Social services

What reasons did she give that she observed during that contact? Is your son with you now? You can put in a formal complaint and request a new social worker

Why did she think you couldn’t? What concerns did she have? Did she tell you what plan/stage you were on? Did they say if they were going to give you any support so you could meet his needs (from their view points, not saying you aren’t as don’t know you). If you think they’re discriminating against you because you are vulnerable then you raise a grievance/complaint as they can’t discriminate. Can you they offer additional support ie if vulnerability is mental health related offering you support from peri natal team or crisis team. It sounds like your relationship is fractured so could ask for a new one. Best of working with them no matter how much you disagree. Why does she think your dads lied?not very nice to block you, could ring the Main office to try find out why? Sounds really stressful though and hope it gets sorted for you x

@Lauryn it was to observe my contact as part of my assessment

@Helen my solicitor has seen reports from the hospital when my son was born last year and it states that I can meet his needs , this social worker has proper messed up my mental health and if I complain they get away with it x

You should have received a breakdown of areas the assessment will cover as well as a time frame for this to be completed in and have had multiple contacts observed. This would have also been outlined in court. What vulnerabilities do you have if you don’t mind be asking? As you could have been offered specific support throughout the assessment to assist with your vulnerabilities such as having an advocate present to support you to help you process and understand the information from the social worker during your assessment and regarding the outcome of your assessment. Decisions made will not have been based off of one contact observation.

I'm sorry but this won't be the full story, as social services never want to take your kids from you, it really is a last resort, as they struggle to place them! If I was you, I would do exactly what they ask of you and play ball.

@Rebecca this is correct. There has to be evidence that a child is at significant risk of immediate harm and agreed in court by a judge for a child to be placed in temporary care whilst assessments are made of parents/any other family members.

@Linda yes I understand that but what did she say about what she observed? She would have written a detailed report. I’m assuming you don’t currently have custody of your son? I saw your next comment says about reports from hospital when he was born, I wouldn’t imagine these will be relevant in court unfortunately. Being able to care of your son immediately after birth is completely different to meeting all his needs as he gets older. As others have said, it isn’t down to that 1 social worker whether you loose custody or not. There will be lots of reports from different people and a judge will make the decision not her.

No advice on the specific subject; but I would say calling your social worker a “ignorant 🐮” on a public platform with your name and photo on is very silly. You aren’t coming across well and if anyone saw this, it won’t help people think you’re a fit parent.

I have a close family member who works in social services. As others have said, removing a child from the parents care is absolutely a last resort, if social workers have been involved since birth then there are obviously issues and concerns. You need to be working with social services, listening to everything they say, taking any and all advice and resources you can, for yours and your child’s sake. This attitude will not help either of you.

As someone who has worked in children services, as others have said, removing a child is the last resort, no social worker wants to remove a child from their family UNLESS that child is at significant risk of harm. If a social worker has been involved since birth, then there are obviously concerns, whether that’s you, or someone else. It isn’t down to just one person, at the end of the day it’s down to the judge if that child is removed but yet no one complains about the judge. People are quick to judge and complain about social workers, when we genuinely want to help and support and our concern is the wellbeing of the child/children.

It’s not just all of the resources they provide or offer either. You need to show you can be autonomous and access support for yourself too. As you’re having supervised contact I will assume your son may already be on an interim care order? Please do correct me if I am wrong. I will be completely blunt with you. If you are negatively assessed and any family members that may come forward are also negatively assessed, the local authority will seek a full care order. The next steps after that, because your son is so young, will be to seek to place your child for adoption. I am not saying this to scare you, but I think it’s important you know that’s a very real outcome if you do not work with them to show you can care for him. They are not there for you they are duty bound to find the best outcome for your son.

@Danielle there are trying to find the father but have limited details they only have a name , I think the judge can request to track through DWP , I'm not a bad parent but I think social services could do more to support me , like I remember my second daughter being removed from her dad in 2021 because he was putting her at risk etc and suprise suprise she is back with him , this social worker is a liar she didn't do many observations she only did about 2 she uses my mild learning disability against me , and said I won't be able to cope on my own with my son but there is loads of single parents out there , the social worker has psychological abused me she has deliberately done this and now she's blocked my number

@Linda yes they can do a DWP search to find him and contact him that way. What support have they offered so far? I think you would definitely benefit from an independent advocate maybe ask the social worker how you can be put in touch with one. There should have been either reasonable adjustments made within your parenting assessment to support you to understand or if your learning disability is significant then a more specialised in depth parenting assessment would have been required. The second would have been completed by an independent social worker. That would depend on your level of learning needs and understanding which would have been advised by a health professional. Is this social worker you said has blocked you with the local authority or are they an independent social worker? Your sons social worker with the local authority cannot block you, however an independent social worker will have no need to make further contact with you once they have competed their assessment.

@Linda how many children do you have and why aren’t they in your care? It sounds like you really need to work with professional services and social workers to get yourself in the best position possible to be a mum. You keep talking about other single mums and mental health issues but we aren’t all the same and how your issues affect you can be different to someone else. I have mental health issues and when my daughter was younger there was enough concern (for me, not her) for me to be referred to social services. They very quickly decided they didn’t need to be involved because I was (and still am) engaging with other support services so you can’t really compare as there are clearly other concerns there.

(Sorry was too long) Have you tried calling into the duty line? Or asked your solicitor to make contact on your behalf if you think you have been blocked by the social worker? All contacts will have been supervised if not by the SW then by the contact worker, and they always have to make and submit notes. These can also form part of the social workers assessment. So it would not just her observations of contact but theirs too, this is to make sure there is no bias against you within the assessment. Information from other professionals (such as you said from the midwives) will also form part of the social workers assessment. I hope that’s helpful. However if in doubt always consult your solicitor. But I will say again, please do try and work with your child’s social worker. First and foremost they do want what is best for your baby. Even though at the moment you may not think so.

Social services in certain areas are definitely worse than other areas. The ones in the shit social services areas literally don't care about anything other then Friday and their pay check. They don't care about listening and looking properly at what they should be looking at. They are just going off assessments of people they've sent it that know social aren't keen already!

You need to start working with the social services rather than against them, there is a reason that they have them the child/children away, I don’t think we’re getting the full story here, but you need to make sure you have a safe, stable home for the children, and work with to social to do what you can to get them back

@Danielle my adult social worker is going to look into it , the social worker who did my assessment tricked me into believing that whatever stuff I don't know in the assessment it is stuff I can work on

@Linda your social worker should already be in contact with your babies social worker. So that’s a poor start if I am honest. She could have been helpful and offered to help or present for your assessment to support you

@Shauna I am working with them , like the social worker who has done the assessment has completely blocked my number and my dad's , I've asked my legal to request another assessment because the assessment I have done was rushed , I had a cognitive assessment done a while back by someone else and it was stated stuff needs to be taken slowly and the sw that has done the assessment has completely ignored the cognitive assessment report