Jessica, Surrey

My daughter died 2020, I have a special guardianship order for my granddaughter. She was 5 years old. Children services told me to give her to her father, but they had not assessed him or listened to me that he was a repeated cohesive domestic abuser. My daughter and granddaughter ended up in a refuge because of this. I had to get an emergency child arrangement order with prohibited steps.

I had to get bereavement therapy for my granddaughter, I organised for them to go into the school to help them with her grief and trauma. The schools pastoral care was with the whole school not individuals. Lack of funding, lack of staff. . A little one to one support, mainly group support.

My granddaughters mental health was deteriorating, she could not cope with groups. She has big separation issues, friendship issues, trauma anxiety and ended in school refusal. The school refused to help with an EHCP as her academics were where it should be. Her mental health wasn’t. I deregistered her July 2024 and home educate her now.

Since deregistering her, I am having her assessed for an EHCP, they refused at first, global mediation helped and now they are reassessing the EHCP. I have also had her assessed for ADD and ADHD. She hasn’t been diagnosed with ADD, but Social, Emotional Mental Health, Trauma Anxiety. She has been diagnosed with Combined ADHD.

This has been a very long process to get to where we are now. I feel I’ve kept my granddaughter safe, I have fought the childrens' services for not having any safeguarding for my granddaughter. I have fought with the school, they didn’t listen. My granddaughter has had so much trauma and grief. The school did not nurture or put in place anything to help. I have had no help or support, I’ve had to do this all myself to keep her safe.

Deregulated from the trauma school had caused

More funding.
More training.
More listening to carers/parents.