Wanting to allow more contact

[AnxiousAunt]

My nieces and nephews are potentially being removed from their parents care, and given to me on an SGO.
The care plan recommends a maximum amount of contact, which is to be supervised. I am fine with supervising the contact if that's what necessary, but I think its in the best interests of the children to have more than recommended. Am I allowed to allow more contact than is recommended?

[Robin D]

Simply put, once the SGO is granted, yes, you can agree to vary contact. BUT, and its a HUGE BUT, if social services think that you will not listen to them and 'protect' the children as part of the SGO assessment then they may decide it is best to place the children elsewhere as you are not prepared to put (what they consider to be) the best interests of the child first!

You need to work with the social workers until the children are with you, the SGO is in place, and for a period after, or you must make a good case to the court as to why it is in the best interests of the children to have more regular contact. If CAFCASS are involved, it's worth sharing your thoughts with them on the understanding that whatever the court decides is the appropriate level of contact initially, you will comply with. They may agree with you and are better placed to argue that point in court. It's important that you recognise that the children have come to harm while in the care of your brother or sister. You have to put the childrens' needs above your loyalty to the parents. Effectively in taking on the SGO you are agreeing to protect the children from whatever adult behaviours have caused them harm for the duration of their childhood. However, courts recognise that people and situations change over time hence the ability of the special guardian to flex contact arrangements. That of course can work both ways. If the parents start behaving in a worrying way, you can suspend contact.

Good luck ... Robin

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear AnxiousAunt

Welcome back to the kinship carers' board and thank you for your further post.

My understanding is that you are already caring for the children as a kinship foster carer. It sounds as if you are being positively assessed as a Special Guardian. This would end the fostering arrangement and give you parental responsibility.

Before making a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) the court would consider future contact between the children and their parents and could either make a court order stating what contact there should be or this could be left to your discretion, which is the situation that another kinship carer has advised on. He has helpfully highlighted the importance of always making decisions based on the children’s needs not on the parents.

In your last post, you explained that children’s services had initiated care proceedings due to a suspected non-accidental injury and that there was to be a fact finding hearing in April. As this hearing has not yet happened, it will be important for you to await the outcome as this will be relevant to any definitive recommendations made around contact if you become the children’s Special Guardian. Please see the advice I gave previously around this.

The proposed plan states that any contact should be supervised. You agree but you think that the recommended amount of contact is insufficient and you would wish to offer more. It might be a good idea to have a discussion with the social worker about why they have recommended the level of contact specified in the plan. The social worker will have based this on their assessment of the children’s needs including for stability. So while you are entitled to disagree with the social worker’s recommendation, as the previous poster suggests, this could influence children’s services decision to recommend you as the children’s Special Guardian if they believed you were putting the parents needs before the children’s. I think the advice given above that you should also have a discussion with the Children’s Guardian is a very good idea.

Contact is fluid and the children’s needs may change over time so if the SGO is in place (unless there is a court order specifying contact) you would have the authority to change the arrangements. You would need to ensure that this was safe and the best decision for the children. You would also need to take account on how much contact you could manage to supervise. As has been noted in the earlier response, as a Special Guardian your role is to continue to keep the children safe from harm in recognition that they have suffered harm and safe contact arrangements are part of that.

Please see advice sheet (3) which discusses these issues in the context of SGOs made as part of care proceedings. And SGOsupport.co.uk provides a good summary of factors involved in managing contact under an SGO.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Suzie