No financial support

[Nana23]

We have had our granddaughter in our care since Dec 2020 following our son's arrest we were phoned by the police to see if we could collect our granddaughter which we did..later that day a SW came asked if we could look after her and asked us to sign a statement of expectation....it's was lockdown at this time. We were then left to our own devices for a while then another SW came out asking us if we would be assessed for an SGO we agreed...to cut a very long story short...this has gone on for 2years we have had the assessment then the LA said the solicitor we chose from their list was asking too much eventually last week we saw the solicitor for the first time...we have now been informed this has all been a Private Family Arrangement and no financial support will be given at all......we asked constantly throughout the last 2 years about financial support but we're always told you will get help after the SGO is completed. Our granddaughter has disabilities she is in receipt of the higher rate DLA and mobility...she has been CIN throughout.....is there anything we can do? Sorry for being long-winded ....many thanks

[Robin D]

Annoyingly its such a common issue with local authorities out to save money at every step. Your difficulty is that your call came from the police and not Childrens Services at the local authority.

I suspect Suzie will be along soon with some further advice, but you probably need to start by putting in a formal complaint.

[Nana23]

Thank you for your reply...I've been reading a lot of this advice on this forum it all sounds exactly like you are stating...the LA is just out to save money at any costs. Thank you so much for your reply I will have a look at the template letters...many thanks

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Nana23,

Thank you for your post and welcome the kinship carers' board.

You say that your granddaughter has been in your care since December 2020 following your son's arrest. You were phoned by the police and asked to collect your granddaughter. Later that day, a social worker attended the home and asked you to look after your grandchild and to sign a statement of expectation. You were 'left to your own devices' and later agreed to undergo a special guardianship assessment. You have completed an assessment and have spoken to a solicitor recently. You have not been given any financial support over the last two years and have been informed this is a private family arrangement. Your granddaughter has been on a child in need plan throughout. She has disabilities and is in receipt of higher-rate DLA and mobility. You would like to know if there is anything you can do.

Firstly, I am sorry to hear about the situation you are in - it is clear that you have tried to support and care for your granddaughter in difficult circumstances and have not received the appropriate support from children's services.

To start, children's services asked you to care for your granddaughter in Dec 2020 following your son's arrest. It is clear that at this point, the local authority were exercising their duty to accommodate your granddaughter under Section 20 of the Children Act and this was not a private family arrangement. This means that they should have assessed you as kinship foster carer immediately, and that your granddaughter should have been classed as a 'looked after child.' This also means the local authority had certain duties to your granddaughter and that you should have received kinship fostering allowance. You can read more about Section 20 placements here.

Therefore, I would advise that you contact the local authority to bring this to their attention and importantly, to ask that they pay you back-dated fostering payments from the day that your granddaughter came into your care. You may find it helpful to use our template letter to do this, which references the legislation that underpins this. The local authority may refuse. If this does happen, I would advise that you use this template letter to make a formal complaint with the local authority. There is also more information here on making a formal complaint.

Other ways that you can complain include contacting the director of children's services and contacting your local MP.

There is also the question of your granddaughter's longer-term care. It appears that the local authority support a plan for her to remain with you. They have assessed you as a special guardian and this has been positive. As part of this assessment, the local authority should have assessed your support needs. This should include your eligibility to special guardianship allowance and any other support that may be needed for the special guardianship to be successful. This should be written up in a support plan and a solicitor should look over this - this is really important.

I am including more information here on the special guardianship application process so you know what you can expect and some more information on the financial and practical supportthat could be offered to you as a special guardian.

I hope you have found this helpful.

Best wishes,

Suzie.

