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Dealing with children who are at risk of harm or working with social services to make and understand care proceedings can be a worrying time for all involved. The cases are sensitive and often complex, with social services bringing child care proceedings to court if there are concerns about the care offered to a child or children.
At David Gray, we have a team of specialist child protection solicitors, who work with all kinds of families and specialise in advising and representing both parents and children in care proceedings cases. Our solicitors can support you and your family in relation to Child Protection Conferences, a Pre-Proceedings Meeting or in court, and they can provide all the legal advice you require throughout your case.
The local authority has a duty to protect children in their area. When social services receive information suggesting a child might be at risk of harm, they will carry out an investigation, potentially leading to the Local Authority making an application to Court for a Care Order.
Social services involvement with children can be a daunting process but it is necessary if they believe there is cause for concern or the child is at risk of harm in the family home. Therefore, it is important that you seek legal advice as early as possible to receive an expert opinion which can help you understand the situation, and how is best to deal with it.
Legal Aid is available no matter your financial circumstances if you are provided with a Letter before Proceedings or the Local Authority issues care proceedings. If social services are involved otherwise, you can still get legal aid if you are financially eligible. If you have any questions regarding this and would like to find out more, our child protection solicitors are here to help you and you can get in touch with them via our online contact form.
Child Protection Conference
Where social services are concerned a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm, they may hold a Child Protection Conference. The purpose of this conference is to:
- Share information between the professionals who are working with your family
- Decide how to keep your child safe
- Decide if a Child Protection Plan should be drawn up for your child
A Child Protection Conference can also be organised and held if they are concerned about a child who hasn’t been born yet.
Sometimes, if the social worker believes your child is old enough to take part and it would be appropriate for them to do so, your child may be invited to the Child Protection Conference to share their views. Other key individuals, including your child’s other parent,), the police, someone from your child’s school, or healthcare professionals, may attend the conference.
Ultimately, the conference will decide if there is a risk to your child. Should they believe your child is at risk, a Child Protection Plan will be implemented. The plan is intended to:
- Keep the child safe and prevent further harm
- Promote their welfare
- To support the family to care for the child
If the conference is being held because of non-accidental injury, the resolutions model in care proceedings could be implemented to see the child is returned to their parents, even if the court has made findings that the parent has inflicted an injury to their child. For more information on potential outcomes of a Child Protection Conference, or for more details on the resolutions model, contact one of our child protection solicitors at David Gray.
Legal Aid is not always available to cover solicitors attending a Child Protection Conference, but we are able to meet with you to go through any reports that have been prepared and can provide you with advice about what is likely to happen.
Pre- Proceedings Meetings
When social workers are concerned about a child’s wellbeing in the care of their parents or family home, they may consider taking the case to court.
In most cases, social services will arrange a meeting with the parents to see if it is possible to reach an agreement about what needs to happen to protect the child from harm so that court proceedings can be avoided. This is known as a Pre-Proceedings Meeting.
A letter will be sent out providing details of the meeting and will set out the concerns that social services have, what they intend to do and what they want the parents and other family members to do.
It is important that a child protection solicitor go to a Pre-Proceedings Meeting with you. pre- If you are a parent or person with parental responsibility, you will be entitled to free Legal Aid which will cover the solicitor accompanying you to the meeting.
- A Pre-Proceedings Meeting aims to:Clearly state the concerns social services have to the parents
- Highlight the changes parents should make
- Identify and implement extra help and services to support the family
- Assess and review the needs of the child and family
- Explore what help and support wider family members can provide
- Work in partnership with the family to avoid the need for care proceedings to be started
Court Proceedings
When social services consider that a child is suffering significant harm or would be likely to suffer significant harm if a Court Order was not made, then they can go to court to ask for a Court Order. Social services will provide evidence for a court order, but you will be able to voice your own views.
These Court Orders include:
- Interim Care Order/Care Orders: this places a child into the care of the local authority, giving them parental responsibility for the child. Parents do not lose their parental authority when a Care Order is in place.
- Supervision Orders: this places the child under the supervision of the local authority and appoints a supervisor to advise, assist and befriend a supervised child. Under this order, the local authority does not have parental responsibility.
The Court process
Usually, the Court process is as follows
- Application issued by Social Services.
- Meeting for all the lawyers in the case.
- Case Management Hearing – at this hearing the court want to know what the issues in the case are, what evidence will be filed and when and they will fix a date for the next hearing.
- Local authority evidence filed.
- Statements from parents filed.
- Guardian’s report filed.
- Further meeting for the lawyers
- Issues Resolution Hearing – at this hearing, the court will identify what is agreed and what remains an issue. If there is no agreement about the arrangements for the child, the court will fix a hearing at which they can make a decision.
- Final hearing- this takes place when it has not been possible for an agreement about the arrangements to be reached. The Court will usually hear evidence from the social worker, parents and guardian, and will hear from the lawyers for each person as to what they say about the arrangements for the children and the Orders that should be made. Then, the Court will make a decision.
The court expect the proceedings to finish within 26 weeks.
It is considered important that the children’s interests are protected during the proceedings, so they will have their own solicitor for the duration of their case. There will also be a Children’s Guardian present, independent from social services, who will advise the court on what they consider to be in the child’s best interests. Since they are independent from social services, the Children’s Guardian may disagree with their views on what is best for the child and the court will always pay special attention to this. The Children’s Guardian will make the wishes and feelings of the child known to the Judge.
As a parent, you will have a say in what happens to your child. Your views will be put forward through your solicitor and in a written statement, which we prepare for you. This statement is seen by everyone in the case. If no clear agreement is made, you will have the chance to speak directly to the court at the final hearing if you wish to give evidence.
Contact Us
If your child is involved with social services for whatever reason, it is important that you seek specialist legal advice as soon as possible to support you and your family.
Our team of child protection solicitors are specialist family solicitors and child care solicitors with extensive experience in this area. We also have Social Services and Care Proceedings Solicitors and Child Abduction Solicitors who can support you with these issues should you need them.
At David Gray, we have offices in Newcastle upon Tyne and South Shields, and support families and children across the North East. Contact us today via our online contact form or by calling 0191 232 9547 to see how we can support you and your family during this difficult time.
