently had social services on their back claiming they have abused their son who is 15 years old. Now I have known this family for years and know they could never harm him or any of their children. They have turned to me today for some advice as they don't know what to do and the case has also gone to court for charges of child abuse. Also the police came to their house this morning unannounced and confiscated a few things from their house they claim was used to abuse the child and also took them for questioning. Is this allowed?

I did advice them to get a good solicitor but since I don't know much about how social services work etc I wasn't able to give any other advice to them therefore I decided to post on here and ask your views regarding this matter and what they should do? The child in question suffers from learning and other difficulties and is easily lead by anyone who approaches him.


How can you know they wouldnt harm or abuse. They are hardly gonna tell you about it if they do.
The social services must be acting on something m8.
If they are innocent then yes its tough but if guilty well at least the abuse will be stopped.
Very difficult situation m8
 
How can you know they wouldnt harm or abuse. They are hardly gonna tell you about it if they do.
The social services must be acting on something m8.
If they are innocent then yes its tough but if guilty well at least the abuse will be stopped.
Very difficult situation m8

They don't come across as the type also they have been like family to me. When the child came home their mother confronted him about why he was late from school as recently he's been coming home quite late and made excuses that the bus tyre popped etc and then she looked in his bag and found out he didn't have any lessons as he was on study leave and when she asked him where he's been for the past few weeks he said hes been with a friend they also found money in his bag and later found he's been stealing from the house. The child eventually ran away when the childs mother wasn't there and when they phoned the police that he had ran away they claimed the child had bruises on his body and handed him over to social services. The parents say the bruises were made by the child so its difficult to say in this situation.
 
The social services have the childs intrest first and rightly so. If the parents are innocent then great but they must act to protect the child and not the parents. It is very difficult i know but look at all the ones that slip the net.
Its a no win situation m8.
 
Social services are dammed if they do and dammed if they dont. It is the fact that they are under staffed, under trained that leads to all thier problems. It is a nightmare for the family involved, they should be asap straight off to a solicitor and to get decent representation straight away. They will have to do this like ASAP because if not things will drag on and on. You do not want things to be dragging on where the social services are concerned due to the afore mentioned under staffed, under funded and more importantly under trained staff that generally work there.

At the end of the day the social services are and will often quoate directly "We are ONLY interested in the CHILD'S best interest"........rough translation they do not give a fook about the stressed out parent's....for all they (the social worker) know they are dealing with child beaters...ect, they are human and will form their own "opinions" of people (i have seen this 1st hand), Tell your friends to act in a professional manner at all times, Keep as much as possible to writing as the form of communication, obv keeping a copy of all letters exchanged, It may be slower than telephone but this way you wont get lied too and nine times out of ten you will get told what ever they want to tell you over the phone, In my experience they will also back each other up and help each other cover up mistakes.....again this is just what i have seen.
So without rambling on too much my advice is 1} Solicitor (as good and as can be afforded) 2} Everything in writing 3} Be professional at all times (they like this) 4} If they are innocent.....then good luck to them and may this all be over soon.
 
Latest news I've had from them is that they have had no contact with their son for a week. He is living in a childrens home and the parents have been told by the social services that his son does not want no contact with them and to not try and approach him. In the meantime I contacted the home on their behalf saying that I was a friend and I spoke to the child and he telling me how the social services would buy him anything he wants this is what I meant earlier by being easily mislead. They currently brought him an iphone and an apple ipod. Something doesn't seem right it seems they are keeping the child sweet.

I really do feel for the family, thanks for the replies lads. If you have any more advice please feel free to comment in this thread and I will keep you updated with what happens.
 
While i have no advice to offer on this occasion ,i would like to say that i wish all neighbours were as caring and thoughtfull of others as yourself.
 
While i have no advice to offer on this occasion ,i would like to say that i wish all neighbours were as caring and thoughtfull of others as yourself.

Thanks for the kind words m8 I'm sure all neighbours aren't that bad and would help each other in their time of need.
 
Latest news I've had from them is that they have had no contact with their son for a week. He is living in a childrens home and the parents have been told by the social services that his son does not want no contact with them and to not try and approach him. In the meantime I contacted the home on their behalf saying that I was a friend and I spoke to the child and he telling me how the social services would buy him anything he wants this is what I meant earlier by being easily mislead. They currently brought him an iphone and an apple ipod. Something doesn't seem right it seems they are keeping the child sweet.

I really do feel for the family, thanks for the replies lads. If you have any more advice please feel free to comment in this thread and I will keep you updated with what happens.

Don't abuse the Social Services for acting. When a child dies the social workers take all the flack for not acting (and quite rightly)
 
Thanks for the kind words m8 I'm sure all neighbours aren't that bad and would help each other in their time of need.
Ignore some of the thoughtless comments made here so far. If you know the kid and his parents, then I am sure you have a much better understanding of what is going on compared to us.

Just try and not get too involved, it could be something has been happening, or not, and the whole process could be a great strain on you.

Lets just hope the boy is happy at the end of it now.
 
In many respects the comments are right about social services - they are damned if they do and damned if they dont.

