The Decade of Silence: What It Means When Social Workers Never Speak to the Children

SWANK Black Paper Series

The Decade of Silence: What It Means When Social Workers Never Speak to the Children

An Analysis of Strategic Avoidance, Presumed Risk, and the Ritual Exclusion of Lived Experience

Filed Under: Bureaucratic Performance / Procedural Neglect / Child Erasure

Author: Noelle Bonnee Annee Simlett

I. Introduction: The Silence That Screams

For over ten years, I have been under relentless surveillance by social workers.

There have been assessments, referrals, visits, threats, escalations, and letters.

But through it all, one thing has remained disturbingly consistent:

They have never spoken to my children. Not once.

Not in front of me.

Not with a camera.

Not even for five minutes to ask, “How are you really doing?”

This is not accidental.

This is methodical neglect disguised as safeguarding.

II. What It Means When They Don’t Ask

A. They Are Not Interested in Reality

If they spoke to my children, they would hear:

1. Joy
2. Intelligence
3. Safety
4. Truth

That would collapse the entire justification for their presence.

B. They Are Avoiding Evidence That Contradicts Their Narrative

Speaking to the children means risking:

1. No signs of abuse
2. No indicators of neglect
3. No fear, distress, or instability

And if the child shows strength, coherence, or confidence?

The case collapses.

C. They Don’t Want to Document Wholeness

Because wholeness cannot be pathologized.

And this system only knows how to respond to risk, not resilience.

III. Ten Years of Fabrication by Omission

In all those years:

1. No worker has interviewed my children directly
2. No consistent professional has ever built rapport
3. No child’s voice has ever been recorded, verified, or invited into the file

And yet—they write.

They report.

They assess.

They claim insight into a family they have never bothered to speak to.

This is not safeguarding.

This is script-writing over silence.

IV. Why This Is More Than Neglect—It’s a Strategy

A. If You Don’t Speak to the Child, You Can Say Anything About Them

Silence becomes a blank page onto which anything can be projected:

1. “The children appear withdrawn.”
2. “The mother appears overprotective.”
3. “There may be controlling dynamics.”

But there is no actual testimony.

No direct evidence.

No accountability.

B. No Interview = No Contradiction

No child has ever had the chance to say:

“I’m fine. My mum loves me. I’m not afraid. Please stop.”

Because once those words exist, the case becomes unjustifiable.

V. What This Reveals About the System

This isn’t just laziness.

It’s a deliberate omission of the primary source.

Social work culture prefers:

1. Observation over inquiry
2. Risk language over direct quotes
3. Third-person speculation over child-centered truth

And that’s because the child’s real voice is the most dangerous evidence of all.

VI. Conclusion: Their Silence Is Not an Oversight—It’s an Admission

They haven’t spoken to my children in ten years

because they know what they would hear:

There is no harm here.

There never was.

Their silence is the proof.

Their refusal to ask is the confession.

Their decade of avoidance is the loudest thing they’ve ever said:

“We don’t want to know the truth. We want to write around it.”

And I will never let that silence be mistaken for care again.