Help needed.

[Dottydingo]

Hi everyone, me & my husband find ourselves in a situation which we know nothing about. & hoping someone could help with some information.

We found out last week that my husbands sister had her 5yr old son (our nephew) taken from her in November 2020, he has been placed with his grandparents since then. They contacted us & asked if we would be willing to look after him temporarily, as they are both in their 70s & cannot cope. We said yes of course.

However SS contacted us yesterday & said they are looking at longterm carers for our nephew & if we passed/agreed then we would have him until his 18 & they would be looking for us to have parental responsibility, this again is absolutely fine.

SS are coming to assess us on Monday but they mentioned things need to move fast as the court date is set for 5 weeks time & that's when the grandparents have agreed to have him until.

So many questions are running through my mind.
Will we potentially get him in 5 weeks time?
Do we become kinship carers? Foster carers?
Is there financial support?
What happens at the viability meeting on Monday?

Grandparents & Mum have all agreed they would like him to live with us.

Thank you in advance for any help x

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Dottydingo

Welcome to the Kinship Carers’ discussion board and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I am FRG’s online adviser. I am sorry to hear of the difficulties your family is experiencing.

I am also very sorry that there has been a delay in my response to your query – you mentioned a court date in 5 weeks time so that may have already passed or be due to happen soon. It might be helpful if you could post a short update to let the board know what has happened since so that I can give you more tailored advice.

By now, you will have had a viability assessment and if that was positive you may be in the process of being assessed / approved as kinship foster carers and as Special Guardians. If for any reason your viability assessment was negative you can challenge it by using our template letter here.

When children’s services talk about you obtaining parental responsibility for your nephew and caring for him until he is 18, they probably mean that you may be able to obtain a Special Guardianship Order for him, if the court decides that is the best option for him.

It is most likely that your nephew would be placed with you as his kinship foster carers first if you are temporarily and later fully approved. You would receive support including a fostering allowance. It is possible that your nephew could be placed with you quite quickly under a fostering arrangement, especially if his grandparents are no longer able to care for him and as you are interested in caring for him long-term.

Under special guardianship, you should also be assessed for a (means-tested and discretionary) Special Guardianship allowance.

You are right to be asking these questions now as it is very important that your nephew’s support needs and yours (as his possible carers) are properly assessed and the right support put in place. The local authority who is responsible for him will have a family and friends care policy too which you may be able to find here; it is worth looking at this policy.

You can find out more about kinship care in this section of our website and we have specialist advice on support for kinship carers including this summary table setting out support and special guardians.

I hope this helps little but please do post back with an update and any specific queries you now have. If you prefer, you can ring our freephone advice line on 0808 010366, Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm.

With best wishes

Suzie