A thought on equality of service

Last week I dealt with a complaint from a parent which had raised a number of issues, not least that they felt the other parent was favoured in the assessment we had undertaken. It was my first dealing with the case so I wasn't familiar with the detail but a quick look at the history showed referrals from both parents making allegations against the other and finally a referral from an agency raising concerns about the acrimony displayed by the parents and the behavior of the children as a result (conjecture on their part, but the point of the assessment I guess). Not surprisingly these were parents in the middle of a messy divorce. This started on Thursday, since then there have been a number of contacts to Children's Services regarding the case, ;

• Contacted by CAFCASS to raise concerns about the mental health of the parent, concerns I would add that came from the other parent and their solicitor (I'll save a CAFCASS rant for another day). 
• Contacted by complainant parent wanting to talk to me about the case, not sure how he got my name, but I refused to take the call on the grounds it was not an open case. As he had 'new' concerns I suggest to our call centre it should be a referral.
• Contacted by one of the children's school for a consultation on the emotional harm issue. 
• 4 more calls from the original complainant over the weekend raising concerns.
• Insistence from our complaints department that a referral which has already been made to another agency is made again so they can be sure it has actually be done.

Now in the last 5 days there has been a considerable amount of management time taken up with this case, which is essentially the fall out from a difficult relationship breakdown.  Yes there is emotional harm to the children, but then every parental relationship breakdown brings pain and I frequently knock back professionals attempting to make referrals for this type of thing, so what is different? The difference is both parents are highly qualified health professionals.

Generally (and this is purely empirical) we deal with people who are living in deprivation, typically what the Office of National Statistics would class as "9's" (Never worked and long-term unemployed), we don't get involved in their marriage breakdowns, we don't make referrals for their children because of emotional harm, we certainly do not spend as much time considering the issues.

I do not blame the parents of the case I mentioned for making a fuss, they are doing what they can to ensure they get the outcome they desire. I do blame them for bringing their intellect to bear on the situation and utterly failing to spot the damage they are doing to the very people they claim to be fighting for.

But where does this leave us as professionals? We have responded to the demands presented as best we can, but ultimately in doing this we create a 2 tier system in which the children of parents prepared to make a fuss receive a more thorough service from us.

Should all children who parents split and therefore experience emotional harm at least be assessed in order that services are provided where appropriate?  

And finally could my time today have been better spent concentrating on the 2 cases I processed which involved possible sexual abuse, the 2 'unborn assessments' requested and the child which went missing from care at the weekend?