Care Proceedings

[Angel0301]

On the 4/9/24, an Intial Child Protection Conference was held where it was decided both my children will be placed on a child protection plan. This meeting happened the day after I gave birth to my second child. On the 5/9/24 a discharge planning meeting was held for me and my newborn where again it was decided my partner could not return to the family address nor could he take me home from the hospital. This meant I had to find a way of getting home myself, and my option was a taxi, which was kindly paid for by the hospital even though Children's Services said they could help get me home. However, I live on a first-floor flat with no lift, and after birth, I had stitched and, of course, was in pain. Therefore, my partner came and helped take the baby upstairs and came back the following day with some shopping for myself, which the midwife saw and reported it to Children's Services. When the social worker came out after receiving this information, he told us the safety plan was broken and they would now seek legal advice. My partner questioned him what support could be offered to me post birth to make sure I have food in the cupboards and can get to appointments. Again, nothing was sorted, and I had to manage on my own as my family is in the process of moving closer to me.

A few days pass, and the social worker visits with paperwork for me, which is a safety plan that needs to be signed, and a letter of issue saying they are starting care proceedings. This was received around 10/9/24 . Now we haven't been offered a pre proceedings meeting and have gone straight to care proceedings. However, the social worker wishes for the children to remain in my care as there is no risk from me. They've also stated there is no issue with my partners parenting skills. The risk he poses is sexual and emotional through dv. Our daughter has been through SARC, and no evidence was found of harm to her. The dv case was an incident that occurred through my partner transitioning from army to civilian life. It was a verbal argument that resulted in him wanting to commit suicide and I went to stop him, and he had pushed me. The police were already called due to the nature of what was happening, and I made a statement, which I withdrew as I didn't want to press charges for him pushing me.

So now I'm left wondering the following:
1) Why wasn't we offered a pre proceedings meeting before care proceedings if the children are not at immediate risk?
2) How long does it take after receiving the first letter to state they are initiating care proceedings before we are in court?

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Angel0301

Welcome back to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for your further post.

I hope that you, your newborn baby and toddler are doing well. I know that this is a stressful and difficult time for you.

Please do revisit my response to your earlier post on the ‘have social done this right’ thread where I provided advice in relation to the reasons why children’s services were involved and how to address the way in which children’s services managed the initial child protection conference the same day that your baby was born.

So, I will focus on the current situation where you explain that children’s services have given you a letter of issue (informing you that they are beginning care proceedings) on 10/09.

The most important thing for you to do now is to continue to engage with the safety plan and to instruct a children law accredited solicitor to represent you. Your partner should do the same. Please see our advice on working with a solicitor which may help you get the best out of the professional working with your solicitor.

You are wondering why children’s services did not begin pre-proceedings as they are recommending that the children remain in your care. Instead, they have decided to take the matter to court quickly. You are right that there are a number of steps that children’s services are expected to take before the begin care proceedings. They also must show the court what steps they took prior to this to help you and your partner resolve their concerns and keep the children safe. So, they should only apply to court to seek an urgent order where it is necessary. It may be that at the legal planning meeting, when children’s services and their legal team discussed all the available information about your family, they decided that it was in the children’s best interests to start care proceedings straight away.

You can ask your solicitor, when they have all the legal paperwork, to explain in more detail the reason behind children’s services’ decision.

You want to know how soon after receiving the letter of issue does the first court hearing take place. The date, time, and location of the first court hearing should be noted in the letter of issue. It sounds as if the letter you have received does not contain this information. When children’s services make an application to the court and ‘issue’ proceedings they must tell the court if an urgent hearing is required. In your situation, it does not seem that an urgent hearing is needed but there should not be any unnecessary delay either. You can contact your solicitor and social worker to clarify. I understand that waiting to hear may make you feel very anxious, and this is particularly difficult when you are caring for a new baby. So, I hope that this is clarified as soon as possible.

Please do involve your wider family and friends’ network to support you to care for the children and as kinship carers, if needed. You can ask your social worker to arrange a family group conference (FGC) to bring your network together to make a safe family plan. Please see here for more details.

And post back or contact the advice service via one of our other advice options, if you need to.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Suzie