Advice over grandaughter

[Miss woody]

I have had my granddaughter living with me for 6 weeks now, I don't have pr or any legal rights, she is a child in need with social services, I've asked for financial help from them but they said I need to claim child benefits for her, but I don't have pr or anything in writing to say she is with me so can't claim any benefits for her. Any advice please

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Miss Woody

Welcome to the Family and Friends’ Discussion Board and thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear that you are having such difficulties and receiving such little support in caring for your granddaughter.

Ied53 has already offered you some valuable advice and pointers.

I have now seen that you have posted on a couple of other occasions on different threads e.g. “contact” and “sounding off” and that you have stated that your granddaughter is subject to a SGO to her father (not her birth father) but was unable to stay there due to serious concerns which children’s services are fully aware of and in fact you mention that recently the social worker brought the child’s belongings to your home. You also mention a court date of April 24th (tomorrow) in one of your posts although it is unclear what the court application is. I am sorry that we were not able to respond to your previous posts earlier.

Although children’s services’ are stating that your granddaughter is a child in need there appear to be issues of risk here, social work involvement in asking you to care for your granddaughter on a number of occasions (although it is not clear if they instigated this on the most recent occasion) and some court involvement. So it sounds as if this is much more than a child in need situation and may be a placement.

The bottom line is that if children’s services placed the child with you, and if her SG agrees to her being placed with you it would seem that this should be treated as a voluntary foster placement under section 20 (unless you agreed otherwise with social workers) and you should be approved and supported as a foster carer. However, we are limited in advising without knowing the purpose and outcome of the court hearing which is due tomorrow. If your granddaughter was made the subject of an interim care order at this hearing then you would have to be temporarily approved as a kinship foster carer if she was to be legally able to remain there.

It would be helpful if you could post an update clarifying what the court application is and the outcome or perhaps you would like to talk the situation over with an adviser which you can do by ringing the Freephone advice helpline on 0808 801 0366 Mon- Fri 9.30 – 3.00.

In the meantime we have a number of advice sheets which I would recommend that you read as they will explain more about your options:

Family support
Relatives and friends taking on the care of a vulnerable child in an emergency
Support for relatives and friends who are looking after someone else’s child
Social security support for relatives and friends looking after someone else’s child


I would also advise you to find the Family and Friends Care policy for the council responsible for your granddaughter as this sets out what support hey offer to kinship carers. You can find a link to the policy by searching local policies and contacts.

If you need support in order to be able to care for her properly and successfully then you can make sure that her social worker and any other professionals working with you know that.

If you need to apply for parental responsibility you would do that through a child arrangements order or a SGO application but in terms of support you have a stronger argument if she is looked after or you insist on an assessment of your support needs before applying for a court order.

I hope this helps


With best wishes

Suzie