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 see one of us as soon as possible.
If you receive a formal letter from social services you may find that you lose the day to day care of your child.
Social services will issue Court proceedings 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.
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.
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.
Once care proceedings have been started 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 is 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 interests of the child.
The Court makes 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.
Once the Court has made a decision it is very rare for it to be set aside. One of the consequences could be that a child is adopted and a parent has little or no visiting rights. Advice must be taken at a very early stage.
I need to know more
If you would like to know more contact us.
