Changes to care order

[Prettygirl81]

can i go back to court to make changes to a care order ??

i would love to go back to court and discharge the whole order however i dont believe there is enough evidence for a judge to discharge it , but i want to go back and get it changed so i have more contact so i get to see my son every weekend / holidays .

his foster carer is not coping at all - never been amazing ! - as much as i would love for my son to come home now he has 16 months left in an education setting and needs to be with the foster carer mon - fri for schooling then come back to me fri eveings - mon mornings so she may hopefully be able to cope better those few days.

do you think this is even a thing ?? or would it just be refused point blank ??

thank you for any responses xx

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Prettygirl81

Welcome to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for your post. My name is Suzie. I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser.

I am sorry to hear that your son is not in your care. He is living with a foster carer. There is a care order in place. You have considered applying to discharge the care order to allow you to care for your son again. However, you have decided that you may not be able to evidence enough change to be successful in bring the order to an end. You have also considered your son’s needs for stability in relation to his education so do not want to disrupt that. That is very reasonable of you. I am attaching a link to how to apply to end a care order, for your information.

You would understandably like to spend more time with your son and are proposing going back to court to apply to vary the care order.

There are a number of ways that you can try to improve/increase your contact with your son. This would not usually involve going to court to change the care order. A parent can apply to court for more contact under a section 34 contact order application but that would usually be if they have not been able to make any progress by negotiating with children’s services. You would need the court’s permission to apply for a contact order.

We have some specific advice for parents about contact with children in care which you can find here.

Your son’s contact arrangements should be reviewed at every Looked After Child Review(LAC) , by his Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) .

You are proposing very extensive, regular, unsupervised, overnight contact including weekends and holidays. You do not say what the current contact arrangements are so it is not possible to say if this is realistic or not. The level of contact you are suggesting is not the norm and there are a number of factors to take into consideration such as any identified risks, your son’s views, your support etc. If your contact is currently supervised then you would have to have an assessment to see if you can move to unsupervised first.

It might be helpful if you posted back to say what the current arrangements are for you to see your son and whether you have had any recent assessments to move forward.

In the meantime, the first thing to do is to discuss your contact with your son with his social worker and let them know that you would like this to change. Please see this advice about what might help you in this discussion.

You can also contact the IRO but best to have raised with the social worker first. Please see these tips for contacting an IRO. If there is a LAC review due then this is a good opportunity to raise this too.

If children’s services do not respond to you or do not clarify their views about extending contact with reasons then you could consider making a complaint. But best to work with them to try to agree a way forward, if possible.

You mention that the foster carer is not coping. You should let your son’s social worker know about any concerns you have about the foster carer’s ability to look after your son. The foster carer will have a supervising social worker whose role is to support them to carry out their role and provide training to do so but also to approve them as suitable or not approve if unsuitable. Foster carers also have reviews. So, if the foster carer is struggling, children’s services need to know and to address this.

I hope that this has helped. Please get back in touch to consider further or if you have any additional queries. You can post back on this forum, call our freephone advice line on 0808 8010366, Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm (except bank holidays) our use our advice enquiry or webchat facility.

Best wishes

Suzie

[Prettygirl81]

Thank you for your response Suzie

just for information i currently have unsupervised contact every fortnight with my son ( every 6 weeks this includes seeing his brother as well )

His current social worker is about to go off on maternity leave , so im just going to wait and raise all my concerns with the new social worker once they are in place and include the IRO in this discussion as well

Many thanks
Prettygirl81