00:21
"Hi are you Deb?" "Yeah, why?" "My name's Dawn and I'm from Social Services, can I come in?"
00:28
"What do you want?" "Well it'd be much easier if I came in and I could explain
00:32
to you rather than us doing this on the doorstep". "Well you're gonna have to tell me what
00:35
you want first aren't you". "We've had a report from the police with
00:38
regards some child protection concerns that we have,
00:41
so it would really be much easier if I came inside". "What if I don't want you to come
00:45
inside?" "Well the concerns are with regards to
00:48
your and your husband's drinking, and the lack of supervision for your daughter
00:51
Megan, so it would really would be much easier if I came inside, okay. I'm going
00:57
to have to insist that I come inside really". "You better come in then". "Okay, thank you".
01:10
"Okay Debs so I'll go through some of the child protection concerns that were in the police
01:14
report. So there were concerns that yourself and your husband Peter had
01:18
been drinking through the day and that that had led to the kids leaving the
01:23
house following an argument between yourself and your husband. And then do you want
01:27
to tell me a bit about where the kids went then?". "Not really". "Well it'd be helpful if
01:32
I got your perspective of things". "Well I think you probably know what happened
01:38
then if the police reported, they went out, Llyr went off on his own and Megan
01:46
went to John's house". "Yeah it says here that John is a known sex offender and that
01:53
you're aware of that. And one of the concerns we've got is that you are
01:57
allowing Megan to go to his house. We don't feel that that's appropriate".
02:01
"Well he's not sex offending with Megan is he, you know, we know him".
02:06
"Okay there were concerns that that wouldn't keep Megan safe, okay". "You
02:11
don't know John do you, so you know" . "There are also concerns mentioned in the
02:15
police report here with regards Llyr being out on the estate without any
02:21
supervision and...". "Well the thing was I didn't know she was out, so there's a big
02:25
difference there isn't there". "Okay, why didn't you know that your daughter
02:30
was out?". "Because she went out without asking...so it wasn't
02:34
until I went to look for her - for her to have tea that I realised that she
02:38
wasn't there and then I phoned the police. So you know, after we looked for her I
02:42
phoned the police". "There are also concerns that when you were talking with
02:46
the police you mentioned the financial issues that drinking
02:50
is causing to yourself...". "Sorry, what did you say?". "There were concerns that the...you'd raised
02:58
concerns to the police about the financial impact of drinking in the house, is that right?".
03:03
"No". "Okay well that's what the police report says here". "Well they're lying". "Okay...and
03:09
that when the police attended that they found that there were holes in the door
03:12
because it was a result of...". "What's that got to do with anything?"
03:15
"Well the concern is the kids are living in a house where
03:19
there's holes in the door, so who...". "But it's not holes in the front door, it's only in the
03:22
thing because, in an inner door because Llyr kicked off one night, he did that".
03:26
"Bedroom door and the bathroom door, so why did he kick off?" "What's it got to do
03:34
with anything? Kids kick off". "Not to that extent, that's quite significant...". "Fine take him
03:39
in to care then...". "We're not going to do that". "...because I've had enough of it anyway, to
03:42
be perfectly honest with you, and I can do without this". "Debs we're not
03:45
going to be taking him into care, that's not the best outcome...". "you've just come to tell me off
03:49
then because he's punched a hole through the door in his bedroom have you?"
03:52
"No what I've come to do is, to present to you a contract of expectations
03:56
which is a contract that lays out the kind of things we'd expect yourself
04:02
and Peter to go doing as parents to make sure that the kids are kept safe, okay".
04:05
"How can you do that when you don't even know what's going on?" "Well..."
04:09
"All you've got is a 'police report' 'police report' that you keep on about, which is wrong anyway,
04:13
but you're not even taking any notice of that...". "Why'd you feel that it's wrong?" "Because it is
04:18
wrong". "So the report I've got here was produced by the police officer who
04:22
attended that evening, and incidents were captured on the body-cam, so there will
04:27
be an account of what they saw. And this is just saying that it's an account of that
04:32
okay". "Yeah and I will be on the body-cam as well because I was looking for Megan".
04:37
"Okay, let's get back to the matter in hand, so we're going to need you to work
04:41
with us here okay Debs". "But you're not listening to me. How can I work
04:46
with you when you're not listening to me?" "Let me just explain the kind of things
04:50
that we'd be expecting you to do under the contract of expectations, okay. So
04:55
because of the concerns of alcohol use between yourself and Peter and the
04:59
domestic incidents that result from that...". "You don't drink yourself then?" "That's not
05:04
the issue here Debs okay...". "I don't care, you don't know what the
05:07
issue is in my house either". "Debs we need to get back to the matter in hand
05:11
okay, you're going to need to work with us...". "I thought that was part of the matter in hand".
05:14
"Let me read through the different things we're going to be asking you and Peter...".
