Children & social services

It’s a fact of life that things don’t always run smoothly in our family lives and sometimes decisions have to be taken by social services in relation to the welfare of children in a family setting. If you’re affected by this – then speak to one of our experienced solicitors who will work with you to ensure the best outcome. Get in touch now and we will do our best to help you.

Often asked…

Why have social services become involved?

Social services have become involved because they have concerns about the welfare of the child.

What is CAFCASS? (Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service)

CAFCASS is an independent body whose role is to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child, give advice to the family courts, make provision for the child to be represented and to provide information, advice and support to the children and their families. If you go to court, one of their Children and Family Reporters may speak to you and where possible the children, to ensure that the child’s wishes and feelings are communicated to the courts.

Why have social services issued court proceedings?

Social services will do this if they have concerns about the way in which some parents look after their child/children. Social services will be concerned if they feel the child ‘is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm’, due to the care offered to them by their parents.

What are the proceedings and what do they mean?

The proceedings are known as ‘care proceedings’. It means that social services wish to share decisions about your child with you, for example where he or she should live.

Social services will apply for a care order(s). The court will normally grant an Interim Care Order (ICO), which will last for 28 days, although on the first occasion the ICO can be made for anything up to 8 weeks and is renewed automatically every 28 days as long as both parents (and any other parties) continue to agree. This results in the local authority sharing ‘parental responsibility’ with the parents.

What is parental responsibility?

Parental responsibility is the legal word for when parents make decisions about their child, for example, which school your child should go to.

A birth mother of a child will always have parental responsibility. A birth father will have parental responsibility if he was married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth or if his name is on the child’s birth certificate after December 2003.

If a birth father does not have parental responsibility he can obtain it by agreement with the birth mother or by way of a court order.

What happens after proceedings have been issued?

Each party will be allowed to file evidence; this could be reports or statements. The court will also want to set a final hearing date as quickly as possible.

The court will also want to know that social services are planning appropriately for the child. The law tells social services that it must always have two plans ‘twin-track plans’. The first is rehabilitation back to the birth parents, and the second is permanency away from the parents which is either long-term fostering or adoption.

Once all of the evidence has been filed with the court, the court will make a final decision as to whether there should be a care order, a different order or no order at all. This is a two stage process. Firstly, social services will have to prove to the court that there are legal grounds, namely that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This is known as the ‘threshold criteria’. Secondly, they have to show an order needs to be made in the interest of the child.

The court has to make a decision within 40 weeks from the date the local authority issued its application. The court can vary from the 40 weeks if it takes the view that there are exceptional circumstances.

What is a guardian and solicitor for the child/children?

A ‘guardian’ is an independent person appointed by the court to look after the interests of the child. Often, it is the guardian who will advise the court what is best for the child.

A guardian is trained in social work but works for CAFCASS and is allowed to inspect the local authority’s files. The guardian is responsible for making sure that the local authority is making plans for the child without delay.

The guardian or the court will also appoint a solicitor for the child. Depending on the age of the child the solicitor will take instructions from the guardian or the child directly.