Sgo urgent advice please.

[KM2022]

Hello, new user here.
I am requiring some urgent help. I will try give as much info as possible. 17 weeks ago my sister couldn't look after her children due to relationship breakdown and ill health and let me look after my 2 nieces. Social services wouldn't let me take them back and told her they would seek legal advice which they did when she did demand them home. They are then kept with me and they go to court granting LA court order who are going for SGO. Now my viability assessments are going on while I have them here. I am now classed as a foster carer to social. They are stating they have only officially been with me since the first court hearing. Now the viability assessments where all positive. I did the training and positive feed back and now on to back ground history in the assessment. I was a care child and had some big traumas in my life. And my children were born into care. And I had a lot of false information in my own cp case over 10 years ago. I got all the case closed and my children remained with me. Now the attitudes to sgo have flipped and they have said what if I can't keep them because these reports exist. What can I do. It was a traumatic battle the first time round being 19 and fighting the false reports to now having those same ones possibly affect my nieces. What steps can I take to ensure they remain in my care. They are settled here. They have had school changed and everything. All advice welcome.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear KM2022,

Welcome to the kinship carers’ forum and thank you for your post. I am sorry to hear about the difficulties that you are facing and I hope that the following information is of some help to you.

You are worried that the special guardianship assessment which children’s services are completing on you might be negative due to historical information. The children are doing well in your care and you would like to be able to care for them long term.

Children’s services should of course take into consideration relevant historical information, including your previous experience of caring for children, however this should be considered in the context of your current situation and you should be given the opportunity to explain how things are different for you now. If there is information in historical reports which is incorrect then you should raise this as soon as possible and put in writing what you believe to be incorrect and why.

The options for challenging a negative special guardianship assessment are as follows. Children’s services should provide the person who was assessed with a copy of their assessment, and a letter that explains their options at that stage.

Options available to relatives and friends include:

1) Accepting the decision.

2) Writing a letter that explains why they may disagree with the outcome, or whether they think things in the report are wrong. That letter can then be attached to the report so that anyone (including the judge) who reads the report can understand any areas of disagreement.

3) Seeking independent legal advice. This could be advice from a solicitor. To find a solicitor, search using the ‘how to find a solicitor’ function on the Law Society website. You should look for someone who is a child law specialist or who has Children Law Accreditation. For information about finding a solicitor and working with them, please see our top tips guide ‘Working with a solicitor’.

4) Or you could go to a court hearing to ask the court to make an order to allow further assessment.

5) A final option is to ask to be made a party to the court proceedings, so that the assessment can be challenged in court.

You might find it helpful to read our advice sheet 2c) – ‘DIY Special Guardianship Orders: care proceedings’ which you can find HERE. Pages 6 – 9 will be particularly helpful to you.

I hope that the above is of some help. If you have any further queries then please post back again, or call our advice line on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm) to discuss in more detail with one of our advisers.

Best wishes
Suzie