Ending a SGO

[Robin D]

If can do it on an agreed trial basis, then it's just a case of putting to the court as a position agreed between parties, so the court just rubber stamp the decision to deal with the formal legal position. Certainly under current restrictions, it's likely to be all done remotely with perhaps a video call, but it may not need a hearing at all. If the judge is persuaded by the written evidence, there may not be a physical hearing. A bit like not having to attend court for agreed divorce hearings. They just get listed and dealt with within the court process.

I suggest writing down a plan that you and your daughter agree and sending a copy to the local authority (signed for). Check and print the proof of delivery, and clip it to a copy of the plan. Keep it somewhere safe just in case.

It gives the LA the opportunity to consider if they are happy.

The plan can be very simple. For example.

Step 1: Children will continue to spend every weekend with mother.
Step 2: Children spend half term with mother.
Step 3: Children move permanently to mum during the summer holidays.
Step 4: Review of the situation between the parties with assistance if need by by the local authority.
Step 4. End of October, application to court to revoke the SGO.

Conditions:
- Children will continue to have regular contact with you face to face or by phone daily, weekly or whatever you want. You might want to agree to having all the children after school, or provide some other regular support for example.
- Children will stay with you on whatever frequency you can agree.
- If the children are showing signs of distress then the situation can be reviewed at any point. Your primary concern is the welfare of the children.
- The school(s) really need to be involved even though they are not currently in school. It might help to have the support for the plan by the head(s).

Good luck. Emotionally its very draining as we know. If you can avoid a contested contested court hearing, that should make life a lot easier for everyone.

Robin

[Hornbeam]

Hi,
Newbie here also looking for advice with regards to an SGO, but first a little background information. A little over 8 years ago & after a considerable amount of effort our then 4 year old Grandchild came to live with us, the child's mother who is a single parent sadly couldn't provide the child with a safe environment. The courts local to where our daughter lives granted us an SGO with a 51% share in the child's care & at that point our Grandchild came to live with us on the mainland, the court allocated our Daughter 3 visits a year for 3 hours at a time at our discretion. It has been quite a bumpy ride for us over the 8 years with our Grandchild's behavior gradually getting worse with the passage of time, we have had little or no practical help from any of the authorities along the way & certainly no respite of any kind, it has got to a point with us now approaching retirement age we could no longer cope with the situation. We were being threatened with violence manipulative behavior & foul language constantly from our Grandchild, the Grandchild had threatened to kill our dog & had been stealing from the bedrooms so we have had to put locks on the doors. Our mental health had reached breaking point, both our GP & the Councillor at our surgery had made recommendations to social services on our behalf requesting that our Grandchild be removed on grounds of our declining mental health & safety. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that they took no action to help us, there stance was that the best place for our Grandchild was to remain with us in our home despite the relationship having completely broken down. In the end our only option was to let our Grandchild go back to live with her mother, social services would not take any responsibility for this situation but insisted that it was solely a family arrangement & not with their blessing.

Now onto our question, we are worried that because we still have the 51% say in our Grandchild's care should the relationship between our Grandchild & her mother break down could the social services insist that the Grandchild be returned to our care ?

The Councillor at our surgery has said that won't happen as the situation between us & our Grandchild has irretrievably broken down, we have been told that the SGO can be left in place until it runs it's course & ends when the child reaches 18.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Hornbeam

Welcome to the kinship carers’ forum and thank you for posting.

My name is Suzie, online adviser at Family Rights Group and will respond to your post.

I am sorry that you have experienced so many difficulties caring for your granddaughter under a special guardianship order. Due to your granddaughter’s increasingly challenging behaviour and with no support from children’s services, you have decided you can no longer care for her. To ensure your safety, you have decided that she should be with her mother and have now returned your granddaughter to her mother’s care.

It is surprising that children’s services have given you no support and especially for your granddaughter who it appears from the background information you have shared, might need therapeutic input as she may have experienced early trauma before coming to you. You may want to make a consider a formal complaint about the lack of support.

Having decided you can no longer care for your granddaughter the best course for you would be to apply to the court to discharge the special guardianship order. Under the order, as you say, you have parental responsibility for your granddaughter which means you could be asked to be involved in future decisions should the arrangement with her mother breakdown. This could include her returning to your care, but you would be able to refuse. It would then be for children’s services to apply to the court for a care order, and this would include you and your granddaughter’s mother and her father.

The mother can also apply discharge the special guardianship order and ask for an order for her daughter to live with her. Children's services would be asked to provide a report to the court whether they consider the child's welfare and best interests supports her remaining in her mother's care. You would be involved but not as the applicant and can then inform the court whether or not you want the order discharged.

If you wish, the special guardianship order can remain until your granddaughter is 18 years old. You would have the rights and duties of a person with parental responsibility.

To apply to the court to discharge a special guardianship order, you would need to submit a form C1 to the court. Here is a link to the FORM

I hope this is helpful, but should you wish to speak with one of our experienced advisers you can telephone our advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open from 9.30am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays).

Best wishes

Suzie

[Hornbeam]

Hi Suzie,
Thanks for your reply, there is no way we would be able to have our granddaughter come back to live with us & this is our major concern. Now she is back with her mother she has a much larger family support group in place, she has now met her father for the 1st time. Something she said she wanted to do quite often, she has her other grandad & her mothers half siblings in her new family group for support. Living with us denied her access to those relatives, so hopefully as she gets to know them all she will settle into her new life. Our concern about applying to discharge the SGO ourselves is twofold, firstly we can't afford the expense it will incur. Secondly applying to the court that made the order in the 1st place would involve a 5 hour 176 mile drive & a ferry crossing, again involving more expense. Our experience of obtaining the order in the 1st place involved several such trips which turned out to be a costly experience, we're not sure that the social services on the island would submit a report in our daughters favor. Then where would that leave us ? Only this week we had a phone call from the social services on the island looking for us to fill in some background information, we couldn't imagine anything worse than to have to attend a court hearing on the island to be told that the original order would not be discharged & that we would have to bring the child home with us again.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Hornbeam

Thank you for your updating post.

You are concerned about the likely cost of applying to discharge the special guardianship order which you have for your granddaughter as well as the court you would need to attend. You could apply in your local family court, and it will then be for the court to decide where it will be dealt with going forward.

Regarding the cost, you can apply to be exempt from paying the court fee. Here is information about fees exemption or reduction. If you use a solicitor, unless you are assessed as entitled to legal aid, their costs might be a lot. However, you do not have to use a solicitor as you can be what is referred to as a litigant in person (LiP). The courts are used to persons representing themselves so this should not worry you too much.

You wish to discharge the order, and you would explain to the judge the reasons for doing so on your application. I think, as your granddaughter is already in her mother's care, and she would be asked her wishes and feelings about where she is now, your application to discharge the order would likely be successful.
The mother is unlikely to challenge the order being discharged and if children’s services had concerns, then it would be for them to take steps to safeguard your granddaughter. No one can force you to have her back in your care. If she is not safe with her mother, then children’s service would have to consider applying for a care order. From what you say, there is a large family network so any one of them could be assessed, as you were, to care for her.

There are services that offer support to persons going court without legal representation. You can get advice from child law advice on 0300 330 5480, support through court 0300 081 0006. There is also an online service Advice Now that provide information for LiPs. Here is their website Advice Now

As you have parental responsibility under the special guardianship order (SGO) for your granddaughter, you are likely to be contacted by children’s services and or other professionals involved with her.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Best wishes

Suzie