SGO advice

[Mummytotwo]

New to the group,

Can someone who has been in the same situation as me advise me.

Special guardianship has been granted and just wondering if there is anyway to increase visitation rights for the parents?

Also how long do the local authority stay involved once the children are housed with you? They haven't moved in as yet.

Are the parents able to overturn the SGO once it is has been granted ?

Are the local authority able to assist with moving?

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Mummytotwo
Welcome to the family and friends carers’ discussion forum and thank you for your posts.

My name is Suzie, online adviser at Family Rights Group. I am sorry that it has taken some time for you to receive a response to your posts.

It is good to see that you have had positive assessments to be able to care long term for the child or children concerned. Are there ongoing care proceedings at the moment and are the children looked after children. Looked after means that they are accommodated by children’s services with parental agreement under s.20 or the court has made an interim care order. If the children are looked after children prior to a special guardianship order been made means that certain benefits are available to them even after the order has been made.

I think you should be careful to make sure that any support package offered is decided on before the special guardianship order is made so that there are no difficulties afterwards for you to get for the children what they need. You could ask for the payment of any allowance to be throughout the life of the special guardianship order and included in the order.

You might find it helpful to ask the social worker for a copy of the local authority’s family and friends care policy or you may be able to find in on their website. The policy may be called kinship care or connected person’s policy. It will set out what the local authority offers to carers in your position.

Children’s services can assist with moving expenses to ensure the placement goes well. This should be covered in their policy document. Alternatively, put a request in writing to the social worker and ask for them to reply in writing setting out their reasons if they will not pay.

Please read our advice sheet Support for relatives and friends who are looking after someone else’s child.

Regarding contact, you can tell the court the contact you feel comfortable with and if you and the parent or parents are not able to agree between you, the court will make an order specifying the level of contact. I am not sure why the social worker has said 6 times a year since it will be for the court to decide, although this may be their recommendation depending on the circumstances. As a special guardian you will be able to decide on contact in the future and if there is an order and contact is not working for the child you could ask the court to change it.

Unless the court makes a supervision order, it is unlikely that children’s services will remain involved after the special guardianship order is made. It is possible that you or the parents can ask for assistance with contact if there are difficulties.

All local authorities should provide support services for special guardians and you can ask for support in the future if needed.

You may find it helpful to read our advice sheet DIY Special Guardianship Orders - information for family and friends carers which gives information not only about applying for an order but what it means to have a special guardianship order. The advice sheet Special Guardianship: what does it mean for birth parents? should also be of help.

Should you wish to speak to an adviser, please telephone our advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open from 9.30am to 3pm Monday to Friday.

I hope this is of help.

Best wishes

Suzie

[Skippy]

In our case, the court declined to make a contact order because the judge wanted to give us, as SGs, control - as it happened, the first meeting went very badly and our nephew said he didn't want any more visits. That was six years ago and he maintains this position - he's now 12 and has no interest in or attachment to his birth parents, he is just one of our family. If things had worked out, we would have been able to organise contact however we deemed appropriate, whereas if the court had granted an order for, say, six visit per year, we would have been obliged to stick to that even though our nephew didn't want it.

Parents would have to go back to court to get the SGO overturned, but it is intended to be a permanent order, so they would need an incredibly good reason to have it overturned, and likely you would have to agree. An SGO gives a child the stability their birth parents often cannot offer, and the child's needs trump everything.

We had supervision from the local authority for a year, but since that supervision order expired, we've been on our own - no checks, no liaison, nothing.

Best of luck!