S2o voluntary accomodation

[fishwillow]

Please help, we would like some information of our rights and of our daughters rights.
We are very strongly thinking of revoking our S20 for our daughter as things have just gone from bad to worse and then worse still.
We are not told anything about our daughter ie: Work experience, Saturday job, Going on holiday, Moving residence and all we keep being told is that she is 16 and they have to ask her permission to tell us stuff now she is this age.
For some reason when we ask the Chairperson from the Lac review as to why certain things were not being carried out, when he wrote back to us he included that if we were not happy we could revoke the S20, but as our daughter is now 16 years of age she has the rights to decide what happens to her. We have had this said to us several times and it is always when we do not agree with something Children services or the residential school are doing/not doing.
We would like to know where we stand if we did this as there are lots of reasons to why our daughter could not come home to live with us.
We would also like to know if we did this what could happen to our daughter.
Please help with my questions!

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi Fishwillow

My name is Suzie, an advisor from the Family Rights Group.

Thank you for your post.
Technically, you are correct in thinking that you, and not the Local Authority have parental responsibility under section 20 voluntary care agreement. That said, because your daughter is 16 years old, she has a right to be consulted and her views to be taken into account, under the fraser guidelines (gillick competency) over and above parental views.

That said, under working together 2010 guidance, chapter 5 the Local Authority should consult with you , and keep you informed and updated about your daughter’s day to day progress, and any key developments or changes to her care plan. I hope this makes things a bit clearer.
Best Wishes

Suzie

[fishwillow]

Thankyou for your reply.
We have spoken on the telephone to the SW about revoking the S20 and she was totally fine saying it would take quite a few weeks to sort out as there would be a lot of administration involved. Yet when we sent an email to confirm this the SW then emailed back and her reply was totally different. She said if we were instructing her today that we were revoking the S20 then our daughter no longer had a place of residence at the school and we would be totally responsible for her. So we emailed SW back asking if she was saying we needed to go and collect our daughter but she has not replied to that.
We have asked her about the decision to move our daughter to another place of residence, SW replied it was put to our daughter and that is where she wants to go. We have asked SW when was this decision made, who was involved and why were'nt we involved and she will not answer these questions only saying we need to speak to the school about it. We are totally confused with all of this.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hello

Yes this does sound confusing! First of all, just to clarify, as your daughter is 16, you can only revoke the s20 voluntary accommodation if she agrees. I assume she agrees? Assuming she does, your daughter is now “leaving care” and that is supposed to be a carefully planned process. Please have a look at the two advice sheets attached, that describe in some detail the obligations of the social worker when a child is leaving care. reuniting children and leaving care.

You should tell your social worker that you are NOT “instructing her today” that you are removing your child from voluntary accommodation. Rather, you would like to schedule a LAC Review to discuss this and put plans in place for your daughter’s future.

I hope this is helpful.

All the best,
Suzie

[fishwillow]

We are putting in a formal complaint towards the SW & the IRO but would just like some info on a couple of things please if possible.
About us revoking the S20, three weeks later we get a reply from the SW saying that there is no procedure needed for revoking the S20 and that our daughter has asked to be accommodated by them and no further action needs to be taken We did email SW asking her to arrange a LAC review meeting to discuss this but this has not happened. Is this right that this has happened in this way after our request for a meeting?
Also it has been decided that our daughter is to move site of residence in July we have asked why we were not informed or even had our views considered. We have been told that it is within the same establishment, (but it is over 1 hour away instead of 25mins) and hasn't occured as yet, so remains a plan. Should we not have been consulted for our views?
We have complained to the IRO that decisions made at the last review for documents to be sent to us have not be done. He emailed that he would contact the SW to find out what was happening. This he did and when he emailed us again he said SW said we have had several reports and that although he would expect that if parents are co-operating with the SW then issues would be shared. All we were doing was asking for information that was decided at the meeting, yet he is implying that we are not co-operating with the SW but is it not the other way around.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hi fishwillow

Sorry that it has taken a while for me to get back to you.

In most circumstances, when a child is accommodated under section 20, the local authority must agree their care plans with parents with PR. As your daughter is 16, however, she has a right to overrule your views and the local authority must agree their plans with her. Parents do not have the right to remove a 16/17year old from accommodation if that young person is asking to remain accommodated.

LAC reviews should take place at least 6monthly. More frequent reviews can be arranged if there is a significant change to a care plan, which might include a change of placement. This decision would be up to the IRO.

As implied by the IRO, even though your daughter is 16, it is reasonable to expect that children’s services will still give ‘due consideration’ to your views and, therefore, discuss any arrangements with you. Best practice would be to try and agree their plans with all parties involved. An exception to this would be if your daughter had specifically requested that you not be given certain information or consulted about a certain issue. I wonder if this is likely to be the case?

You mention that you intended to make formal complaints about your concerns. Hopefully that process will assist you to get some clearer answers from children’s services. Do keep posting to let us know how things are going.

Suzie
FRG Adviser