Safeguarding

[Jackie123]

My Mum is in respite care - initially for my brother's holiiday, but now because social services have safeguarding concerns with both my father and brother.

Has anyone else had experience of this?

In particular there is to be a family meeting/case review - does anyone have any experience of that?

TIA

Jackie

 

[Kevinl]

Hi Jackie
It's difficult to say until you know what the issues are.
Presumably some evidence or allegation of abuse or neglect has been made is all I can think if they're saying it's a safeguarding issue, either that or they're concerned that your brother & dad aren't coping.
If it's a case review then I'd expect at least 2 people from social service they rarely only send one and possibly the manager/senior person fro the respite care home if something has come to light there.
What it is that's been picked up on is impossible to guess, it may be your mum has said something (which may or may not be true) that has caused the concern.
I take it that dad and brother are coping well and that you have no concerns yourself that they are struggling.
The only other though I have is that she may have taken a downturn while in respite as sometimes happens and there's a concern that they will be able to cope with her in a worse condition.
K

 

[Jackie123]

Both Dad and Brother have found Mum's short term memory loss and anxiety and dementia difficult to cope with and both have issues of their own. The safeguarding concerns against Dad was not a surprise and the comment from my brother was that if he had had the same inputs as social services then he would have made the same decision (regarding himself).

The one who is most likely to challenge it is my Mum as she wants to go home.

I don't want to go into detail but it is is a very difficult and I was looking to see if anyone had had similar expereince.

My Mum, Dad and Brother lived together; I am a long way away.

 

[Kevinl]

People can only have a "similar experience" if they have similar circumstances so someone's who's had a meeting like this might be very different to yours for very many reasons specific to them.
Mine two meetings would be nothing like yours as the circumstances were completely different and unless someone has all the issues your family does then there's won't be either, there's no one size fits all.
I think the important thing is what do you want to happen?
They may suggest your mum goes home with a care package, could you see that working? They could suggest that she go into full time care or they could insist she goes into care like it or not or they might just want to monitor the situation.
I'd decide what I wanted and what you want as a family to come away from the meeting with and put together my case for that being what happens.
As it's not a full "best interests" meeting then it's unlikely that they'll want to put her in care but if as a family you can't show how your going to cope and that they felt her to be at risk then it could happen.
As the reason for the meeting isn't known and the source of the social worker's concerns aren't known either then there's no way of knowing until the meeting happens what their position is.
There are in some parts of the country free advocacy services who'll send someone to the meeting with you and act as an advisor to you, but this isn't available everywhere.
K

 

[Jackie123]

I've gone back and checked the term used i.e. "case conference"

This is for a different local authority, but I suspect they are similar across local authorites.

Adult Protection Case Conference

http://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/adultprotection/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=14142&p=0

"The case conference is a meeting of all the relevant people in the adult’s life to talk about the best way to stop the harm happening again."

So it may be that whilst there are safe guarding issues, the decision on whether Mum stays in care is not necessarily set in stone.

 

[Jackie123]

A bit of a belated update, the meeting happened, Mum was allowed home.