Cautionary tale - Child Protection
Following press coverage in the Mail and local Guardian, people have asked me how it was that my family came to be the subject of a traumatic Child Protection Investigation by Wandsworth Council, in which the police were involved.I tell my story as a cautionary tale, to other local residents, particularly to mothers. My husband and I had both been patients of Chartfield Surgery, Putney SW15, for 16 years and our son since he was born in 2000. Last year, I went to the surgery with mild symptoms of depression. I had no qualms about seeking help in confidence from Chartfield Surgery, we knew the doctors well and respected them.I saw a young, keen, newly qualified locum, Katherine Mawer, who had a budding interest in Child Psychology. I mentioned I was concerned that my low mood might upset my son. This was a mistake. The locum's subsequent actions were later described by one of her own colleagues as a mixture of 'good intentions' and 'panic.' In the consultation Katherine Mawer told me she wanted to refer my son to social services to see if he needed support. I offered to bring my son to the Surgery as I thought our family GP was the best place to start. The locum refused. She also refused my request to see another doctor. I tried to speak to another doctor by telephone. Unknown to me, the locum telephoned a Dr Peter Green (Head of Safeguarding Children in Wandsworth). He told her that if she had concerns she should make them extremely robust to justify the breach of confidentiality. (Bizarrely, Dr Green who I had never met or spoken to described me as 'very self centred' in my medical notes). The well meaning, cautious, young locum set about following Dr Green's advice. Over a period of two days, she wrote up increasingly more extreme accounts of our 10 minute consultation. Where I had said my son would know how I would feel because we were close she wrote: "she tells her son frequently she wants to die." I had said, when asked, that I could never take my life because I could not leave my son behind, she wrote: 'if she were to kill herself she would take her son with her.' She did not check her account with me at or tell me of her concerns - she later claimed (on the advice of Dr Green and the Medical Defence Union) that to tell me of the allegations would have put our son's life at risk. We were advised she had to make this alarming statement to protect herself from legal action for breach of confidentiality without consent.This keen and cautious young girl, had no idea how social services would react to her account. She had no concept of the chaos she was to unleash into our family's life or the distress she would unwittingly cause for over a year. None of her colleagues at the surgery, who knew us, challenged her actions.She then sent off her 'robust' account knowingly to my two places of work - Wandsworth Council (where I was a Councillor) and Wandsworth NHS (where I was a Non Executive Director). Later the Council, again unknown to us, sent the same extreme allegations to our son's school. My husband and I were not told what the allegations were, so we had no opportunity to challenge them. I was interviewed, my son was interviewed, I under went a full psychiatric assessment by an NHS consultant who said I was mildly depressed and no risk to anyone and no risk to my son. We were upset, but not particularly alarmed at this point; we knew our son was happy and well and felt we had nothing to hide and nothing to fear. It was not until we learned that the police had been informed that we realised something was very wrong. By now WBC refused to even accept even the evidence of Dr Lebus at Chartfield Surgery, who is the Senior Partner responsible for child safeguarding; she had told them our son was not at risk. Our son's school said he was happy and thriving. WBC would not be deterred; they were on a grim mission to prove emotional abuse of our son - the cause we found out later was my alleged severe mental illness (despite going about my life and work as I always had) and my husband's alleged inability to protect our son from risk of harm. No one at all met my husband, social workers didn't interview him - had they done so they would have found a loving reliable hands on dad involved in every aspect of his son's life. WBC even relied on an anonymous consultation with an 'expert' I had never met. The evidence that demonstrated our son's safety and wellbeing was relegated to irrelevant - it was almost as if social workers believed there was a conspiracy of silence by everyone who had met us or knew us.A traumatic and protracted investigation ensued; our family's privacy in every sphere of our lives was disregard; I lived in fear of seeking any medical help as a senior officer at WBC had warned of further action, if 'it happened again.' All this eventually did lead to a severe depressive disorder. I eventually sought private treatment. I was prescribed an anti depressant which worked and was supported by a wonderful counsellor, again privately. We were lucky. We began to pick up the pieces.We did not lose our son, but others in similar circumstances do because they do not have access to solicitors, private health and cannot speak out for themselves. There is an assumption of guilt. No one wants to help or support an accused 'child abuser.' Being wrongly accused of abusing your child publicly is an horrific accusation for any parent. Social Services seemed entirely unaware of the harmful impact of their actions on families. There is no redress. No apology was received despite an external complaints procedure recommending we should receive one.Our son has a file 5 inches thick that will be held on him, until he is 32 years old - depicting his parents in a grotesque fashion. I lost my work at the Council and Wandsworth NHS.Others suffer worse consequences, even if they do not lose their child, many families do not recover: some lose livelihoods, some become socially isolated, stigma, blame and mistrust causes family breakdown and mental health problems and in the midst of all the chaos and distress, how do you explain any of it to a child, who may well feel a deep sense of guilt at the anguish their parents have experienced.Possibly the worse feature of this flawed system, designed to protect our children, is that while taxpayer's money is poured into cases like ours, the system becomes overwhelmed by well meaning social workers, convinced of every parent's guilt. Children who really need protecting, like Baby P and Victoria Climbe, slip through the net, precisely because the system is creaking at the seams with ordinary families, like ours doing their best.The media and politicians are now becoming more alert to the harm caused to families across the country - it is not specific to WBC. A campaign is gathering momentum, of which I am a part; I do not want others to suffer in the same way. If you have experienced anything similar please tell me, please tell your local councillor and please tell our fantastic MP Justine Greening. Don't let the stigma of false accusations make you suffer in silence. Most importantly be very, very careful of mentioning any concerns about your child, however minor, to your doctor unless you know and trust them. Never mention any such concerns to well meaning, panicky young things with no life experience and no understanding or experience of motherhood.
Lucy Allan ● 4781d9 Comments