It
is no coincidence that within one and a half hours of a phone call with my
adoption social worker who has admitted to doing nothing since submitting a request
to Borough of Greenwich for my adoption file seven weeks ago, had managed to contact
the adoption service at Greenwich and write a letter to Woolwich County Court. The court holds historical adoption papers,
but this need permission from a judge to open them. These papers often hold different information,
so why didn’t she write sooner. I am so
angry because we are nine weeks on from our initial meeting and only now after
a rather heated telephone call has she decided to take any interest. She had the audacity to say that I don’t
answer my telephone. She called four
times over three days and left me messages of no more than twelve seconds and
left me no contact number. I have cerebral
palsy and screen all my calls so a twelve second message is not long enough for
me to get to the phone to answer it. I
was lucky that I caught her fourth call but didn’t expect her to treat me in
such a rude manner.
She was just so full of excuses and then started to blame Greenwich for their lazy attitude. All I said was that I expected an update from her after six weeks even if there was nothing to report, it’s called customer service! She tried to say that is how she worked and I simply said it doesn’t work for me and I would like a monthly update; she eventually agreed.
My original email was to ask if she could release to me any information from the report she held from 1996 after all I had a photocopy of the first page of a three-page document and reluctantly she did. She has never liked the fact that I’m a researcher and have done far better than any I have paid. I had previously emailed her in late January with information I had discovered after going through some photos that my mum had in a memory box which I had not touched since she died in 2014. I had come across a photo of my christening party and on the reverse, was a couple of sentences that said that I was adopted through moral welfare and that the moral welfare woman was my godmother in her own handwriting. I saw this a breakthrough because for years we had been unable to ascertain which agency or organisation I was adopted through. I thought my social worker would find this helpful but guess what she never heard of Moral Welfare Workers who were the equivalent of social workers of their time, guess what I’m not surprised. Funny though that every other organisation and agency has heard of them and if you do a search there is a fair bit that can be found online.
By 4:20pm she had emailed me to say she had a message from Greenwich to say that they only had the report that I knew about, let’s say I wasn’t surprised or disappointed at least I know that is now a closed avenue. I didn’t email her until this morning to inform her I was not disappointed because it was what I had expected but would wait to see what comes back from the county court. I’m not joking no sooner than I had sent the email my phone rang; it was her trying to get me to use a researcher which I politely declined. I have been down that route several times with very poor results and empty pockets.
My experiences over twenty odd years has turned me into a rather a good researcher and I have used this skill to help other organisations and charities.If I have learnt anything from the past nine weeks is that you must push some of these adoption social workers to work for you. If you have a good one cherish them but if you are like me don’t give up and make them work for you. Good luck in your searches.
She was just so full of excuses and then started to blame Greenwich for their lazy attitude. All I said was that I expected an update from her after six weeks even if there was nothing to report, it’s called customer service! She tried to say that is how she worked and I simply said it doesn’t work for me and I would like a monthly update; she eventually agreed.
My original email was to ask if she could release to me any information from the report she held from 1996 after all I had a photocopy of the first page of a three-page document and reluctantly she did. She has never liked the fact that I’m a researcher and have done far better than any I have paid. I had previously emailed her in late January with information I had discovered after going through some photos that my mum had in a memory box which I had not touched since she died in 2014. I had come across a photo of my christening party and on the reverse, was a couple of sentences that said that I was adopted through moral welfare and that the moral welfare woman was my godmother in her own handwriting. I saw this a breakthrough because for years we had been unable to ascertain which agency or organisation I was adopted through. I thought my social worker would find this helpful but guess what she never heard of Moral Welfare Workers who were the equivalent of social workers of their time, guess what I’m not surprised. Funny though that every other organisation and agency has heard of them and if you do a search there is a fair bit that can be found online.
By 4:20pm she had emailed me to say she had a message from Greenwich to say that they only had the report that I knew about, let’s say I wasn’t surprised or disappointed at least I know that is now a closed avenue. I didn’t email her until this morning to inform her I was not disappointed because it was what I had expected but would wait to see what comes back from the county court. I’m not joking no sooner than I had sent the email my phone rang; it was her trying to get me to use a researcher which I politely declined. I have been down that route several times with very poor results and empty pockets.
My experiences over twenty odd years has turned me into a rather a good researcher and I have used this skill to help other organisations and charities.If I have learnt anything from the past nine weeks is that you must push some of these adoption social workers to work for you. If you have a good one cherish them but if you are like me don’t give up and make them work for you. Good luck in your searches.
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