Revoking an SGO - Help

[SpecialAunty]

My great nephew came to live with us at 3 months old at which time we became kinship carers. After 9 months my husband and I were awarded an SGO by the Court in January 2011 as the baby was not allowed to return to the care of his mother, my niece. During the court hearing a contact order was made for the mother to have contact once a month for a minimum of three hours and the father to have contact twice a year under supervision. This was due to the levels of violence exhibited within the Paternal side of the family.

Although the court did not award the paternal grandparents any contact, my husband and I agreed to offer them twice a year in a contact centre. The grandparents had been known to social services for over 20 years whilst bringing up their own children and had over 20 incidents of violence, domestic abuse and neglect recorded against them.

We are now in a position whereby they are taking us to court to revoke the SGO and apply for a residence order and/or a contact order. They are stating that we are refusing them contact with their grandson and this is having an emotional affect on him. They have previously failed a viability assessment residence carried out by Social Services in 2010. Can grandparents revoke an SGO if the baby has never lived with them or they have never been carers?

Any help would be useful as we cannot now afford a solicitor and will need to represent ourselves in court.

[Robin D]

Hi SpecialAunty.

The first thing to note is that they would have to apply to the court for 'leave' to challenge the order. Indeed I'm unsure if a grandparent can challenge it at all. You might do best to ring the advice line free on 0808 801 0366 who will be better placed to advise.

i should have thought that the grandparents are more likely to apply for a contact order. Given that the child has lived with you for such a high proportion of their short life, and the order was made relatively recently, I doubt they have a leg to stand on.

It may be bluff to get you to weaken, but I would have thought that you offer was generous.

You might like to speak to the Social Services team who dealt with the case with two things in mind.
1. Would they have concerns if you allowed the child to have unsupervised contact with the grandparents, or would they take the view that you wer putting the child at risk. If the latter, get it in writing.
2. Can they support you through this challenge? Under the SGO guidance, they should be able to offer support to you, even if it's just assurance that they will support your stance in court.

I hope this is of some help...... but I appreciate how upsetting it is when you think everything has already been sorted out by the court.

Please keep us posted.

Best wishes....... Robin

[SpecialAunty]

Yes there is a hearing at the beginning of September to see if they have permission to apply. The have applied for a contact order and a residence order and to revoke the SGO. Thank you for the suggestion about the social service team that were involved with the case. I will definitely try this avenue as they are also respondents in the matter. I also think it is a bluff to weaken our resolve but it is still worrying all the same. I do think that Courts should think about issuing Section 91(14) orders for a certain amount of years when granting SGOs.

Many thanks for your support.

[David Roth]

Hi SpecialAunty

I know that waiting for a court case to be heard is bound to be a stressful time, and that you probably can't help worrying about the outcome until it has happened. It might help to think a bit about how the court will reach its decisions.

Firstly, the grandparents have applied to revoke your SGO and get a RO. Your nephew, who is now two years old, has spent the whole of his life apart from his first three months living with you. The court will only grant the grandparents leave to discharge the SGO if there has been a significant change in circumstances since the order was made, a year ago. If you and your nephew have been just getting on with your lives, in the same way you were up until the order was made, then it will be hard to say that there has been any significant change. The court's main concern (or paramount consideration) is with the child's welfare. There would need to be very good reasons for them to consider moving the child on from you.

With regard to contact, the court at the time the order was made chose to make contact orders for the parents, but left it at your discretion as to whether anybody else should have contact. You have used this discretion to allow the grandparents contact twice a year, showing that you are willing to allow them to have contact at what you judge to be the right level. The court will have to use the 'no order' principle (no order should be made unless it is better than not making the order) to judge what would be achieved by making a contact order. You are already showing that you will allow contact without a court order, and the judge who made the SGO trusted you to use your discretion, which you appear to be using effectively.

On the basis of the information you have given, it is hard to see their applications being allowed. However, you have to make sure that the court has all the information and facts that it needs in order to reach the right conclusion. Formal written concerns by the social worker, as suggested by Robin, would certainly help with this.