25 August 2024, 10:10
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Kirstie Allsopp has been quizzed by social services after allowing her 15-year-old son to go on an interrailing trip.
The Location, Location, Location presenter said she was a “very, very cross” after being contacted by a social worker who informed her that a file had been opened after child protection concerns were raised.
It came after she recently revealed that she allowed her 15-year-old son, Oscar, to go interrailing across Europe with his 16-year-old friend this summer, sparking a debate online.
She said officials did not understand that she had been targeted by someone falsely alleging neglect, describing the intervention as “Orwellian” and “absolutely outrageous”.
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“I just felt sick – absolutely sick. Then I was cross. I was very, very cross,” she told the Mail on Sunday.
“It was just so extraordinary. I was in a parallel universe where they were actually taking this seriously.
“I have broken no law and nothing about allowing my child to travel around Europe is neglectful.”
Allsopp said she was not told how the referral had been made or who by, with the social worker insisting every referral must be looked into and questioning what safeguards were put in place for her son’s trip.
They also confirmed a file had been opened on Oscar, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), her local council, could keep the file open “in case there was another referral and we needed to come to your house and look into this further”.
“For me, that was the sucker punch – the idea this file might continue existing,” Allsopp said.
“What (the official) said to me was, ‘if in six months there was another referral and we needed to come to your house and look into this further, it would be important that we had kept a note of the first referral’.
“That was the Orwellian moment. The fact it was maliciously done wasn’t coming home to her.”
A spokesperson for RBKC told the paper: “Safeguarding children is an absolute priority. We take any referral we receive very seriously and we have a statutory responsibility for children under 18 years of age.”