fostering panel

[hadenough]

wat happens

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi haddenough

My name is Suzie, an advisor from the Family Rights Group, an organisation that gives advice to families involved with Children’s Services.

Thank you for your post.

Care proceedings

You report that your son has been in foster care since he was 3 weeks old and the Local Authority issued care proceedings.

Parental Responsibility

As he is under an interim care order, this would mean they share parental responsibility and have the right to make decisions about your son’s life but should be consulting with you about his day to day care.

Family and Friends Foster Carers

You say that the paternal grandparents have been assessed as potential long term family and friends carers, and they are due to be approved at fostering panel.

Fostering panel

As the Local Authority are supporting the placement, it would be usual, that providing all the necessary checks, and reports have been completed, and as long as there are no major issues, approval should be quite straight forward. They could be approved as carers on that date, but the panel could request further information or points to be clarified.

Special Guardianship Orders

You are right in thinking that if your son’s carers apply for a special guardianship order, this will give them parental responsibility, but also give your son more long term security and stability, away from the scrutiny of the Local Authority.

If in the future, your circumstances improved significantly, and you were able to evidence to the court that you may be able to meet your son’s needs, you may wish to apply to the court to have it discharged.

Contact

Any contact arrangements could be discussed as part of the Looked After Review process or with the social worker or solicitor, and negotiated with your son’s carer’s in advance.

If contact has been going well, this will be reflected in the special guardianship report, or minutes of the review meetings. Some of it will depend on your relationship with the paternal grandparents, who could decide what amount of contact would be best for your son, where and how it takes place.

It would be best to work closely with them and have these discussions now, so it is clear what contact is being planned for the future

Adoption

You may think that adoption would not be in your son’s best interests. It is unusual, but not unheard of for adoptions to take place within families. This is because it could confuse the status of relationships, and could raise other issues around his identity or legal status as your son becomes older.

Should you wish to discuss your situation in more detail, may I recommend that you contact the Family Rights Group advice line on 0808 801 0366 Monday to Friday 09.30 am to 03.30 pm.

Best Wishes


Suzie

[hadenough]

the social worker rang me today and said they are reducing my contact from every week to fortnightly and then monthly what do you do if you don't like the conact the local authority are proposing ? the guardian got my contact to every week when we was last in court because they wanted it to be every 2 weeks before and when we was in court for the final hearing in september when they got a full care order and was going to do a rehab plan for him to go to my ex. the guardian said in his report that that was too low and persuaded the court to let me have weekly contact but now he is going to his paternal grandfather my contact is being reduced again i dont know if i still have a solicitor i seen her before christmas and she sent me a letter saying did she need to take action shall i get back in touch with her

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi haddenough

I would speak to your solicitor about the possibility of applying for a contact order through the court. There is no guarantee your contact will be reduced, but at least would give you the right to have the matter addressed by the court.

Best Wishes


Suzie

[hadenough]

they went to the panel but they never had there medicals back because there was a problem with the social workers fax machine or something its just one thing after another so they couldnt be approved without them

i have been to his looked after children review and they said they are looking towards adoption i thought it wud be special guardianship but no they want him to be adopted by his grandad i wont agree to it but they said they will get legal advice and go to court to get a placement order

i dont want to lose my son for good help

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi Hadenough

Thank you for your post

It is unfortunate that your son’s case being presented to panel did not go ahead, because of the medical reports not being available, as this has caused further uncertainty about what is being planned for him. Have the medical reports been received? Do you have the date for the next panel? Does panel meet monthly or every two months. Once you have a date, this will help you to relieve your anxiety about the care planning process.

As stated, in my previous post, adoption is less usual, but not unheard of, within the extended family, due to the risk of potential confusion in relationships later on.

Did the social worker explain at the Looked After Review meeting why there were no longer considering a special guardianship order, in your son's case? Either way, if approved by the panel, they will decide which care plan, they consider to be in your son’s best interests, and the reasons behind their decision.

Good luck with the panel date, I hope you don't have to wait too long. In the meantime, your solicitor could chase this up on your behalf.

Best Wishes

Suzie