i need help getting my children out of foster care

maggy22
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Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:09 am

i need help getting my children out of foster care

Post by maggy22 » Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:01 pm

I NEED HELP
my 5 children were taken from me last september and this yr the courts placed them in long term foster care we feel like we have been abandond by socail sevices and dont kow wat to do to get them back its killing me to think iam without them and dont know wat to do
can anyone help as iam not willing to give up hope of getting them back yet

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Suzie, FRG Adviser
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Re: i need help getting my children out of foster care

Post by Suzie, FRG Adviser » Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:17 pm

Hi Maggy,

I’m sorry you are having such a difficult time.

In order to advise you it would be useful if I could have a bit more information, so could you answer the following questions and then I’ll reply again:
• Has a final Care Order been made? If so, when did this happen?
• Were you represented by a solicitor during the proceedings?
• What concerns led to the children being removed in the first place and what have you done to address these concerns?
• Have your circumstances changed since the order was made?
• Are you still having contact with the children? If so, how often?

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Best wishes

Suzie

maggy22
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Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 3:09 am

Re: i need help getting my children out of foster care

Post by maggy22 » Tue Sep 13, 2011 12:13 am

hi ty for the reply
yes a final care order was made and it was approx 2 months ago
yes i was represented by a solicitor
the reason for removel was they said neglect by not haveing a clean house that i wasnt treating my kids for headlice (i was getting numerous different advice by professionals) and ex so called freinds saying that they bathed my kids and that we had chineses to eat wen my children didnt have them (rubbish) and that i put my community before my kids (because i stopped my freind from commiting suicide)
since then my husband is working nights and iam looking for work (so we have plenty of money to provide), we have redecorated 3 rooms plus the landing and stairs , and i no longer socailize very much at all
we was having contact regular but they are now dropping it to 6 times a year telephone contact is child led (how my daughter of 3 is expected to remember to ring i dont know)

i need advice as ss dont inform us of what is going on and we havnt been told on what we need to do to get them bk

look forward to hearing from u

x

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Suzie, FRG Adviser
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Re: i need help getting my children out of foster care

Post by Suzie, FRG Adviser » Wed Sep 14, 2011 2:23 pm

Hi Maggy,

Thanks for providing that extra information.

The only way you could have the children returned to your care would be to apply to court to have the Care Order discharged. Unfortunately right now, you cannot do that. The reason is that a Care Order has to be made for 6 months before you can apply to discharge it.

In the meantime I recommend that you keep doing what you are doing in terms of the improvements to the house and the changes to your lifestyle and then in about 4 months go back to your solicitor and ask them to advise you at that point what your chances of success would be if you made an application to court to discharge the Care Order. The court would need to see that there has been a significant change and that these changes have been sustained over a long period of time, rather than just being short term. You would also need to be assessed for public funding (legal aid) as you will not be automatically entitled to it. There is more information about discharging care orders in this care proceedings advice sheet.

Also, keep going to all of the contacts you have. Be on time and make sure the contact is as good as it possibly can be.

The children will continue to be Looked After Children (LAC) and there will be LAC reviews every 6 months. Make sure you attend each review and continue to work as effectively as you can with the professionals involved. It might be helpful for you to read this advice sheet on the duties of the Local Authority when children are LAC.

In terms of Children’s Services (CS), the new name for social services, not telling you what is going on, you still have parental responsibility (PR) for the children so should be told about the major decisions that are made regarding the children. There is more about this in the advice sheet I have just linked to.

I hope this information helps. If you have any more questions please get back to me. Also, if you have the time I would be grateful if you could complete the survey linked to below about our service.

Best wishes

Suzie

PS I have moved your post to the children in care topic as it is more relevant.

ruthmarie
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Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:20 pm

Re: i need help getting my children out of foster care

Post by ruthmarie » Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:46 pm

My circumstances are the same but different! I am desperate to get my child out of the care service, but I am her foster carer! I have fostered her since she was 10 days old and she is now 12+ she has severe autism and is being assessed for a mood disorder. Over the years it has been very difficult working with Social workers as they tend to have very different ideas to me, and actually they do not know her as they only visit once a month for approx 1 hr and have very fixed ideas on how to raise children, partly due to beurocracy. I have for a long time now wanted a SGO
but have been told this would not be supported due to her not receiving the necessary support as she does in foster care. I have spoken with fostering helpline who disagree with this and say she should receive the same support as she does now but willingness to negotiate is needed. Over the years I have been threatened with her removal on several occassions partly because our views on how to deal with issues differs. Due to the intervention of a specialist agency medications were finally reluctantly agreed for her and the change of school that she desperately needed eventually happened. However this child is now in need of further medication due to self harming and severe mood swings and once again this is taking far too long to achieve. I am determined to give this child the permanence and security of a family and to meet her needs without all these unnecessary delays due to beurocracy. It almost seems that their opinion is I cannot care for this child without their supervision and seem reluctant to want to let me make the decisions that I know are correct for this child given I live with her 24/7 Any ideas of help would be welcome. This child has the right to a secure family life without all these added problems and threats surely?

