Advice on SGO

[NannyLoz]

Hi all,

It has been a while since i have been here as in January 2013 the courts refused our SGO application for our two grandchildren and when along with the LA request for a placement order.
It has been a very long and hard year only now seeing our grandchildren every other month but anything is better than no contact at all.

The reason I am returning is that I am looking for advice on re-applying for the the SGO again as the children are still in foster carer. If anyone could answer some question I have I would be very grateful or if you yourself have had to apply more than once, please could you let me know if you were treated any different the second time round. My questions are:

1) Who do I contact to give the 3 months notice, is it the LA were the children are place or can I used my own LA as we are in a different area.( Orignal assessment was done by the LA were the children are) When do I fill out the court forms and send them in.

2) As we are now not in any court proceedings who do I serve, is the Childrens Guardian and solicitor still involed, or is it just the LA and the parents.

3) In our first assessment the LA were not recommending us so it did not inform us or anyone involved in out assessement what support we would be offered, I had to show who I would get the support from i.e breavement trust, health visitor and so on. I believe that is now not the case that the LA has to show what support they will put in place should the SGO be granted. Re B-S (Children) [2013] EWCA Civ 1146

4) Is the SGO our best option what about a residence order or even adoption,I know this is not like for family memebers.

5) At present we do not have contact with the SS but my daughter has, I do not wish to involve my daughter in this as this was one of the issues on our judgement the risk of the children being placed with us and us letting her see them more than was necessary. Do we contact her !

6) I represented us in court last time and found this extremely daunting (RCJ) but as we cannot afford a solicitor would like to know were we are able to get some help.
I did write to my MP who was not interested, I have also been to the local law centre who suggest we see a solicitor. Both parent had legal aid and have been advised that now the cases has finished so has this.

7) Is there a pro bono solicitor anywhere that could possible help.

As you can probably tell trying to work out what to do is a mined field and I would like to get this under as soon after christmas as possible as I feel that if the LA get wind of what we intend to do that they would place the children before we could act.

Any help or advice would be very greatfully received.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hello NannyLoz

My name is Suzie and I am an adviser at FRG. I will try to give you some brief advice now but you might also want to give our adviceline (0808 801 0366) a call in the New Year to discuss your situation in more detail. We re-open on January 2nd at 9.30am.

At the moment, you would be unable to apply for an SGO or Residence order because there is a Placement order in place.

To change the legal situation, you would have to ask the court for leave to apply to revoke the placement order. Leave can only be given if the court finds there has been a significant change in circumstances since the placement order was made. You might argue this on the basis that a suitable placement has not been found for the children, in addition to the findings of the RE: B-S case.

If leave is granted and you apply to revoke the placement order, the local authority would not be able to place the children until this application was dealt with.

The Bar Pro Bono Unit is able to provide legal representation free of charge in a small number of cases so it is worth looking at what they can offer you. You would need to be referred to them by a CAB, a law centre or an MP.

I hope this is a helpful start NannyLoz.

Best Wishes

Suzie
FRG Adviser