Advise needed - child services

Hi love, I don’t have any advice from experience but wanted to send love as this sounds a really frustrating time for you for multiple reasons. I hope it’s wrapped up quickly for you all x

My goodness! This seems like a wild reaction from them. No wonder you're frustrated! Can you ask for a full and comprehensive explanation into what is happening and if this happens every time a parent takes a child to the doctor about a mark? And if not what is it about this particular mark that has caused them to continue with all these steps?

At 6 weeks old we had the health visitor over and I showed her a mark that appeared the day before on my little girls neck, it looked like a bruise with tiny little red dots on top. Because of the bruising underneath she had to send us in for safeguarding so we headed down to the hospital within the next hour and had the baby checked head to toe. The doctor doing the examination wouldn’t talk to my fiancé (the dad) at all and would only have me answer. It honestly felt like an interrogation. It turn out it was just the start of a strawberry birthmark but we literally got made to feel like criminals that beat their own child. We got sent home and that was that so I have no idea why they had to keep you in. The doc that did our review wrote everything up in front of us and that was it. I hope they let you go soon, it’s mad that they’re making you stay. Keep us updated on how it goes, good luck!

Is this in the US? I’ve never heard of anything like this in the UK! Sounds terrible and I’m sorry you’re going through all this 🥺

@Yog Thankyou🫶🏻 x

@Mel it’s been a crazy week. Not how I expected our first time taking baby girl to the drs to end up! We have asked what the justification is and all they’ve said is its protocol. It’s so upsetting as they are wasting their time with us and missing all the babies that really do need their help!

@Julia I’m so sorry that it happened to you also, and how that they also treated your fiancé awfully! It’s the most horrible situation being accused of something so awful! I’m glad they sorted your situation quickly, hopefully the meeting this afternoon gives us some better news🤞🏻

@Amy no this is the UK! I can’t say I’d ever heard of anything like this before, didn’t even cross my mind when I was concerned about the marks! Thankyou, hopefully this afternoons meeting will close the book🤞🏻

I think I read something similar a couple of weeks ago on here somewhere. That is crazy!! Sending prayers your way x

I've taken my son to 2 different hospitals for head injuries and never had anything remotely like this happen. Even when we said we'd briefly left our 2 year old alone in the living room, which resulted in a bruised chin and sliced eye lid. I'm so sorry you've gone through this.

I took my 2 year old to the doctors couple of months ago me and her dad both there the doctor asked if we was mom n dad we said yes but because we are not married they took my full name and my partners n asked us if we had a social worker obviously said no and that was it looking back i should of asked why but didn't think as just wanted to get my daughter better but after speaking to a friend who had same with her child apparently it's a new thing now as apparently social services are not doing enough reports x

Gosh I'm so sorry this is happening to you! This seems so so crazy! I work with social care and I've never heard of this happening unless they did have concerns but their telling you they don't so it isn't adding up! Personally I'd complain!!

This doesn’t make sense to me from someone who works in this sector. I would query this as they have no concerns so you should not need supervising still

@Sophie so when we were in the hospital the dr advised the marks weren’t bruises and they had no concerns but they wanted someone to sit with us over the weekend until someone could come out and meet us. We then had a someone come out to us with a trainee, she looked around met us and met baby girl - she said that she has no concerns and she would pass that back to her manager, but only the trainee was in the original meeting and advised that no one has said there’s concerns; however because the marks were unexplained they needed to do an ‘investigation’. So unless we are being lied to by everyone thats spoken to us, this whole thing is coming across rather overdramatic on their part when there are so many children that really do need there help! We had a further visit today where I requested a visit from her manager as she seems to be calling all the shots without ever even meeting us! Can you advise where we stand to refuse the constant chaperone/sleeping arrangements?

@Vicky I am definitely going to complain, I am just worrying as I don’t wanna come across defensive and aggregate a situation, but I am so frustrated😢

I can promise you no social care team will be trying to up their report numbers! That just doesn't happen - their all completely over run as it is. Has there been any child deaths in your area recently? This can sometimes cause teams to be very very cautious when something has already happened locally....does that make sense?

@Vicky this is exactly why I am so confused, as I have taken my daughter in concerned about something and it’s been blown up completely - even when everyone is telling me they have no concerns! Not as far as I am aware but that does make sense - we have requested a call from the manager to find out more information which is taking place Monday and I will be requesting the meeting minutes and the drs records so we can see if we are being lied too and if all clear requesting justification on this ‘investigation’

Sounds baffling.

You can also ask to do a subject access request as well. Not sure if this would help straight away, but it will enable you to see what information they have written down and why they have reacted way. Sorry you are going through this, how horrible for you all!

Ah right okay, so it’s because investigations are still underway. You can ask what investigations they are going to be doing and is it still necessary for you to be under constant supervision? It doesn’t hurt to ask. I would speak to a head nurse/social worker and just literally query, say I’m really confused I was told there wasn’t any concerns for my child so I’m just not quite sure why we need to be watched, explain any tests they want to conduct etc you are happy to take baby to them