A DAD from Reading who faced unfounded sexual assault allegations has claimed that social workers were biased against him during a child protection dispute.

The relationship between the man and his wife had broke down from 2017, when police were called to the family home after an accusation by the man’s wife of domestic abuse and child sexual abuse.

The accusations led to a child custody dispute within the family and investigations launched by children’s services. The dad denied all allegations, which were unsubstantiated.

Now, the dad has launched a complaint against Reading Borough Council’s children’s services which he claims had been biased against him throughout the investigations.

The accusations prompted enquiries from a social worker conducting a Single Assessment, which involves identifying a child’s needs and judging the impact their parent’s behaviour may be having on them.

Initial enquiries undertaken by childrens services found that the girl’s needs were being met and the allegations about domestic and sexual abuse could not be substantiated.

After that, the dad and his wife separated, with another assessment undertaken.

At one stage, the wife claimed the daughter had been sexually abused by her dad because of a rash that appeared in January 2019.

However social care enquiries concluded and found no concerns for the girl’s welfare, nor any evidence of sexual abuse or that she had come to any harm.

Yet another Single Assessment was conducted due to a concern that the couple were considering restarting their relationship. The assessment considered whether their daughter was at risk due to her parents “acrimonious relationship”.

The third assessment – Initial Child Protection Conference (ICPC) – resulted in the girl having a child in need (CIN) plan.

Throughout the process, the dad felt that social workers were biased against him, taking his wife’s allegations as fact, and making harmful errors about him within the assessments.

The man made a complaint to the local government and social care ombudsman (LGO) accusing Reading childrens services of failure, which involved him being unable to be in a meeting to discuss complaints he made about the service, a delay in giving notes of formal hearings about his daughter, and not providing him with compensation for failings it found during its own investigation of his complaint.

Childrens services in Reading were taken over by the council-owned company Brighter Futures for Children (BFfC) in December 2018.

Ultimately, the dad’s complaint was upheld by the LGO, who concluded: “The fault identified shows the council taking an unbalanced, unfair and inflammatory approach towards him during the third Single Assessment.

“The way that serious allegations were presented by the council as verified facts caused him significant distress and upset.

“It should also be noted the council’s flawed categorisations of the dad have remained recorded and uncorrected for nearly three years.

“I therefore made several recommendations in order for the council to remedy the injustice he suffered. The council has agreed to these.”

The council was ordered to pay the father £400 as compensation, issue a written apology, and update its case file on him and his daughter to acknowledge the faults made, actions that the LGO asked the council to perform by April 24.

A spokesperson for BFfC said: “We fully accept the findings of the LGO in this case.

“We note where there was fault but also the comment that this did not affect the child protection outcome.

“We have apologised to the man and made the payment as directed by the Ombudsman as well as make the required additions to our case file.

“Brighter Futures for Children is also undertaking a review of the learning identified in this case to prevent any such faults in the future.”