This information is not legal advice and if an allegation has been made against you, you are strongly advised to seek legal assistance. You may be eligible for legal aid to cover the cost of this.

 

Understanding false allegations

Adopted children and those who are in Special Guardianship or long-term foster care are likely to have experienced disruption, broken attachments, trauma and loss. This does not mean they will make false allegations, or that allegations made by them should not be taken seriously.

Having an understanding of their experiences and the impact on development may however give an understanding of why a child has made a false allegation and ways of repairing the relationships that may be damaged as a result of the allegation.

Having a false allegation made against you is a very distressing and isolating situation that can extend over a long period of time and affect both you and your child. It can impact on employment, friendships, living arrangements, finances and mental health.

The Adoption UK Information and Support Line is free to call from anywhere in the UK. Our experienced call handlers are here to listen and can support you through this process.

 

Parents and carers’ experiences of investigations

At Adoption UK we hear from parents and carers who report that although a child protection investigation has been difficult, it was conducted supportively, sensitively and with good knowledge and appreciation of their child’s early life experiences.  However, when we hear from parents and carers who have had a less positive experience, these are some of the problems they report:

• An uncritical and unquestioning assumption of the parent or carer’s guilt,
• An assumption that a child would not fabricate an allegation or misreport a situation,
• A heavy-handed and unsupportive approach,
• A lack of curiosity and understanding of the child’s early life experiences, their recall of these and the impact on the ways they experience the world around them,
• A lack of understanding of attachment and trauma,
• A lack of understanding of speech and language difficulties,
• Long delays in the process.

 

Why might a child make a false allegation?

Recall of historical events

Children who have experienced or witnessed abuse in their earlier lives may recall and refer to events in a way which appears muddled. They may refer to ‘mum’ or ‘dad’ and be referring to biological parents or previous carers.

 

Attachment needs

Children may seek to get their attachment needs met by fabricating stories, attracting adult attention and sympathy and seeking to please adults who are questioning them. This may have learned that holding adult attention is a way to control their environment and keep themselves safe.

 

Confabulation

Children may take a story, TV programme or something someone else has said and build on it. They may fill in gaps and their account may change over time and in response to questioning. You may be able to trace their account back to something they have heard or seen, for example in a film they have watched.

 

Recreating previous experiences

Children who have experienced disruption and chaos may feel comfortable in these environments and feel a strong need to recreate them. They may not yet have adjusted to a stable and ordered family life and it may feel extremely uncomfortable to them.

 

Testing new attachments

Children who have experienced broken attachments and loss may not yet trust that the parents, carers or professionals in their life will stay around. They may seek to undermine or break these attachments to test them out or to take control of what they see as the inevitable end to that relationship by breaking it first.

 

Rejecting parenting

Children who have experienced poor early care from a primary carer may associate being parented with being unsafe. They may have learnt that it is not safe to trust the motivations, skills and ‘stickability’ of primary carers and that taking control of their own needs is a way of minimising the risk to them. This can cause children to undermine and reject parenting and care.

 

Trauma triggers

A child’s trauma may be triggered by something that reminds them of past events. This could be a sensory trigger such as a smell or a sound, or something within a story, or it may be a particular time of the year. They may also be triggered by having contact with birth family members.

 

Speech and language difficulties

Children with Speech and Language difficulties or delay may find it difficult to express themselves, describe their inner worlds and organise events in time. Their accounts of events may appear muddled and vague and open to interpretation.

 

Malicious accusations

There may be situations where children and young people make accusations against their parent or carer to gain control over them or to punish them. This may be due to a boundary being set, or other situations that the child or young person feels is unfair.

 

Child Protection

Each nation of the UK has its own framework of child protection legislation, guidance and practice. They are all based on similar principles.  You can read the guidance and other resources relevant to your nation.

Citizen’s Advice in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has information about the processes on their website.

If a false allegation is made against you by a child in your care, you must seek legal advice. This is particularly important if you are the subject of a police investigation. You may be eligible for legal aid to cover the cost of this.

 

General advice

Your legal advisor will give you advice according to your situation. There are some general principles that you might find helpful:

• It is important to cooperate with the investigation and to conduct yourself professionally,
• Keep good records of interactions and meetings. Where you are asked to provide information in writing, ensure this is detailed and well-written,
• Challenge information that is written about you that you think is unfair or inaccurate,
• Identify those in your support network who are able to help you and ask them for help with specific things that will ease the process.

 

Further information and resources

Adoption Today article: Secondary trauma in adoptive parents. June 2025, p10 (Members only resource)

Centre of Excellence in Child Trauma, Allegation Support Pack