Don’t ask your grandson how his jaw got broken, say social workers

Nelliemoser It is quite right that the rules about questioning a child about assault are strict, as you point out. However, the newspaper article specifically mentions that the police are taking no further action.

I agree with Nightowl
I am being devils advocate here and speculating on the basis of no facts about this incident (No I am not a sun journalist.)

There are many further questions that need asking here such as how come the child who had been with grandmother was now in foster care? Sensibly that is totally confidential and not our business.

The rules for questioning of a child about an assault are very strict and should only be done by specially trained workers. Without this safeguard the alleged perpetrators defence council might easily claim the childs testimony was unduly influenced and opportunities for justice for the child could be lost.

JO4 I think you may well be right, but it still has disturbing elements.

Isn't that always the case?

I think there must be a lot more to this story than is told here.

Good points nightowl

I am the last person to defend social care these days, and I have seen many very worrying examples of social workers acting well beyond their powers. However I would suggest reading this article with a degree of caution. It states that the authority has parental responsibility which means there must be a care order in place. It has therefore been proved in court that these children 'have suffered or are at risk of suffering significant harm'. There are obviously other factors beyond a teenager running away after a tiff. In addition it has not been my experience that social workers are in a position to instruct the police on whether to prosecute or not.

Sadly, good social workers get promoted, and when they are really good at managing difficult dynamics they get to manage dysfunctional teams or heading up new projects, so the majority of their time is spent holding workers to account instead of delving into the finer details of the high maintenance cases. Good workers get left to their own, busy devices and inevitably the clients don't receive the service and attention that is needed.

Then, when the proverbial hits the fan, they'll be reorganised, good workers taking their skills elsewhere and it's back to the beginning, learning what takes years to understand the complexity of cases, and how to navigate bureaucracy to help our most vulnerable citizens, whose lives cannot be put on hold whilst the social workers try to get it right.

It's so sad that there's a high possibility that this young boy will end up using mental health services as a teenager /adult.Agree BNut that there is a range of factor and commitment in relation to S Work/ers but so often the really good ones burn out and leave the service or move away from the ' frontline' feeling that they are damned if they do and damned if they don't .

This makes me feel physically sick

Yes, When and what is worse, it is time consuming to back-track, unpick and readjust the existing contract to fit the present circumstances. Therefore, this young boy continues to be 'lost' in the malaise (and maze) of the social services adherence to the check-list mentality that pervades in order to appease their own goal driven reasons. Many social workers do great works, and many can be lazy, and many more are enormously overworked because of the requirements of 'standards'.

The article doesn't say why the granddaughter was taken into care after running away. Lots of children run away but are not taken away from their families once found. Maybe there is some associated reason between that and the treatment of her brother. However, it does seem unnecessarily harsh towards the boy (and his grandmother). It is also puzzling as to why the social services people advised the police not to pursue the attackers.

This is not the first time that a newspaper has published information about what seems like wantonly cruel treatment of children in care by the authorities responsible for them and it probably won't be the last. We have also recently heard about the sexual grooming of girls that had been taken into so-called care. It does look as if the system needs overhauling.

Quote: "When the grandmother called the police to ask whether any charges were to be brought against the boys responsible for assaulting her grandson, she was told they were to take no further action, on the advice of the social workers who had “parental responsibility” for the boy."

So, social workers in this case have given permission to the gang to go unpunished and attack someone else?

That list of prerequisites sounds like a standardised checklist/contract that has not been adapted to fit the circumstances of this family. Lazy case management. I have seen many examples of this, with social services and probation contracts, between families and workers, leaving irrelevant and even personally offensive instructions in documents, when a busy worker has not taken the time to ensure it fits the needs of the case. Instead of going through the contract to ensure the family or client understand, and can agree changes that suit the purpose of the contract, it's shoved in a file for someone else to pass on, and is completely inappropriate.

"For legal reasons, comments have been deactivated on this story"

But we can comment .......

What IS going on here?

This almost reduced me to tears. Why should a child not be allowed to have some love in his life?

That poor young boy - I can't begin to imagine the despair he and his grandmother are going through. Where are HIS rights here?

What? This seems truly bizarre.