SOCIAL SERVICES SHOULD TARGET THOSE CHILDREN REALLY IN NEED

[Lesley Rice]

My granddaughter is the subject of a child protection plan. She is nearly 12 months old and since before she was born has had 4 social workers! My daughter was only 15 when she got pregnant and has ADHD and ASD. The reason my granddaughter was placed under child protection before she was born was because social services were worried about her 'physical' wellbeing. My daughter and granddaughter live with me and I ensure that all her needs are provided for. When she was about 3 months old the reason for a child protection plan changed to 'emotional' because her mother and father argued a lot. I ensured that none of this arguing took place whilst the baby was present and if something did start, she was removed from the situation immediately. The baby has been in full time nursery since the begining of September and all the professionals involved state that she is a happy, secure and well looked after child.

Social Services are now stating that she could be taken away from us because my flat is 'untidy'. I have never been a 'housekeeper' but ensure that those places which need to be clean are cleaned (kitchen and bathroom) and carpets are vacuumed on a regular basis. Anything which could cause harm to the baby are put out of reach and access to the kitchen is barred by a gate.

I bought up my own daughter in the same type of circumstances and she came to no harm because I was vigilant at all times.

I work in a primary school and there are children there who the school refer to social services but they take so long to get involved.

18 months ago there was a baby murdered in the block of flats in which I live, where were social services then?

[Alison J Stevens]

Hi Lesley, welcome to PAIN, if you require any assistance, please e mail at alison,[e-mail], and i will send you all our PAIN documents if you leave your e mail address, main website is www.parentsagainstinjustice.org.uk, we are having problems with the site at the movement, to get into the links, if you download seamonkey 2.0,and download it, you should have no problems getting into the links, all our contact numbers are on here, all you do is just search for the blog, we have a really good list of Solicitors as well.
Kind regards Alison.