help with getting a sgo on my grandson

[nana2b]

Hi I am not communicating with my son but found out a couple of weeks ago that he had had a baby boy in January but he was taken straight into care from hospital.
We went straight up to the area that my grandson was in and made contact with social services and found out who was his social worker and made an appointment to see her as soon as possible.
We also made an appointment to see a local solicitor the day after we had seen the social worker.
The social worker asked many questions but gave very little away every time we asked a question she came back with I can not tell you that information as you are not a party to the proceedings. All she did tell us was that there were 4 options 2 involving the parents 1 involving us and the last option was adoption. At the end of the meeting when we asked her what would happen now all she said was that she would have to take legal advice.
We then went to see the solicitor who had done some background work for us and found out that my sons wife and my son had lost custody permanently of 7 year old twins 2 days before ad she thought that it would be highly unlikely that they (social services) would go for the 2 options involving the parents so that just left us and adoption. She then explained that just to apply to the courts to be considered to become SG`s we would have to pay around 2k which we agreed to.
Our problem is that my son is saying that he will fight us as over the last 15 years he has committed ID fraud and other offenses against both my husband, my son and I, but has never been charged as he has gone on to commit further more serious offenses. He is also a schedule 1 offender from when he was a 14 year old. So there was plenty of social services involvement and my son has always twisted the truth to suit himself and is very believable at first. We have never done anything to harm him only to protect both me and my other son who is 10 years his junior and have plenty of people who will say that we only ever want the best for our children and will fight to get what we feel is the best for them.
Taking on our grandson would be traumatic as his father we are sure would try to make our lives a misery more than he does all ready but it is one we are prepared to do, but would like some advice on what to expect as the social worker seems very stand offish and if we ask the solicitor it will cost us more money and we have had to borrow the money to pay the 2k already so would really like to do any of the work ourselves we can, but still keep the solicitor for the important bits but are not sure what they are, so any advice would be grateful.

[nana2b]

Just spoke to a local solicitor and she told me that the first thing i need to do is put in writing that we want to be considered as SG for him and also to ask if they would consider paying towards this, not sure how they are going to feel about this as I keep trying to talk to her and she is always busy. I feel a bit like a mushroom but we are determined to go ahead with this whatever the costs.
It is the conflicting advice i have been given that is sending my head round in circles and not being able to talk to the sw doesnt help, just to find out if they are going to be supporting us in our application or not would be good.
The local solicitor also told me about this site and about the DIY SGO leaflet which i had already read but the solicitor in the area where the baby is did not.
And i am worried that ss will put him up for adoption as everybody wants to adopt a baby without considering us.

[nana2b]

Thanks for that advice i am preparing a letter tonight and will post it tomorrow recorded delivery.
Do you know how long the whole process takes?

[David Roth]

nana2b, the government made a time limit of 6 months for care proceedings last year. However, recent cases have clarified that they can take longer if that is what is needed to ensure that that social workers have fully explored all the other alternative options to adoption, including placement within the family. Following recent rulings, social workers should only consider adoption as a last resort, if they have ruled out all other options, after exploring them thoroughly.

There is one case in particular which makes it clear that this is the approach that is expected, and it will be useful for your lawyer to refer to it if it seems as though the social workers are not giving you full consideration as a potential carer for the baby. The legal reference that you should draw your lawyer's attention to, if they are not already aware of it, is Re B-S (Children) [2013] EWCA Civ 1146.