Applying for a SGO

[Foxxy020398]

Hi there everyone, I’m the grandmother through marriage to my grandson who has lived with me, my husband (grandfather) and baby T’s mum for the past 20 months(since birth)
His mother has learning disabilities and when she was pregnant there were meetings about what would happen to baby T once he was born. We got the impression that he would be taken away at birth without an intervention so we stepped in to be support to our daughter so she could keep her son and we were to help her bring him up.
This has been the case up until a couple of months ago when baby T’s mother decided she didn’t want to live with us anymore and she wanted to move out. Adult social services are arranging supported living accommodation for our daughter whilst Baby T stays with us. Mum is in full agreement with this as she knows she is unable to care for baby T and father has no parental responsibility due to not being on the birth certificate.
We want to look into special guardianship and I have downloaded the required forms but I don’t know what to do next. My understanding is that I need to write to child services and inform them of my intentions to apply for an SGO. Would I need to do this before putting my application into the court?? Also I read about mediation being needed, would this be the case for us as we’ve already all agreed on a way forward.
Many thanks in advance

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Foxxy020398

Welcome to the family and friends carers discussion forum and thank you for posting.

My name is Suzie, online adviser at Family Rights Group and apologise for the delay in responding to your post due to volume of work.

Regarding your query about applying for a special guardianship order, you are right that you would need to inform children’s services of your intention. Usually, they would wait for the court to give the direction for them to carry out a special guardianship assessment however, it appears that some local authorities sometimes start the assessment before.

I think you will find it helpful to read our advice sheet DIY Special Guardianship Orders - information for family and friends carers which I hope you will find helpful. The advice sheet explains the court procedures as well as the assessment that children’s service will do.

If you do not have a solicitor you could seek further advice from Child Law Advice on 0300 330 5480 as they offer advice in respect of private law applications to the court.

I hope you find this helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie