court case - care (no order)

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear bells16

Thank you for your further post. I am sorry that you are still feeling that you have not been given enough information by children services and worried that an application has been made to the court.

As you now have a court date, I think you solicitor will be able to advise you at your scheduled appointment on Friday. Your solicitor will have the documents that children services have sent to the court giving their reasons for making the application. Children services are making an application because they think a court order is needed which, if made, means that they share parental responsibility for the children and can make decisions about them. Your solicitor will explain this to you at your meeting on Friday.

It does sometimes happen that no public law outline (PLO) meeting takes place and this will depend on how concerned children services are about the welfare of the children. Your solicitor will be able to speak to children services about their reasons for not having this meeting to give an opportunity for changes to be at least attempted. In your previous posts you said that there was no support offered and this is also something that can be brought to the attention of the judge when you and your solicitor attend court next week.
In my view, it is extremely important that you work cooperatively with your solicitor as he or she will be best placed to advice you about the care proceedings. I am including our advice sheet about care proceedings so you will have a better understanding of what happens now that children services has made an application.

Normally, when children services make an application to the court it is because they consider that the child or children have suffered significant harm and child protection plans and other support has not improved the situation for the children. It could also be because the child’s parents have not engaged with children services in a meaningful way. Children services have to prove to the court that the threshold is met and the court will want to see evidence of this before making a care order. Care proceedings are expected to last 26 weeks or less. The court has to agree to an extension of this time period which it will only do in exceptional circumstances.
Please engage with your solicitor, read the application and statement that you have been given and if there is anything that you think is incorrect you should make sure your solicitor is aware of it.

Regarding the family group conference, this still can happen whilst the court case is on going. The purpose of the family group conference is for you and your family and friends to decide what support can be offered to you to keep the children safe. It also helps to decide who could care for the children longterm should this become necessary. A copy of our advice sheet relating to family group conferences is here for your information.

Should you wish to speak to an adviser, please feel free to telephone our free, confidential advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open from 9.30 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. Monday to Friday.

I hope you find this helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie