Can I get my granddaughter placed with me if its been to coury

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Prim
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2017 2:52 pm

Can I get my granddaughter placed with me if its been to coury

Post by Prim » Mon Nov 13, 2017 2:29 pm

Hi I have 2 granddaughters the oldest lives with me and her grandfather we have a residence order which we arranged with our daughter and no involvement with social services. She is 13 yrs old and autistic also anxiety issues. Her sister is 6 yrs old and was placed with us for 3 weeks. Due to her sisters anxiety being extremely difficult at that time and her sister sleeping on the floor in her room she was placed in foster care. Told we would have lots of contact with her which turned out to lies. We applied for her and was told at the assessment that we are to old, or health and due to her sister anxiety which is also made worse by her not seeing her sister where she is and afraid that they will take her away .Disability social worked reported that their was pretension of a brake down in placement for both children so we was refused. We feal that we were made to choose one over the other or lose both. We were not party to any court proceeding. As told that as we failed the assessment we wasn't allowed. Court placed her in fostercare we know only see her once a month which is totally heartbreaking and is making her sister very upset and distressed her school has contacted us on lots of occasions and report that she is very anxious due to her not understanding. Can we apply now to have her placed with us we love her dearly and won't what us best for her and her sister

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Suzie, FRG Adviser
Posts: 949
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 12:25 pm

Re: Can I get my granddaughter placed with me if its been to coury

Post by Suzie, FRG Adviser » Thu Dec 14, 2017 3:33 pm

Dear Prim,

Welcome to the Friends and Family Carers Forum. I am sorry for the delay in responding to your post.

I can see that you have a residence order in respect of your 14 year old granddaughter but that her sister, aged 6, is in foster care under a full care order.

You ask whether you could now apply for your 6 year granddaughter to come and live with you. The best time for this to have happened was during the recent care proceedings. I am sorry that you were told you could not apply to court-this was wrong. You may have had a chance to ask the court for a re assessment.

Is there anything you can do now?
Children services have parental rights due to the care order and can make most of the decisions about the care of your granddaughter including what contact she has with her family and where she lives.
Her care plan will be reviewed regularly at the looked after children (LAC) meeting which is chaired by the independent reviewing officer.
So you have the option of either contacting the social worker or the independent reviewing officer to see whether you could be re-assessed.
However, if she is being settled into a long term foster care placement, and given the recent negative assessment, you may be turned down this time.
Another option would be to get a copy of the original assessment to find out all the reasons you were ruled out and decide whether there is anything you can do to address these points.
Here is our advice sheet about friends and family fostering assessments.

Alternatively, you could always ask whether you could be assessed to provide respite care for your grand daughter or be re- assessed if the current placement breaks down.

I can see that you are having regular contact with your granddaughter.
Our advice sheet here sets out government guidance and research about why contact with grandparents is so important.

I am so sorry to hear about your older granddaughters distress?
These following options may be helpful.
1)Can the school and you come up with a plan to explain to your older granddaughter what has happened? Schools often have counselling services as well.
2) Or you could seek an assessment for support via children services. Again you could raise this with the Independent reviewing officer or ask for a child in need assessment
3) Your 14 year old might benefit from a children's advocate-so that her views can be heard. The National Youth Advocacy Services-NYAS may be able to help.
4) have you discussed your concerns with her GP?
5) Young minds have a parents helpline and might be able to advise you.

I have only touched on your concerns. If you have any questions please post back or you could call our advice line for in depth support on 0808 801 0366.

Best wishes,
Suzie

Prim
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Aug 24, 2017 2:52 pm

Re: Can I get my granddaughter placed with me if its been to coury

Post by Prim » Thu Dec 28, 2017 7:21 pm

Thankyou for your reply. Who would I need to contact to get a copy of our assessment from. Before the care order we was seeing our granddaughter weekly but as soon as care order was made we were infirmed by the Foster parent that the social worker had informed her it was monthly. It wasn't even reduced just straight away Thankyou.

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