Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Fear of Social Services

...doesn't just afflict Home Educators. Any parent demanding reasonable treatment on behalf of their children is at risk of falling foul of over-worked and irritable social workers:

"Social work managers admit that overworked staff, who encounter aggression and abuse every day, can become vindictive without careful supervision and support. Even Kim Bromley-Derry, the chairman of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, confesses that the phenomenon is "obviously not uncommon".

"Ultimately, if there is a difference of opinion between a family and a social worker, who are all the other professionals going to believe? Inevitably, the family are in a much weaker position, and we have to prevent all abuses of that power imbalance," he says."

3 comments:

Firebird said...

Fear of SS is sensible. Have you seen the latest on the 'not smart enough to marry' girl? They're going to steal her baby!

http://www.babychums.com/2009/10/kerry-robertson-not-bright-enough-to-care-for-a-baby/

Anonymous said...

I have a situation where I know I should be contacting SS. But I am terrified they will go in to this family and make the child's situation even worse than it already is.
I still don't know what to do...

Anon this time

Carlotta said...

It is a real dilemma. Is there anyone who also knows the family who you can discuss this situation with or a friendly child social worker who you could run it by?

We are lucky in that all of our HE groups have at least one either practicing or retired child protection social worker in it, and I have always discussed situations with them...not that I ended up making any referrals, as usually the situation did resolve one way or another...but it was helpful nonetheless.

You could also ring EO about this, as I think they still have employed a social worker for exactly this sort of situation.