Child protection
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If a local authority considers that a child needs protection from significant harm it can start care proceedings in a family court and apply for orders to safeguard the child. The court can only make a care or supervision order where the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm and will only make an order where this is better for the child.
Care proceedings
Orders
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Care proceedings
Except where immediate action is required in order to protect a child, the local authority tries to work with the family in order to bring about change before starting court proceedings. This will usually involve a full assessment, provision of services and a child protection plan. The local authortiy will tell the parents if it is considering care proceedings. The parents should contact a family law solicitor who is a specialist child care lawyer as soon as possible. Parents and their legal advisers can meet with social workers to discuss the best arrangements for the child. Legal representation is available under the Legal Aid scheme without charge for parents.
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Sometimes, there will be a family group conference, a meeting of the wider family and support networks, to encourage the family to find its own solutions.
Where serious concerns remain, the local authority makes an application to the court and sends a copy of the application to the parents. The local authority may ask the court to consider making an iterim care order or an interim supervsion order (temporary orders) at the first hearing. The court appoints a childrens guardian from Cafcass to represent the child. The children's guardian appoints a solicitor for the child. The court can decide that a child should be taken away from the parents to stay with relatives or foster carers. It can do this at any time during the case if it thinks the child's welfare demands it.
Care proceedings typically last nearly a year, although they can take more or less time than this. There is an important guidance for the courts, lawyers, expert witnesses and other professionals involved in the proceedings explaining the steps they must take to ensure that cases are completed with out delay. View the Public Law Outline (PLO) document online. Under the PLO the court must complete each case within the child's timescales.
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The key stages in care proceedings are the First Appointment, Case Management Conference, Issues Resolution Hearing and the Final Hearing.
At the First Appointment the court considers any applications for interim orders (that is temporary care or supervison orders) and makes directions for the handling of the case, for example:
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- Direct that the case should be transferred from the Family Proceedings Court to the County Court
- Decide whether anyone else, such as a grandparent or a father without parental responsibility, should be made a party to the proceedings
- Direct that the local authority should undertake assessments and file evidence
- Appoint experts to provide assessments or other evidence
- Set the timetable for the case.
At the Case Management Conference, the court considers how the case will be decided including:
- Identifying the key issues in the case;
- Scrutinising the local authority's plan for the child;
- where expert evidence is required, giving directions for this to be obtained and
- Setting a timetable for the completions of the case.
At the Issues Resolution Hearing, the court clarifies what issues are in dispute and makes sure that the case is ready to be decided at the Final Hearing. The court will try to narrow down the areas of dispute between the parties. For example, in many cases the parents may accept that their child has been harmed or is at risk of harm, although they may not agree with the local authority's plans. In some cases, the court will make the final order at this hearing.
At the Final Hearing the court decides the matters still in dispute. If the local authority satisfies the court that the child has been harmed or is at risk of harm, the court will consider proposals from the family for the child's care, the local authority's plans for the child and the report of the children's guardian. At this stage the child's welfare determines the orders (if any) the court makes.
Orders
An Emergency Protection Order allows the local authority to remove the child from where he or she is living or to prevent removal, for example from a hospital or a foster home. Execptionally, these orders can be made without telling the parents or carers, first. The Order can only last for 8 days but it can be extended for up to 7 days. An EPO can only be made where this is necessary for a child's welfare and there is no other way to ensure this. In most cases an emergency protection order will be followed by care proceedings.
A Care Order gives the local authority parental responsibility for the child. The local authority can then make decisions which are necessary to safeguard and promote the child's welfare. The order does not remove parental responsibiltiy from the parents. The local authority will consult the parents and child when deciding where the child will live. This may be in foster care, in a children's home or with members of the family.
Contact with Children in care. If the court makes a Care Order if must also consider contact for the child with their family. The court can decide if a parent, relative,or friend can have contqact with a child in care. Execpt in emergencies, the local authourity must apply to the court if it wants to end or restrict contact and prove that this is in the child's best interests. If a parent, a relative, friend or the child wants more contact than the local authority will allow, he or she can apply to the court.
Before applying to court, contact should be discussed with the child's social worker.
Instead of a Care Order, the court may make a Residence Order or Special Guardianship Order, for example if care by a relative is in the child'd best interests.
A Residence order sets out who looks after the child. Residence Orders are often made in care proceedings where a child goes to live with a relative or friend. Alternatively, relatives or friends may prefer to be approved as foster carers and care for the child for the local authority.
A Residence Order gives parental responsibility to the people with the order so that they can make decisions about the child. The Order usually last until the child is16 but the court can extend it until the child is 18, or revoke it. A person with a Residence Order cannot change the child's name, nor take them abroad (even for a holiday) for more than 1 month, without getting permission from everyone with parental responsibility or from the court. Making a Residence Order in favour of carers does not remove the parents’ parental responsibility. Parents remain responsible for supporting heir child financially.
Special Guardianship Order also gives parental responsibility and allows them to restrict the exercise of parental responsiblity by the parents. The order lasts until the child is 18. There are detailed regulations about local authority support services for special guardians. When the court makes a Residence Order or Special Guardianship Order, it can also make a supervision order to support the arrangement.
A Supervision Order imposes upon the supervisor (usually a local authority social worker) a duty to advise and assist the supervised child. The court can authorise the supervisor to tell a person with parental responsibiltiy or the child's carer to do specific things, for example to attend sessions at a family centre or take the child to nursery. The court can make a Supervision Order with out any other orders.
A Placement Order
If the court accepts that it is in the best interests for the child to be adopted it will make a Care Order and a Placement Order. This allows the local authority to start making arrangement for the child's adoption. The Adoption Order is made after the child is settled in their new family.