childrens rights age 14??

[dwaty]

My sisters friend has a very unstable life she lives withe her mother and 2 younger sisters but. . . her mother hits her once so bad she broke her arm, this happened a few years ago tho but to this day her mother is still very abusive physically and verbally, i feel for her she is probably the most mature 14yr old i have seen, last week she was kicked out so my little sister (who is also 14) asked my mother if she could stay with them. as her father lives away, . . . . so she went but before she did she left a letter to her mother stating how unhappy she was. . . early in the morning that same night her mother phoned my mother and said she was going to call the police, which she did, the police brought her back to her mother despite the police knowing why she left home in the first place, . . . . . . .
Now my question is she doesn't want to live with her mother any more( and the social services have done nothing so far) and her father drinks, . . . i was wondering if i could give any hope to this girl, does she have the legal right to divorce her mother or even admit her self to a foster home??
any help would be really helpful,
thanks

PS my mother has phoned the social services but nothing has happened yet so far, i just dont want this intelligent young girl to do something silly as she seems a bit depressed as shes not aloud any contact out of school with her friends.

[Annlinda]

Right this girl must be protected. Get her to go to the police station with an adult and tell the police what you have told us. Tell her to ask the police to put an emergency protection order on her and place her somewhere safe. Or she could insist that Social Services apply to family court for an emergency protection order this then leads after usually a few days to them applying for an interim protection order.If the SS have any sense they could place her with your family. If this fails get her to go to the CAB
Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

[plowter]

From the practical side, pursue Social Services. Your mother will have to persuade them that this is an urgent case.

The Children's Legal Centre is a useful resouce to help understand her rights.

Their leaflet on Child Protection may be helpful.

From the personal side, your sister's friend probably needs someone to talk to. Whatever the rights and wrongs it must be terrifying to think about getting involved with the Police, social services and leaving the only home she's ever known.

It may be helpful if your mother can give the girl the opportunity to speak to Childline 0800 1111.

Hope that helps.

[dwaty]

Thank you very much for your posts only thing left now it to try to talk to this girl with out her mother finding out, i only live 3 mins from the school she goes to so she could come to my house to contact the SS,

thank you again i;ll keep u posted.
deb

[banjobabe]

Hey Dwaty,

I had a similar situation but reversed. My daughter lives with her father 160 miles away from me. Her Dad decided he couldn't possibly look after her anymore because of her attitude (she's 16 and supposed to have attitude!) and the fact she doesn't do enough housework (!) I went up there to try and sort the situation, hoping I could mediate betweeen them. Suprisingly this didn't work as he still hates me (lol). As she only has 8 months left at school I arranged for her to stay with her friends Mum. Her Dad went potty as he wanted her to come back to me not to still be in the area. Her Dad had shoved her against a wall and poked her in the neck and told me if she started again he would - grab her by the windpipe and throw her out.

Social Services were no help as she is 16 and can more or less make her own decisions. My daughter and her Dad had a good chat and he promised her he would change (lol). She has now gone back to him.

I am livid. I was completely taken out of the link and they decided amongst themselves what they were going to do, even though he had passed the responsibility to me.

I love her to bits but she will now have to either suffer the consequences if it happens again or move back to me. She has said that she will not tell me if it happens again because she doesn't want to move away from her friends and her life.

Not sure if this will be any help though!