Ruth Hardy-Mullings a journalist with Community Care tells the story of her experience of being investigated because her baby had an unexplained bruise.

Despite no evidence that the bruise was non-accidental Ruth’s family ended with this recorded on their files. After investigations and a repeat strategy meeting she says:

“The strategy discussion happened on a Friday, just before Christmas. I couldn’t sit still, think of anything else or eat or drink anything. Paranoid, I kept going to the windows to check if any police officers had arrived to take our children away.

“Eventually, the social worker’s manager called us later that afternoon to report on the meeting; we were left with more questions than answers, as the doctors were adamant that this was a non-accidental injury and would be recorded as such, and the manager asked what we would do to ‘prove’ that our children would be safe with us.” 

She concludes that despite the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel asking local authorities to review their policies following my earlier research, little has changed.