Impact of court scrutiny of care plans - your experiences

[Cathy Ashley]

Hi
I'm speaking to a national conference of judges and family justice professionals this weekend. I'm keen to challenge one of the proposals in the interim family justice review and would like your experiences.
The interim review is proposing that in determining whether a care order is in the best interests of the child the court should substantially reduce its scrutiny of the detail of the care plan.
Broadly speaking they are proposing that the court should be satisfied that the local authority is clear in its intent whether the care plan for the child is:
- planned return of the child to their family;
- plan to place (or explore placing) a child with family or friends as carers; or
- permanent alternative care arrangements, including adoption.
78.
BUT the court should not examine detail such as:
- whether residential or foster care is planned;
- plans for sibling placements;
- the therapeutic support for the child;
- health and educational provision for the child; and
- contingency planning.
In other words there should be less court focus on quality assuring the detail of the local authority’s plans for the child if and when the child is given into their care.
I would like to be able to give examples of where court scrutiny has made a real difference e.g. re contact, sibling placement, support etc. If this applies in your case please do post or email me cashley@frg.org.uk
Obviously any examples I use in the speech will be anonymised.

Many thanks

Cathy (Ashley), CE Family Rights Group

[maricharle]

Hi Cathy,

I am not sure if this will help you but the local authority support plan in one of the final hearings in my grandsons case was heavily critisized by the Judge. It was so inadequate that the parties were all sent out to draw up a template for contact which everyone could agree on. Information on the frequency, supervision, the provision of translators and contact centres had to be included. The judge also wanted to know exactly what financial arrangements for contact were to be put in place due to the distance involved as well as the costs of everything mentioned above. If this is the sort of information you require I would be more than happy to discuss it with you.

Marichale

[Cathy Ashley]

Yes that's exactly the sort of information. Many thanks.

Cathy