Why would an interim placement to a non-UK person in UK cause jurisdiction issues?

[bayescr]

Long story short, my family is in a care proceedings with child taken into foster care.

Father was the one who caused emotional harm to the child while the Mother failed to protect from the Father.

Mother's mother (grandmother) is a foreign national, who has travelled to the UK seeking to be the interim carer inside the family house in UK. The Father has moved out of the family house. The family is seeking interim placement back to the Mother supported by Grandmother, or to Grandmother supported by Mother. That placement is basically supported by guardian if both Mother and Grandmother are together to care.

The local authority is very difficult and is making things up along the way to block placement back to Mother, even though proportionality calls for Mother's care. The latest technicality the authority is raising is that if the interim placement involves the Grandmother, it will mean losing control in terms of jurisdiction, so warning the guardian against supporting the placement. They say the Grandmother is a national of country X, so placing the child in her care means passing the jurisdiction to country X.

That doesn't make sense. The interim placement will be decided by the UK court and the care will be entirely inside the UK. Just because the interim carer is a foreign national should not cause or imply any transfer of jurisdiction. I think the authority is trying to mislead and confuse the guardian.

Can anyone please comment.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Bayescr,

Thank you for your post and apologies for the delay in my reply. I am Suzie an online adviser for Family Rights Group responding to your enquiry today.

You explain that a child in your family is in foster care on an interim care order. The court is considering a plan for the child to return to the care of their mother, but with a safety plan agreed for grandmother to be present in the home and support with care and safeguarding.

The guardian is in support of the arrangement if the mother and grandmother both agree to care together.

This arrangement is proposed because of emotional abuse from the child’s father and a concern that mother was unable to fully protect the child in the past in this complex and challenging situation and is need of consistent family support for her child to return home and live safely with family again.
I think that the mother should seek clarity as to the framework that is being proposed.

There are different possibilities:-

The local authority could continue to seek a full care order but agree that the child could live at home with mother and grandmother under this order. This would mean that the child remains ‘looked after’ and children’s services would share parental responsibility with the parents. Grandmother would not have parental responsibility.

The local authority could seek a supervision order to underpin the shared care arrangement for mother and grandmother. The grandmother would not have parental responsibility. You can read more about supervision orders here.

The local authority could agree to assess the grandmother as a kinship foster carer. You can read more about this here. Under this arrangement the local authority would keep parental responsibility (shared with parents) but delegate the caring responsibility to the grandmother, agreeing that mother also lives in the household, but grandmother is the main carer. The grandmother’s status as a foreign national could be relevant here, and there would b practical points to explore.

The local authority could support grandmother to become a special guardian which would give her parental responsibility. You can read more about special guardianship here. The grandmother’s status as a foreign national could be relevant here, and there would be practical points to explore.

Family Rights Group only give general advice, not specific legal advice, so this is a matter the mother needs to discuss in more depth with her legal representatives. The grandmother's immigration status and any other practical issues are beyond the remit of our service.

Should the grandmother’s status as a foreign national become relevant you may find useful information from Children Across Borders. You can link to their website here.

I think the priority now is seeking clarification from children’s services (and the children’s guardian who is in support of the plan) as to the framework/order they propose for the suggested care arrangement for the child and agreeing the details of how it could work.

Best wishes,
Suzie