📁 SWANK Dispatch: “We Found No Evidence, But We’re Still Worried About Noise.”
🗓️ 12 July 2023
Filed Under: safeguarding overreach, asthma bias, wellness misread as risk, parental reflection penalised, RBKC false assumptions, social worker projection, cannabis deflection, chronic illness discrimination, closure gaslighting, escalation threat
“The children were clean, calm, articulate.
The house was full of books and ballet shoes.
But the social workers still filed a warning.
Not based on harm —
but on hypothetical future noise.”
— A Mother With Asthma and No Margin for Bureaucratic Projection
This Initial Contact Assessment — authored by Jessica Miller and Eric Wedge-Bull, under Manager Robert Young— is the textbook example of non-evidentiary safeguarding theatre.
Despite:
No observed harm,
Positive interviews with each child,
A clean and settled home,
Full cooperation from the parent,
No evidence of smoking, and
An emergency medical condition (severe asthma) that had been disclosed and contextualised,
… the final assessment reads like a passive-aggressive warning that “next time we’ll escalate.”
🔍 Summary: What They Say vs. What They Saw
| Concern Raised | What Social Workers Found |
|---|---|
| Smell of cannabis | No smell during two visits |
| Rolled cigarette in room | Admitted — by visiting boyfriend. Not resident. |
| Children exposed to shouting | Children described feeling supported, not scared |
| “Urine in bin” | Explained and medically contextualised — not repeated |
| Unsafe home | Described as tidy, toy-filled, and full of learning |
| Mother overwhelmed | Mother openly discussed her health and sought help |
🎭 The Real Problem: Noise
What triggered all this?
❗ Three police calls about shouting.
📞 Neighbours heard yelling (from a mother having a panic attack on the phone yelling at her own mother after a shocking betrayal — in Alaska).
📱 The children explained it.
🫁 The asthma and stress were medically documented.
🪟 The windows were open.
And yet — this was codified into a threat:
“If there is another call, we will escalate to Child in Need or Child Protection.”
💬 SWANK Commentary
Noise is not a crime.
Parenting while ill is not neglect.
And children who feel safe should not be overwritten by managerial anxiety.
This report is the institutionalisation of bias — toward lone mothers, toward home education, and toward visible vulnerability.
They closed the case.
But they threatened the future.