Is it in best interests...

[Concerned2013]

H Suzie

My eldest son was told that if he did not sign an agreement it could result in him being took to court. I told him to seek legal advice.

His lawyer advised him to sign. However this has not been done yet and the issue is ongoing.

Sorry i can't go into more detail regarding above. I have a duty to respect the right to privacy of person involved.

Note: issue here is nothing to do with paternal side of family.




Different grandchild

Mother of D has been told that we, the grandparent have to have supervised contact . If she does not do this they will tell her she is putting child at risk of harm.

They use intimidation and threats. It's ridiculous. We fight on


Anyway. I found this from the President of the Family division. Hopefully it will be of help to those who are being harassed, intimidated and threatened by Children services

http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed143260


Edit to add

Adoption Order of T** , T*** and L*** is being submitted on May 29th.

Mother is opposing. However we can not, as we do not have the luxury of having loads of tax payers paying our legal fees like Children Services.

The situation is now dire for many low income families thanks to Legal Aid changes and this plays right into Children Services hands as far as i can see.

Social engineering is taking place folks and there is not much we can do about it while these issues are in secret courts

[Concerned2013]

Thanks ied53

We fight on


Wonder if FRG can clear something up . I've read on Advice sheet Children In Care , Children services can not stop a parent having contact with child without court order.

1) This applies during Care Plan stage too??

2) Same apply to other family members?

Cheers

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Concerned2013,

When working out what law applies to contact you need to know how a child is "looked after" by the local authority.

You need to distinguish between:

1)children who have a care order or interim care order or emergency protection order over them
2)and those children who are in the care system without an order-usually with the agreement of a parent who has got parental responsibility.

1)Children who are subject to care order, interim care order(where there is ongoing care proceedings) or emergency protection order.

Parents have a right to reasonable contact with their children who are in care. However, this right can be suspended for up to 7 days without a “no contact” court order if they are satisfied it is necessary to do so in order to “safeguard and promote the child’s welfare.”

Children services have a process to follow when they decide to suspend contact-including notifying parents, children-if they are old enough, the independent reviewing officer- why they are suspending contact and for how long.

If children services want to suspend contact for longer, they need to either get the parents agreement to this or ask the court for a court order giving them legal authority to do so.

If there is a full care order, then the court may have also given a a contact order as well. Often it can be for contact to be in the discretion of the local authority. So this would mean that children services would not have to go back to court if they suspended contact. However, in these circumstances a parent can take the matter back to court. Please see our advice sheet about contact when there is care or emergency protection orders.



2)Contact when a child is accommodated in the care system (no court order).

The rules about contact are different when there is no court order in children services favour.

Children’s Services must try to ‘promote’ contact between an accommodated child and their parents, guardians, anyone else with parental responsibility, relatives, friends and others connected with them “unless it is not reasonably practicable or consistent with the child’s welfare.”
Please have a look at our advice sheet about contact with a child who is accommodated.

.

Other family members

Other family members do not have a right to reasonable contact-even when a child is subject to a care order or emergency protection order. (Unless the relative has a contact order made in their favour).
However, children services must promote contact between children in the care system and the extended family. There is government guidance and research in favour of relatives having contact with children in the care system. Please see our advice sheets which sets this out as well as how to ask to be assessed for contact.

However, whether or not the child is subject to orders, children services still have to carry out an assessment for contact, put any arrangements in the care plan, and review these contact arrangements regularly.
Please see our advice sheet 11 about Duties to children in the care system -it sets out the role of the independent reviewing officer-and the review system.


I hope this clarifies the situation. But if you have any other questions, please post back.
Best wishes,

Suzie

Suzie

[Concerned2013]

Thanks Suzie

Since post regarding contact above, we have been to see my sons legal representative. who confirmed my suspicions.

He informed us, Children Services can not prevent contact with family members without a court order.

Please remember you (and every other human being ) have Human Rights and interference in these rights must be

-in accordance with law
-necessary and proportionate

Judge Hedly: Re L (Care: Threshold Criteria) [2007] 1 FLR 2050 and reiterated by the President of the Family Division in Re A (A Child) [2015] EWFC 11

"society must be willing to tolerate very diverse standards of parenting, including the eccentric, the barely adequate and the inconsistent"



Hope this information is useful to all families who are being harassed, intimidated and threatened by Children Services.



We fight on.

[Concerned2013]

"The procedural protection offered by Article 8 was not confined to the trial process but extended to all stages of the decision making process in child protection proceedings….the facts reveal what I can only call a 'mindset' and a 'culture' so seemingly oblivious to the imperative requirements of Article 8… and so unwittingly careless of the need to treat parents with fairness, that I cannot let the latter pass without comment".

He went on to state:

"This as it seems to me is a classic example of the kind of case where, whatever may have been the case previously, the Human Rights Act 1998 gives parents treated as badly as the parents in this case appear to have been…effective remedies for breach by a local authority of either the substantive or procedural requirements of Article 8."

In Re G, Munby J elaborated on the nature of the local authority's duty to provide a full and frank disclosure of documents, including notes and minutes of conversations and meetings, and listed the following as important:

Informing the parents promptly of its plans
Giving factual reasons
Giving an opportunity for parents to answer allegation
Providing an opportunity to make representations
Allowing the parents the opportunity to attend and address any crucial meetings.

http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed74214

What is not being addressed in the important comments by the President of Family Division in above is below.

The words in bold are very, very very important.

Interdependent and indivisible

All human rights are indivisible, whether they are civil and political rights, such as the right to life, equality before the law and freedom of expression; economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to work, social security and education , or collective rights, such as the rights to development and self-determination, are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent. The improvement of one right facilitates advancement of the others. Likewise, the deprivation of one right adversely affects the others.

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Pages/Wh ... ights.aspx

What this means is that, not only must your families Right to Family Life be respected throughout the whole Child Protection process, but so must many interdependent human rights like freedom of expression, freedom of association etc.


Hope this, like the other posts helps families who are being harassed, intimidated and threatened by the Gestapo of the UK Government know as Children Services.