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Social services vs probation

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Frustrated21

Member since
September 2021

28 posts

Posted Mon September 13, 2021 7:01pmReport post

I am over 2 years post knock, my husband was sentenced in to a two year probation order and 5 year shpo.
(1 case of attempted communication with a child - decoy police) norhing else discovered


Social services have allowed supervised contact from myself at the family home since day 2 so my husband comes at 8am and doesnt leave till 11pm the only thing he doeant do is sleep here and ss are fine with that

we have been working with ss to get my husband home, it started well and we are on a CIN plan, the main step was a risk assesment, all was going well with this untill my husbands awful probation worker got involved. Twisting everything,

They are now worried not about my children but suposidly my childdens friends and wont allow his home. They say my children can come off the cin plan as no risk but cant come home as there is a risk.



Im so confused how can there be no risk and risk at same time.

Any one had luck changing probation worker

Can i refuse to come off the CIN and ask for more support

I feel if we come off the plan there will be no monthlg visits so we will become forgotton about and nothing will ever get done (not in a decent timescale anyway)



Thankyou

Edited Tue September 14, 2021 10:26pm

Notalone1970

Member since
May 2021

98 posts

Posted Tue September 14, 2021 2:08pmReport post

Sorry to hear you are having issues, if the probation officer (i am not talking about social service) is causing issues and you do not agree with reports that are being writen and passed on to SS then there are processes in place your husband can following. Any report that a probation officer rights about someone they are monitoring while on licience has to be backed up with up to date risk assessments, on what is happening now, now not the past.

If you do not believe this to be happening then your husband is within his rights to challenge the reports writen by his probation officer.

He should first request a meeting with his probation officers line manager (supervising officer) to lay out the concerns you both have. If it cant be sorted at this stage then the next avenue to take is a formal complaint to the head of the probation service, raising the issues you both have. If it is not sorted out at this level then one final thing would be to raise with the Probation ombudsman.

My understanding is that unless there is exceptional circumstances it is difficult to change a probation officer while on licience, so the only action that can be taken is to raise a complaint which your husband is within his right to do.

hope this helps

Frustrated21

Member since
September 2021

28 posts

Posted Tue September 14, 2021 3:37pmReport post

Thank you.

Think that may be next step

She is un happy that he doesnt have a large social network (just family) and wants him to make friends he can talk to. Making new friends is hard enough but hes currently not in work and how can you tell people you have just met about your criminal history and expect them to stay around.

So she has told social services untill he has a better support network he may slip back into his old habbits. We have advised her that its not the size of the support network it was the fact he just wasnt using it and not talking to anyone, which he now is.

She also keeps trying to acuse him of other things like images and arranging to meet which never happened but its like she thinks shes a judge and hes on trial again

I hate having ss in our lives, i know they need to be at minutes but supervised contact makes some day to day activities a nightmare, like going to bathroom or even hanging washing out.

Sometimes think they do it so it gets too hard and we split up

Frustrated21

Member since
September 2021

28 posts

Posted Tue September 14, 2021 9:01pmReport post

Thanks lee, unfortunatly his probation worker wont speak to me atall.

We had issues with her straight away when she told ss he had be charged with a completley different and alot worse offence and when challanged on it she became rude and unhelpful it took viso (police) to step in to correct her.

All appointments are via phone, as she says he relies on me too much so makes him go into the probation office to speak to her over the phone (she not there he sits in a room alone and speaks to her over the phone)

His mum dies a few months ago and she didnt believe him and rang the police to check, she asks him the same question every appointment about his offence trying to get him to admit to more.

She told him in a round about way she doesnt think he should be home till our youngest is 16 (she is 8) even tho all assesments came as low risk and the meetings with school children health ect have all shown no issues

Our CIN meetings last no more than 5 minutes each week as there is never any concerns. Probation never attend the meeting but as social services send her the minutes she replies to them behind our backs after the meeting so we have no way to retaliate or give our point of view

Starry

Member since
June 2021

85 posts

Posted Tue September 14, 2021 9:15pmReport post

Frustrated. I am pleased to hear that he is allowed to be at home for the whole day all of the time. Can I ask does he have any restrictions on where he can go. For example are you allowed as a family to go on days out, or to other peoples houses if there are children there?

Frustrated21

Member since
September 2021

28 posts

Posted Tue September 14, 2021 10:25pmReport post

Thank you lee1969 if you find anything please let me know, i thort the wodst was over after court and media but shes worse that all of it

She started so nice but as soon as we questioned her shes been nasty, no matter what he says she wont listen, then she doesnt attend cin meeting but then tells ss alot of lies

Things were great with ss our sw has been amazing and effective to start with but then she has a call with probation as she sas about to sogn off the risk assesment everything changed she started making my husband attend meetings at a contact center, when it was always at his home before she started asking all the questions po was asking and all of a sudden the risk assement which was complete and positive has been stuck for the last 2 months without being signed off, every meetimg with ss is just a repeat of "we are waiting further guidence"

She says she is hoping to have a meeting with us next week to discuss the final out come which will more than likly be signed off the CIN but still not allowed home. I just cant imderstand why.



Starry, we are allowd on days out anywhere aslong as im supervising. We can go to friends and family with kids but only when the parents are aware of his charge (they all are and have been fantastic). And aslong as fully supervised. We had a great few days out over the holidays and was like normal again its been over 2 years since the knock now, just need some closure to move on.

We had to install security cameras as our neighbors kept making reports to police that he was living here and we were having loads of kids over. So the cameras proove he leaves every night and no kids come over. I thought ViSOR were going to be a nightmare but they have been amazing and have never believed any of the bogus reports on us, i cant wait till they take over from po X

Edited Tue September 14, 2021 10:28pm

Dawn14

Member since
June 2021

472 posts

Posted Tue September 14, 2021 11:45pmReport post

Hi frustrated,

I am so sorry to hear u r having a nightmare with ur oh po, my husbands has been brilliant, it just goes to show I guess that not all po are great xx so sorry u have to go through this when things should be getting easier for u xx

Edited Wed September 15, 2021 11:27pm

Frustrated21

Member since
September 2021

28 posts

Posted Wed October 6, 2021 3:58pmReport post

Lee1969 did you ever find anything out.

My meeting with social services for outcome of risk assement keeps getting pushed fingers crossed for tommorow bit not looking positive. Probation want husband to be away till my youngest (8) turns 18 thank god we only have her for another 16months

Frustrated21

Member since
September 2021

28 posts

Posted Fri October 8, 2021 6:17pmReport post

Thankyou, we will deff we going further. We have had 2 meeting canceled by social services where they were going to give us the outcome of the risk assement. Bothe times they have just not turned up we waited 2 hours last night for our social worker.

Probation say they want to keep hom away from home till youngest is q8 (10years) and VISOR came today they are lovley and have advised us to share our concerns with probation bit have said its likley they can win and keep hom away for 10 year and the expect the worst, his shpo and register is only 5 years so really heartbtoken, not sure i can do another 10 years loving like this



Thankyou lee1969

Edited Fri October 8, 2021 6:17pm