Dear Ellw123
Welcome to the parents’ discussion board and thank you for your post. I am very sorry to hear of the difficulties that you and your family are experiencing and that this is so stressful for you. I hope you have some support for yourself from family or friends.
The final hearing in relation to your children is due tomorrow. Your children are currently with you; you would like a
supervision order to be made but the local authority are recommending a
care order . From what you say, the children had previously been removed but were subsequently returned to your care in May, which seems positive.
It is not possible to predict which order the court will make but it should be the order it believes will be best for your children. Your solicitor is best placed to advise you as they have full knowledge of the situation – they say that the local authority’s statement is poor which may suggest that they are not confident that the local authority will obtain the care order? You are worried that you won’t be listened to – again make sure you discuss with your solicitor how you will be represented in court.
As the local authority has raised concerns about ‘unintentional’ disengagement which you strongly dispute hopefully you have discussed and addressed this with your solicitor’s help, in particular in relation to it being 'unintentional'.
You might find it helpful to look at ‘how does the court make its decision?’ on page 33 of our advice sheet on
care proceedings .
I hope that the court hearing does go well for you and that you and your children are able to move forward.
Please do not hesitate to post again if you have a new query that we can help you with.
With best wishes
Suzie