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Suzie, FRG Adviser
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Re: i need help getting my children out of foster care

Post by Suzie, FRG Adviser » Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:35 pm

Hi Ruthmarie,

Sorry you are in such a difficult situation.

Just to clarify, you say you are a foster carer for the child. Therefore does Children’s Services, the new name for social services, have a Care Order for her or is she accommodated i.e. in care with the agreement of her parents? I ask just so I can establish who has parental responsibility i.e. decision making ability for the child. As I’m sure you are aware, as a foster carer you do not have parental responsibility so unfortunately can’t make decisions about her education, medication etc.

Moving on to the issue of Special Guardianship Orders, under these orders you can request support services from Children’s Services akin to what she/you receive whilst she in care. If you give Children’s Services notice that you want to apply for a Special Guardianship Orders then they have to tell you what help they can give and how you can go about having your and the child’s needs assessed. There are more details about the type of help and the assessment process in our DIY guide to Special Guardianship Orders. I think it would be useful for you to read through this as it also contains the court process should you decide to make an application. If you don’t already have a solicitor, it might be worth going to see one for some independent legal advice. Details of local solicitors can be found on the Law Society website.

If you have any more questions after reading through the advice sheet then please get back in touch with us.

Best wishes

Suzie

ruthmarie
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Re: i need help getting my children out of foster care

Post by ruthmarie » Wed Feb 22, 2012 4:24 pm

Hi

just to clarify the LA hold PR she is under a care order. I have made an appointment with a local solicitor to ask for help with special guardianship. Thanks for your help you have reiterated that she is able to secure the same support and services un der SGO as a care order and this is what they are saying wont happen and is the reason they are opposing the application. Contact Laws view is that it is not unusual social workers do not seem to want children adopted or placed as a SGO and make it difficult for people to take children out of the care sector.

ange301126
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Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2011 1:27 pm

Re: i need help getting my children out of foster care

Post by ange301126 » Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:53 am

it has been suggested by failed applicants to adopt children that social workers have a preference to keep children in long-term foster care because fostering agencies are usually managed and owned by ex-social workers or current social workers who have a financial interest . As you will no doubt be aware these agencies get a nice fat commission for placing children with foster families.I am unable to comment on the truth of this but want to give you a possible reason for your conundrum!

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Suzie, FRG Adviser
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Re: i need help getting my children out of foster care

Post by Suzie, FRG Adviser » Wed Feb 29, 2012 10:38 am

Dear Ruthmarie,

I just need to clarify the position over the support that may be available if you were to seek a special guardianship order. I think you have misunderstood the financial position.
A special guardianship allowance is not the same as the allowance that you get for foster care. There is much more support available to children who are in foster care.

The special guardianship allowance will be means tested-so you may not get any of it. If you were to pass the means test-then the starting point for the special guardianship allowance is usually the BASIC foster care allowance. You probably get much more than this now. However, they will take into account your child’s needs when deciding the level of the allowance.

You may be able to retain some of the employment element of foster care allowance-as you are a foster carer applying for an order- but this is only for a short period of time.

Have a look at page 35 of our advice sheet on special guardianship orders. This sets out what support may be available.

Whatever you decide to do-make sure you get a copy of your local authority’s policy on support for special guardianship orders. Get them to put everything in writing before you make any application to court.

Best wishes,
Suzie

Samanta
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Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2019 3:53 pm

Re: i need help getting my baby back with me

Post by Samanta » Tue Feb 05, 2019 4:18 pm

I need help from someone, I have a newborn baby girl.she was with me in a place called Mather and baby place , but I been struggling lil bit and I asked for a restbay for the weekend so I have time too think and clear my head.i came back and I was still struggling so they put me back on a restbay for a week and told me that Friday I return home which is they lied and didn't take my home back to her and it's helped me and I clear my head . Now I want my baby back and they said I can't return back to her that I will leave in a different place and I will have aa contact with baby and do the perent assessment, which is I need help or advice from someone who been through this allrede cuz I want my baby back with me.im really worrie that they will take her away from me I been crying for all this days to see her been struggling to sleep cuz my baby is not next to me 🙁🙁😢😢it's so hard I want her back , and I'm just really really worried they gonna lie and stuff and not give her back to me , I will die if this is gonna happen that's why I will ask please if there any one who can give me advice or help please. please help me so I could take my baby back as soon as possible thanks.
Samanta

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