Any information would be greatly appreciated

[cam]

Hello

I am in a position that is very frustrating. On 13th November my elderly Mother received an urgent answerphone message from a SW to contact them. She gave the number to me and I spoke to them, it was regarding my niece age 9 (my brothers child) they wanted my brother, who lives in America, to urgently contact them, I was told nothing at all, only that she was 'fine'!
My brother rang immediately and was told that his daughter was voluntarily given up by her Mother in August, to her sister, as her drinking was out of control. He has not been told why they are now involved, only that the Mother has consistently failed her drug and alcohol testing. They asked him if there was any family members willing to take on his daughter full time, of course he said he would, they didn't seem very impressed with that, as he is in the final stages of obtaining his Green Card and cannot leave America! Anyway he put me forward, I spoke to a SW and asked about my niece, behavior, school etc I was told I was not privy to any information. I explained I have 2 children myself, one little girl who is 6 months older than my niece, I need to know what I am getting into, but they still said no. I was also told I don't have any time as there is a cut off ordered from the court, which is in 3 weeks time. That's all I have been told and now there is complete silence from the SW, my brother has rang and emailed everyday and I have emailed twice and nothing! He wants to speak to his daughter desperately, which the SW said would be ok but nothing at all has happened.

My brother was told that he is now party to the proceedings and will get the court papers, however, SW is now completely ignoring him.

I do not understand this at all, we find out that there is an issue in November for something that has been happening since August, get told a skeleton story and then silence.

Where do we go from here, My niece is in England, I am in Scotland and her father is in the States! What a mess!

Any help, suggestions, questions, would be very greatly received and appreciated. Thank you

[Robin D]

I suggest you find out which court the case is being heard in, likely to be the family or county court in the nearest major town/city to where your neice is living. You can ring the court office, explain you are family and ask if they are handling the case. Once you have the right court, consider applying as a party which will cost you or your brother a fee but will force Children's services to listen.

If your brother is on the birth certificate for the child or otherwise has PR. He will not need to seek leave to apply even if he is in America and he should have been notified of the proceedings anyway.

You might also want to look at the advice sheets on this site at http://frg.org.uk/need-help-or-advice/advice-sheets which contain a lot of useful information.

Best wishes .... Robin

[cam]

Thank you so much, I have the court details now, however, my brother has been told in an email today that he can only get the court documents through the SW and to keep 'hounding them' they will not send him any details.

I will have a look at the advice sheets, thanks again.

[David Roth]

You might also want to get in touch with the children's guardian, who will have been appointed by the Children And Family Court Advisory and Support Service (known as Cafcass). You can find the contact details for their offices here: http://www.cafcass.gov.uk/contact-us.aspx

A children's guardian is appointed for every care proceedings application. They are independent social workers whose role is to present the best interests and wishes of the child to the court. They are very influential in the court's decision-making.

Local authorities are legally obliged to consider a place within the family for children going into care, but it sounds as if the local authority you are dealing with may have started to do this but then had second thoughts (or maybe they are just very busy). Most courts are now hearing care proceedings to a very tight timescale of six months, and they should only overrun that time limit in exceptional circumstances. If family and friends carers with an interest in the child come forward too late in the court process, they are in very real danger of missing out on the chance to bring up the child.

I would therefore suggest that you put your wish to be considered as a carer for the child in writing to the social worker, possibly as a recorded delivery letter, with a copy to the Director of Children's Services (if you know which council it is you can get the name and address here: http://www.adcs.org.uk/contacts/dcs.html ). You should also try to speak to the Cafcass children's guardian as soon as possible, so they can help to ensure that you are considered.

[Robin D]

Question for David. What would be the legal position if the father wants the child but is not prepared to return to the UK to live?

[David Roth]

Parents who have parental responsibility for their children are able to make decisions about where the children will live with them, including living abroad, subject of course to any entry and residence requirements of the particular country they would be living in. However, if the mother disagrees and they cannot come to an agreement, then they could go to court for a Specific Issues Order to settle the disagreement.

The father will automatically have parental responsibility if he was married to the mother when the child was born, or if he is named on the birth certificate. Otherwise he would have to apply for a court order to give him PR.