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I'll try to keep it brief. Thank you in advance for reading...
historically we applied to the family court for contact with grandchildren - court appointed the local authority social workers to undertake the Section 7 report (instead of cafcass). We had a terrible relationship with the LA due to the fact that 1. I was an employee who had fallen out with my manager previously, who was still the manager of the very team undertaking the s7 , & 2. they didn't support us or or our grandchildren whilst they were staying with us due to mothers mental health and drug use. Court didn't care about the circumstances of who was writing the report we did raise it with them.
The LA social workers presented incorrect information about us, including abuse stories which were presented as fact but with no evidence, and in the end recommended contact should be the decision of the parent and suggested that we all needed therapy (we certainly did after this experience, but it wasn't a realistic suggestion for the family as the mother of the children never agreed even to mediation) - also the social worker put us in a bad light and presented myths that were completely baseless to the court but were nonetheless taken on board as fact. The court went with the report and social worker as I understand they have a duty to do (the original social worker who had written the report didn't come to the court), however this social worker also said that we had kept the children against the mothers wishes and made it seem as if we had kidnapped them, even though they and the police actually told us we had to keep them with us, the social worker even said that there was no mental health issues with the parent - and that she had checked with the GP that this was the case even though we knew that this was completely incorrect, honestly it was awful and our perspective and evidence was more or less ignored - we then tried to make a final appeal to the high court and they said that they were the wrong court (our case had been in the district court). This was last year so we ran out of time & never discovered where our appeal was meant to go.
So we were left feeling that our case wasn't heard properly and that the social workers weren't transparent about us or our role in our grandchildren's life, so we have tried to complain to the ombudsman about the incorrect information presented to the court by the social workers, and they said that they couldn't deal with anything that is or was in court. We have been trying to get the local council who employ these social workers to look at the case, but they say they have to follow the ombudsman (contrary to the paperwork from the ombudsman that says that they should look into the complaint). Interestingly the LA also said that we had 3 years to file a claim? does anyone know what they are talking about here?? They have said that they won't deal with our complaint and have been very rigid about this.
We have also gone to the social work registration council who will be looking at the case to see if they can investigate it.
We don't think that going back to the family court will help us because it was such a traumatic experience and didn't get us anywhere at all, and of course as we knew, leaving it to the parent would only go one way, & we haven't seen the children since, except we are now not even permitted to send presents etc, we have been erased from their lives and we knew that if it was left to the parent this is what would happen.
My question is where do we take our grievance that we have about the social workers conduct? Has anyone had any experience of this? We just want to do everything we can to clear our name as people and loving grandparents and we also don't think that the professionals involved should be able to sidestep their obligations to their profession.
thank you again!
historically we applied to the family court for contact with grandchildren - court appointed the local authority social workers to undertake the Section 7 report (instead of cafcass). We had a terrible relationship with the LA due to the fact that 1. I was an employee who had fallen out with my manager previously, who was still the manager of the very team undertaking the s7 , & 2. they didn't support us or or our grandchildren whilst they were staying with us due to mothers mental health and drug use. Court didn't care about the circumstances of who was writing the report we did raise it with them.
The LA social workers presented incorrect information about us, including abuse stories which were presented as fact but with no evidence, and in the end recommended contact should be the decision of the parent and suggested that we all needed therapy (we certainly did after this experience, but it wasn't a realistic suggestion for the family as the mother of the children never agreed even to mediation) - also the social worker put us in a bad light and presented myths that were completely baseless to the court but were nonetheless taken on board as fact. The court went with the report and social worker as I understand they have a duty to do (the original social worker who had written the report didn't come to the court), however this social worker also said that we had kept the children against the mothers wishes and made it seem as if we had kidnapped them, even though they and the police actually told us we had to keep them with us, the social worker even said that there was no mental health issues with the parent - and that she had checked with the GP that this was the case even though we knew that this was completely incorrect, honestly it was awful and our perspective and evidence was more or less ignored - we then tried to make a final appeal to the high court and they said that they were the wrong court (our case had been in the district court). This was last year so we ran out of time & never discovered where our appeal was meant to go.
So we were left feeling that our case wasn't heard properly and that the social workers weren't transparent about us or our role in our grandchildren's life, so we have tried to complain to the ombudsman about the incorrect information presented to the court by the social workers, and they said that they couldn't deal with anything that is or was in court. We have been trying to get the local council who employ these social workers to look at the case, but they say they have to follow the ombudsman (contrary to the paperwork from the ombudsman that says that they should look into the complaint). Interestingly the LA also said that we had 3 years to file a claim? does anyone know what they are talking about here?? They have said that they won't deal with our complaint and have been very rigid about this.
We have also gone to the social work registration council who will be looking at the case to see if they can investigate it.
We don't think that going back to the family court will help us because it was such a traumatic experience and didn't get us anywhere at all, and of course as we knew, leaving it to the parent would only go one way, & we haven't seen the children since, except we are now not even permitted to send presents etc, we have been erased from their lives and we knew that if it was left to the parent this is what would happen.
My question is where do we take our grievance that we have about the social workers conduct? Has anyone had any experience of this? We just want to do everything we can to clear our name as people and loving grandparents and we also don't think that the professionals involved should be able to sidestep their obligations to their profession.
thank you again!
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