05:19
"Fine carry on because you're obviously not listening to me anyway". "So because of the
05:23
domestic concern, domestic instance between yourself and Peter, the first
05:29
item here is- 'Peter not to reside at the home of an evening' so he can come here...".
05:36
"What?" "...during the daytime, but of an evening because that's the time when it
05:40
seems you're drinking at the moment and that's leading to arguments...". "Well that'll be
05:44
because Peter's in work in the day because that's what people normally do
05:47
in the day, and then they come home in the evening." "Okay so often...". "You're saying
05:51
that he can't actually come home?". "Yes, at the moment
05:55
we're expecting that he'll find somewhere else to stay while you're
05:58
working with us". "And you think that's okay?" "It would reduce the incidences of domestic violence...". "So if I
06:03
came to you and said 'oh by the way your husband can't come home to your house
06:06
anymore after work...'". "Debs we're going off-track at the
06:09
moment, you'll need to work with us on this okay. So where can Peter go to stay?
06:13
He'll need to find somewhere else..." "Here, is this house".
06:16
"No he'll need to find somewhere else, other than here...". "Why? Where's he
06:20
supposed to go the YMCA? Or sleep in a box in the street is he?" "What about friends, family,
06:24
where do his parents...". "Tent in the garden maybe?" "Where are his parents? Do they live locally?" "No they
06:29
don't. One of them is dead anyway, you should
06:32
know that". "Okay the information we've got on the system is that there's a Vaughn who
06:37
lives locally? Nain Ceri and taid Vaughn?" "Yeah that's my
06:42
mum and dad". "Yeah? Can he go and stay with them?" "Well no". "Okay you'll need to sort
06:49
that as a family, you'll need to identify somewhere as a family that he can go...".
06:52
"Why? He's not bad dad...". "Debs let me run through the whole contract of
06:56
expectations, what we're expecting you to do okay, cause you are going to need to
07:00
comply with this, if not...". "Says who?" "Well if not, I'll need to discuss the matter with my
07:06
manager to consider taking the matter to Child Protection
07:09
and case conference okay". "So you are going to take my kids away from me". "Let me finish
07:13
running through the contract of expectations okay. So the second incident
07:17
is- 'Peter and Debs not to go drinking of an evening'...". "You can't tell us that we can't go
07:24
drinking, or we can't have a drink...". "If the alcohol use is leading to yourself
07:29
and Peter arguing, and the kids not being supervised appropriately...". "But everybody argues...".
07:33
"Let me just finish. So one of the other things that we'd like you to do is for
07:38
yourself and Peter to go on a budgeting course, and for you to go attending
07:44
one of the local parenting courses that we'll provide for you okay". "Why should I go on a parenting
07:50
course? I look after my kids, they've got a roof over their head, they get fed,
07:54
they're loved. What else is there to parenting?" "One of the other...let me just finish
08:00
going through the contract expectations. One of the other things that you'll have
08:04
to do is to make sure that Megan doesn't go to John's house, and that
08:10
Llyr isn't on the estate unsupervised". "So she can't have a dad, she can't go to
08:16
her uncle's house, what else? Is she allowed to go to school?" "I've explained to you...". "Am I
08:22
allowed to give her a kiss?" "I've explained to you what we expect from you, and what
08:26
we're going to do is we're going to monitor this to make sure that the kids are safe
08:30
and to make sure that you're complying with this". "And how are you going to monitor it?
08:34
You're going to have the police outside the door every night, are you, making sure that Peter doesn't
08:36
come in?" "No what we'll do is, we have an emergency duty team, out-of-hours team,
08:41
we'll ask them to call round some evenings and weekends to go checking to make sure
08:46
that you are complying." "I can't believe this".
08:48
"Okay. I'll leave you a copy of this. Can I ask you to sign at the bottom there?"
08:55
"No. I'm not signing it". "Well regardless of whether you sign it, this is what we're going to
09:00
be expecting of you, and we're going to be monitoring your compliance with this
09:04
okay". "You can't make me sign it and I want you to get out of my house".
09:07
"Okay, Debs let me just explain to you how we're going to be monitoring it, so we're
09:11
going to be asking...I'll be coming here...". "You've got all your facts wrong,
09:15
so go away, get your facts right, and then come back and tell me. Get out of my house". "I'm
09:21
going to be coming here to monitor you complying with this...". "Well I won't open the
09:25
door to you next time". "I'm also going to ask that the out-of-hours social services
09:30
team and the emergency duty team come here of an evening, of a weekend to see
09:35
whether or not Peter is here...". "So basically all you're gonna do is be
09:38
policing us then, no help or anything, just policing? Is that what you're saying?" "We need
09:44
to make sure that you're keeping the kids safe". "I am keeping my kids safe".
09:47
"Okay I'm going to take this back to the office, I'm going to discuss the
09:53
situation with my manager. I will leave a copy with you, okay, but we will be
09:57
expecting you to comply with this". "Whatever".