Family Rights Group | Kinship carers’ Forum

So a long story but my niece was born premature and right away due to concerns regarding my sisters living situation and decision making her and my niece came to live with me. My sister made some decisions not in the best interests of her daughter and it was recommended by a social worker that I not leave my niece unsupervised with my sister. This has meant my sister had pretty much left all care of my niece up to me for the last two months. I have two small children of my own and my niece is 3 months with some medical issues resulting from her early birth. About 2 weeks ago my sister left my home and moved back where she was precious to my niece being born(this was the place she lived that was deemed unsuitable for my niece) she left my niece in my care. Once the social services discovered she had moved out and based on other decisions she had made putting my niece at risk prior to me caring for her they had a child protection conference. It has since been decided that because my niece is safe and loved with me a child protection plan isn’t needed unless my sister tried to remove her from my care. There are now court proceedings for SGO and me and my partner have the local authorities support in becoming my nieces guardian. During this process they are obtaining an order to say my niece is to stay in my care pending the outcome. They did however say the checks are very extensive and my partner has recently signed an IVA due to old debt, will this effect our ability to be approved for SGO? They also assure me they don’t believe the baby’s dad is in any fit state to parent her nor anyone on his side of the family so it is very likely me and my partner will be the only ones assessed and the local authority does not want her to be a looked after child due to her age. I am just really wondering what the checks include and if the fact that they have already left me with the care of niece is a good sign that we may get to keep her.

Dear Costa2616,

Welcome to the kinship carers’ forum and thank you for your post. I hope that the following advice is of some help to you.

Firstly, you say that your partner has recently signed an Individual Voluntary Arrangement due to historical debt and you would like to know if this would affect your likelihood of having a positive assessment for an SGO. This should not have any impact on the assessment as government guidance states that special guardianship arrangements should not fail just because of financial problems (please see Regulation 6 in the document linked above). I would advise that you and your partner are completely open and honest about your financial situation with the social worker. This will mean that any potential issues can be identified and appropriate support can be planned to ensure that you are able to look after your niece. You also ask what the assessment might consist of – I would suggest that you read our advice sheet 2c – DIY special guardianship orders: care proceedings, and look at the information on page 5 under ‘The assessment process’. You can find this by following this link HERE.

You mention that the local authority ‘are obtaining an order to say my niece is to stay in my care’. From this information I think that you mean that the local authority have issued care proceedings and are making an application for an interim care order? This would give them parental responsibility and then they can make the decision about where the child lives (even if the parents don’t agree). You don’t mention if you are receiving any financial support from the local authority but you should be paid a fostering allowance as you are a kinship foster carer. This should be the same amount that the local authority pay to all their foster carers and should have been paid to you from when the child came into your care. If you are not being paid as a kinship foster carer then I would suggest that you use template letter 4 to request this (and template letter 5 can be used to make a formal complaint if children’s services don’t agree to the request).

From the information you have given I think that the local authority have said that they are provisionally supporting you in putting yourselves forward as special guardians so that you can look after your niece long term. Ultimately it will be up to the court to make the final decision as to whether to grant an SGO however they will take the local authority’s recommendations seriously and they have a duty to place the child with a family member if possible. Given the information you have shared it sounds positive so far for you. You don’t say if you are party to proceedings but if you are not then you may wish to consider applying to the court for this. Becoming party to proceedings means that you will be able to go into the courtroom and hear the evidence, submissions and judgements made. You will receive copies of all paperwork submitted during the proceedings. You may also be entitled to legal aid and can have the support of a solicitor. I would encourage you to speak with a solicitor about this as soon as possible – you can find a solicitor on The Law Society website and you should chose someone who is a child law specialist. It is particularly important that you receive legal advice regarding the financial support being offered to you under the special guardian support plan. It is important to consider any future support you might need given that your niece has medical issues.

I think that it would be helpful for you to read some of our advice sheets thoroughly and then post again if you have any further queries. In particular I would suggest that you read:

1) Advice sheet 2a) Special guardianship: an introduction
2) Advice sheet 2c) DIY special guardianship orders: care proceedings
3) Advice sheet 2e) Practical and financial support for special guardians

I hope that this is of some help. Please post again if you have any further queries, or you can call our free helpline on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm) to speak with an adviser in more detail.

Best wishes,
Suzie

Hi suzie. Thank you for your reply. Things have taken a turn since I last posted. For some reason when the solicitor went to get what I now know was a child arrangement order she was told that she couldn’t do that as they want to go forward with pre proceedings. The baby has been in my care almost since she has been born and I have received no financial help despite them saying on numerous occasions she would be in care if not with us. I am not too bothered by this however we keep hearing one thing from the social worker and then a completely different thing a few days later. I am not a party to proceedings at the moment. The first meeting is in two weeks and I am hoping to become party to proceedings so I can attend as the baby is in my care and looked after by myself and my partner, we consider her part of our family unit. The social worker the baby currently has is almost certain the baby will remain with us as her mum wants that and her dad is a drug addict and doesn’t have a stable place to live. I can’t help but feel she could be taken away at any moment and it gives me such anxiety. The baby isn’t in our care in any ‘official’ capacity, we are almost glorified babysitters and despite me attending all appointments with the baby I’m actually not able to make any decisions regarding anything which is infuriating since she lives with me and I take care of her 24/7. Her mum pops in to visit whenever she likes and her dad is currently being assessed for supervised visits. Sorry to go on I just don’t feel like we know where we stand at the moment and it majes things so hard, I love my niece so much and I can’t bare to watch her be trashed and placed with anyone who will give her less than what she deserves.

Dear Costa2616,

Thankyou for your post updating us on your situation. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.

From the information you have given it seems that children’s services have decided to go ahead with the care proceedings process. You say that you are hoping to become party to proceedings and I think that the first hearing will be sometime around now. HERE is some information about the stages of care proceedings which you may find helpful to read.

Although the social worker sounds supportive of you being the long-term carers for your niece you don’t say what has been done so far in terms of the assessments on yourself and your partner. Children’s services should complete an initial viability assessment, before going on to complete a full assessment. You can find more information about this, including how to challenge if the assessment is negative, on pages 5-9 of our advice sheet 2c (DIY special guardianship orders: care proceedings) HERE.

Although you say that you aren’t too worried about the fact that you haven’t received any financial support from children’s services, I would like to reiterate what I said in my previous post and highlight that you should be receiving a fostering allowance as you are a kinship foster carer. As you said, children’s services have told you more than once that if your niece was not in your care she would be in foster care. Please see my previous post for links to template letters that you can use to request that this payment is backdated to when your niece came into your care.

I understand that it is frustrating that you are unable to make decisions about your niece despite the fact that she is in your care. As things stand the baby’s mother and father (if he is on the birth certificate) are the only people who have parental responsibility for the baby. This means that legally they can make decisions about the baby. However, if children’s services obtain parental responsibility through court then they will be able to make decisions without the mother and father’s consent. Looking at the longer term, a significant advantage of becoming a special guardian is that the special guardian obtains ‘enhanced’ parental responsibility for the child, meaning that if you become a special guardian for your niece you will be able to make decisions about her, including the contact she has with her parents.

If you are finding the current contact arrangements stressful then I would suggest that you discuss this with the social worker and their team manager. It would be useful to think about what additional support you feel that you need to manage the contact arrangements, or what changes you think need to be made to the current situation.

I hope that this is of some help. Please post again if you would like further advice or you are welcome to call our advice line on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm) to speak with an adviser.

Best wishes,
Suzie