Kirstie Allsopp reported to social services for allowing son, 15, to travel abroad

[pfifes]

Dame Karen Bradley, a Tory MP and the mother of sons aged 18 and 20, said: 'It seems like the worst kind of box-ticking and a waste of effort and time by council officials who should be focused on children who are at genuine risk. Kirstie knows her son and what he is capable of and took the same decision that many other parents would take for a child who wants to celebrate the end of his exams.'

 

I’d tend towards agreeing with this.

[crookesey]

Too many folk with little experience attempting to dominate the lives of the many.

[Delbow]

13 hours ago, The_DADDY said:

Social Services 🙄

I'm sure there may be some good Social workers but on the whole they are absolutely useless and probably corrupt too. Some of their 'child protection officers ' don't give a toss about the child and will destroy a good family for no good reason.

Vile creatures for the most part.

 

It should be obvious that this is a ludicrous and inaccurate generalisation. So, you had a bad experience with a social worker - it a) doesn't mean they automatically did anything wrong, b) if they did do something wrong then you can't extrapolate that to the other tens of thousands of social workers. 

 

I don't quite buy RBKC's response, by the way. Yes, they can't ignore a referral but they can make a threshold decision and decide whether it needs further investigation. It's not unreasonable to check that a particular 15 year old is ok to go around Europe, but a quick call to parents to establish their level of maturity and that they haven't gone on their own would be plenty, case closed.

[cressida]

I phoned them about a telephone query,  this bloke came round even though it was sorted,  he must have known he wasn't wanted,  and he said 'I'm sorry for making your life a misery!

I phoned his office and thankfully his 'superior' agreed with me and I never saw him again.

[Slighty batty]

Thinking about it, there seem to be some double standards here. 15 year old boy goes inter railing in Europe and it’s a child protection issue. 15 year old girl goes to Syria,  gets stripped of her British citizenship and can’t come back.  I don’t want to get into the whole Shamima Begum issue, just saying she was the same age

[cressida]

She was older when she watched people having their heads chopped off.

[High Chaparral]

21 minutes ago, Slighty batty said:

Thinking about it, there seem to be some double standards here. 15 year old boy goes inter railing in Europe and it’s a child protection issue. 15 year old girl goes to Syria,  gets stripped of her British citizenship and can’t come back.  I don’t want to get into the whole Shamima Begum issue, just saying she was the same age

Why double standards?  The 15 year old boy had the permission of his Mother to go travelling abroad. The 15 year old girl didn't have the permission of her parents to go abroad and join ISIS.  No harm came to the 15 year old boy meaning the judgement of his Mother has been proved correct to allow him to go travelling and there is no need to involve the social services.

[El Cid]

48 minutes ago, Delbow said:

It's not unreasonable to check that a particular 15 year old is ok to go around Europe, but a quick call to parents to establish their level of maturity and that they haven't gone on their own would be plenty, case closed.

 

So social services should believe all parents, or just rich ones?

[The_DADDY]

1 hour ago, Delbow said:

It should be obvious that this is a ludicrous and inaccurate generalisation. So, you had a bad experience with a social worker - 

Snipped 

Let me stop you there  

Not 'a' social worker but many over a period of time. 

 

[Slighty batty]

37 minutes ago, High Chaparral said:

Why double standards?  The 15 year old boy had the permission of his Mother to go travelling abroad. The 15 year old girl didn't have the permission of her parents to go abroad and join ISIS.  No harm came to the 15 year old boy meaning the judgement of his Mother has been proved correct to allow him to go travelling and there is no need to involve the social services.

When the girl went to Syria she was probably the victim of grooming, and there was definitely a safe guarding issue because she was made into a child bride in a war torn country. Courts have decided that she made her own bed and has to lie on it, fair enough but if she wasn’t deemed to be a vulnerable child when she left for Syria then why such a song and dance when a boy of the same age goes on a rail holiday in Europe.