Kirstie Allsopp spoke out last night after being questioned by social services over allowing her 15-year-old son to interrail across Europe.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal how, in an extraordinary intervention, a social worker contacted the TV presenter to inform her that a file had been opened after child protection concerns were raised over her youngest child, Oscar.
To the 52-year-old’s anger, the social worker demanded to know what “security measures” had been put in place when she sent Oscar on a three-week trip to the continent with a 16-year-old friend.
Astonishingly, she was told that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), her local council, could keep the file open ‘in case there was a further referral and we needed to come to your home to investigate this further’.
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper, Ms Allsopp called the council’s actions “Orwellian” and “absolutely outrageous”.
Kirstie Allsopp has said she was furious when she was questioned by social services over allowing her 15-year-old son to Interrail around Europe
To the 52-year-old’s anger, the social worker demanded to know what “safeguards” had been put in place when she allowed Oscar (seen) to travel to the continent for three weeks with a 16-year-old friend
On Thursday at 12.40pm, Mrs Allsopp received the above text message from a social worker from ‘Kensington and Chelsea children [sic] services’
She said authorities had failed to understand that she was the target of a “malicious” complaint from someone falsely alleging neglect.
“I just felt sick — absolutely sick,” she said. “Then I was angry. I was very, very angry. It was just so extraordinary. I was in a parallel universe where they were really taking this seriously.
“I have not broken any laws and it is not negligent to allow my child to travel through Europe.”
Last night, the shocking case led to accusations of a ‘patronising state’ and highlighted how municipalities can be duped into launching investigations into negligence based on ‘troublesome’ complaints.
Sir Alec Shelbrooke, a Tory MP and former government minister, said: ‘This is the nanny state gone mad. Any parent thinking of letting their teenagers travel will be terrified by this Orwellian development.
‘Surely these officials have better things to do than intimidate a mother who knows best how to trust her son?’
Dame Karen Bradley, a Conservative MP and mother of sons aged 18 and 20, added: ‘This seems to me to be the worst kind of box-ticking and a waste of time and effort on the part of council officers who should be focusing on children who are really at risk.
‘Kirstie knows her son and what he is capable of and made the same decision that many other parents would make for a child who wants to celebrate the end of his exams.’
The extraordinary episode began last Monday when the Location, Location, Location presenter wrote on X, formerly Twitter, about her pride in Oscar after he and his friend returned from a nine-stop train journey across Europe.
Conservative MPs Sir Alec Shelbrooke and Dame Karen Bradley both criticised the interference, with the former (left) saying: ‘This is the patronising state gone mad’
Mrs Allsopp defended Oscar Hercules, now 16, saying he and his friend independently organised the nine-stop trip across Europe
During an interview on the BBC’s Today programme on Wednesday, she stressed that mobile phones and better healthcare make travel safer than in the past and that “previous generations did things much younger”.
But at 12.40pm the next day, Mrs Allsopp received a text message from a social worker at Kensington and Chelsea Children’s Hospital. [sic] services’, which stated: ‘I want [sic] to speak with you about a referral we have received regarding your son.’
Mrs Allsopp said: ‘I rang the number straight away and said, “I can’t tell you how angry this makes me”. I was very annoyed. I said I couldn’t be angrier. How on earth do you have time for this? How on earth do you have the resources? Where on earth did you get my phone number?’
A referral occurs when someone contacts youth care because he or she is concerned about the safety and well-being of a child.
Coram, a children’s charity, says on its website that anyone can make a referral and that child protection services then have 24 hours “to determine what type of response is required”.
It says that “most cases” begin with an assessment by a social worker, which must be completed within 45 days, to “analyse the needs of the child… as well as the nature and extent of any risk of harm”.
Mrs Allsopp, who has two sons and two stepsons, was not told how the referral had been made or by whom. The social worker insisted that every referral had to be investigated and confirmed, which meant a file had been opened on Oscar.
‘And that’s when I felt the sickest,’ Ms Allsopp said. ‘I was proud of what Oscar had done and I thought it was an important point – that’s why I tweeted it. Then I thought, “Oh my God, I’ve let him down”. I felt devastated.’
The social worker told the TV presenter she ‘wanted to know what security arrangements you have in place for your son’s journey’. A ‘glowing’ Mrs Allsopp told the officer it was none of her business and ended the conversation.
Later that day, she was called by a second RBKC official, who insisted that there would be ‘different views’ on the decision to allow Oscar to travel. When she asked for the file to be deleted, Ms Allsopp was told she would need to contact the council’s data protection team, who would need to ‘determine whether that is the right thing to do’.
Kirstie Allsopp and her children in November 2014 for the launch of Hyde Park Winter Wonderland
Mrs Allsopp said the “sucker punch” was knowing the council would keep her son’s file open in case there was another referral, despite it being “malicious”.
“For me, that was the last straw: the idea that this file would continue to exist,” she said.
‘What [the official] said to me, “If there was another referral in six months and we had to come to your house to investigate this further, it was important that we had made a note of the first referral.” That was the Orwellian moment. The fact that it was done maliciously didn’t register with her.’
Oscar, who turned 16 the day before his mother was contacted by social services, said: ‘When my mother took me interrailing she probably thought, ‘I’m giving him a great experience, he’ll enjoy it.’
‘And then to get a call and hear that you are neglecting your child is absolutely outrageous. It must be terrible to hear that.’
According to RBKC, it is “standard procedure” that data is retained until “a child’s 25th birthday,” but residents “can request that this data be removed from our records.”
A spokesperson for RBK&C said: ‘Safeguarding children is an absolute priority. We take every referral we receive very seriously and we have a legal responsibility for children under the age of 18.’