The trouble is they tend to miss the bad cases where terrible things are happening and focus on easy cases where they dont meet much resistance from scared parents. A girl I know was battered by her former partner for months and the police wouldnt do anything as she was too scared to press charges. She got no help from anywhere - one day she flipped and tried to run the bloke over - he wasnt hurt but he went to social services and her kids got taken from her as he also got her charged with attempted murder. Thankfully the police saw the situation for what it was and dropped the charges but she is still without her children. The council took her house off her as she didnt need a 3 bedroom place with no kids so shes now homeless too!!! Social services wont let her have the kdis back because she has no home and the council wont give her a place because she hasnt got the kids///

I applaud you for taking an interest in your neighbours plight and my advice would be to get a good lawyer. if they have nothing to hide then a good one will sort things out for them.

As for innocent until proven guilty it doesnt always apply with social services im afraid as they have powers over and above the police to remove children at will. they dont need a court order just agreement from the head of department!!

But then I also have to concede that if it stops one child being hurt then maybe its the right procedure!!
 
Two ways to look at this...

First... he got caught stealing etc so then made up some lies regarding the abuse etc to try and cover his back.

Second... you say "they dont seem like the sort of people" my dad and step mum didnt look like them sort of people but i was abused,beaten etc and at 11 yo its a little scary but the social services did a fantastic job for me, not always right ie the home i ended up in would have made me into a thief etc but it never,and I think I turned out ok little screwed in the head some times but hey aint we all!!!

Any how dont judge people by how they seem...... the powers that be will get the truth..
 
Two ways to look at this...

First... he got caught stealing etc so then made up some lies regarding the abuse etc to try and cover his back.

Second... you say "they dont seem like the sort of people" my dad and step mum didnt look like them sort of people but i was abused,beaten etc and at 11 yo its a little scary but the social services did a fantastic job for me, not always right ie the home i ended up in would have made me into a thief etc but it never,and I think I turned out ok little screwed in the head some times but hey aint we all!!!

Any how dont judge people by how they seem...... the powers that be will get the truth..


Good post m8 it illisrates the point. Abuser dont have it stamped on their forehead do they?

@Karmy i know the law is innocent untill proven guilty but child abuse imv is different. Not that im saying assume guilt untill innocences is proved but special care has to be taken in these cases by social services.
If social workers just dismissed the childs stories as lies and did nothing where would we be.
As i said before its a no win situation for the parents but child saftey is the issue here.
 
Good post m8 it illisrates the point. Abuser dont have it stamped on their forehead do they?

@Karmy i know the law is innocent untill proven guilty but child abuse imv is different. Not that im saying assume guilt untill innocences is proved but special care has to be taken in these cases by social services.
If social workers just dismissed the childs stories as lies and did nothing where would we be.
As i said before its a no win situation for the parents but child saftey is the issue here.
I understand completely about child safety, however we have all seen cases where social services have made a mistake, Victoria Climbie is one of them etc.

Right now, it doesnt matter if they have made a mistake or not, the family simply needs to know what is happening and what they can expect to happen. Given that we dont know them, or the kid, we can simply give out advice to a concerned neighbour who knows all of them - afterall that was the origianal request.

If the kid was being abused, then he isnt going to suffer from it now is he? And if he was, then why didnt social services step in before this time? Its all subjective at the end of the day...
 
Need some advice lads,

The child has admitted that he made everything up because he was ashamed of stealing money from the home and yesterday he rang his parents secretly and told them his foster family are keeping him locked up because they uncovered his plans for doing a runner. They then brought him home sectretly and the social services found out and they brought the police with them and removed him from his family home.

The reason the social services gave was the child is under a protection order from the whole family until he's 18 and has to be removed even if he doesn't want to. The child was crying and didn't want to leave. He is now 16 years old. Also the court case cannot be dropped now and has to go to court regardless of what the child says.

Are they allowed do what they've just done?
 
Need some advice lads,

The child has admitted that he made everything up because he was ashamed of stealing money from the home and yesterday he rang his parents secretly and told them his foster family are keeping him locked up because they uncovered his plans for doing a runner. They then brought him home sectretly and the social services found out and they brought the police with them and removed him from his family home.

The reason the social services gave was the child is under a protection order from the whole family until he's 18 and has to be removed even if he doesn't want to. The child was crying and didn't want to leave. He is now 16 years old. Also the court case cannot be dropped now and has to go to court regardless of what the child says.

Are they allowed do what they've just done?
They need to get some good legal advice. This sounds like it has got very complex very quickly.

As long as they have a good sollicitor then all you can do is provide support to them. I dont know the specifics on the laws here, but I would imagine that if they are not allowed to see him untill he is 18, then there may be a significant legal problem here.
 
This is the first time they have seen him since he was taken away. The social service stopped all contact with the family and at every meeting with the family the social services would say the child was happy with his foster family. The child told his family that he wanted to come home long ago hence the runner but the social services were stopping him and kept pestering him to testify in court against his family. He said he made the bruises on his body himself but the social service won't belive him and say he was beaten and that he has to testify in court under any circumstances.

The solicitor his parents previously had is not handling the case anymore and they are currently looking for a new one.

The question I'm trying to ask is were they allowed to remove him from his family like that, didn't they need a court order or something to enter the home as they just barged in their home and took him? The child even locked himself in the bathroom and refused to go.
 
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