[Nana23]

Thank you so much for your reply..I have used your template to send off a complaint and included all the points you mentioned (including asking for back dated monies)...we did fill in a full kinship family and friends carers pack in March 2021 but heard nothing more...we had to get references and undergo enhanced DBs and medicals then 3 2 hour appointments individually with a foster care social worker....we never received anything..the SW only spoke about the special guardianship assessment....on receiving a positive assessment we were not eligible for a special guardian allowance as my husband and I have savings and no mortgage so unfortunately they told us we were not eligible and the solicitor just said it was descresionary and means tested.....thankyou so much for all your help and advise I really appreciate it

[Nana23]

Hi there, yesterday we received a reply to our formal complaint, the reply states as the police called us to collect our granddaughter at the time of our son's arrest they have said it was a family arrangement, we stated in our complaint we did collect our granddaughter at the time of the call however the SW arrived later that day and asked us could she stay with us and ask us to sign a statement of expectations not allowing her father any contact and asking us to arrange contact meetings with mum....surely this cannot be a private arrangement as we never spoke to either parents, please can you advise me on how to proceed ...many thanks for all your help...

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Nana23

Thank you for your update. I would advise you to take the complaint to Stage 2. If the local authority refuses to do this, I suggest you contact your local MP for support. I have added a link HERE to further information and guidance. I have also added HERE a link to a government website where you can find your local MP. From the information provided, it seems unlikely that this is a private law matter. Clearly, you took your granddaughter into your care under an emergency situation and children’s services followed this up very quickly be asking for her to remain there.

Please post again or call the freephone advice line if you have any further queries. The advice line is open from 9.30 am to 3.00 pm, Mon to Fri (except bank holidays) on freephone 0808 8010366.
Best wishes, Suzie

[Nana23]

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year !!!
UPDATE:
We have just received a letter from children's services stating they will not start a stage 2 investigation as they feel they cannot add anything further to their responses, they have informed us to contact the local government ombudsman if we remain dis-satisfied, and to
escalate the matter with the police as they contacted us to come and collect our grandaughter
in the first place. We have sent in the template letters and responded with 2 further letters with
questions that still remain un- answered. On the ombudsmen page it states we should go through all 3 stages before contacting them, could you advise if we should contact the local MP to see if they can help or go straight to the ombudsman.
Kind regards

[Robin D]

We found our MP very helpful in moving the apparent immovable.

I would also complain to the ombudsman on the grounds that they are refusing to go to stage 2, let alone stage 3. You can do most of it online, but make sure you include the correspondence showing there refusal to go to the next stage.

As for the police, make sure you mention it in the referral to the LGO and copy the whole lot to the chief constable.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year !!!
UPDATE:
We have just received a letter from children's services stating they will not start a stage 2 investigation as they feel they cannot add anything further to their responses, they have informed us to contact the local government ombudsman if we remain dis-satisfied, and to
escalate the matter with the police as they contacted us to come and collect our grandaughter
in the first place. We have sent in the template letters and responded with 2 further letters with
questions that still remain un- answered. On the ombudsmen page it states we should go through all 3 stages before contacting them, could you advise if we should contact the local MP to see if they can help or go straight to the ombudsman.
Kind regards

DearNana23

Thank you for your further post. I see that another poster has responded to your post and offered helpful advice.
Regarding the local authority’s refusal to move your complaint to stage 2, this amount to them failing to follow their own complaints procedure and on this basis you can ask the local government and social care ombudsman to look into your complaint. In any event, their feeling is not what decides how a complaint should be followed up, an investigation at stage 2 is able to decide whether your complaint is upheld or not and it is for you to decide how you progress your complaint to end the process. Their refusal to respond to your complaint to your satisfaction is a basis for moving to stage 2 if you chose to

I suggest that you ask children’s services to provide you with a copy of their policy relating to private family arrangements and s.20 placements.

Children’s services suggestion that you escalate the matter with the police is in many respects a non-answer. The police can remove a child where he or she is considered to be at imminent risk of harm. Following such a removal children’s services would be informed and expected to identify a placement for the child first with a parent, or other family member or stranger foster care. It is not for the police to ensure or determine ongoing care for a child since their removal lasts only 72 hours. In the alternative, if children’s services decided themselves that a child needed to be removed from their parent (or person with parental responsibility), they could not do so without the assistance of the police or a court order.

As suggested in the response to your post, I agree that it would be helpful for you to ask your MP for support. You can also contact the ombudsman as suggested above.

You may find information on our website relating to complaints helpful and there is a link to this HERE

I hope you find this information helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie