Help court proceedings started

[PurpleJelly]

We have had social services involvement for 18mths -2 years
After my son refused to go to school.

He has a autism diagnosis an the main stream school where not meeting his needs.
We also have a daughter who is undiagnosed but awaiting assessment.
She is struggling with school her emotions an communication.

We have poor school attendance
None existent for my son who we had to battle to get an ehcp in place an a special school placement, which he was going to start the week the lockdown happened.

Both my children are obese an we have been working on this, but services at the minute are space if none existent.

We didn't meet the very difficult weight loss target that was set an now proceedings have been started to go to court.

My son has only just started to communicate again after the breakdown in main stream school, he reverted to no toileting no sleep an extremely unstable emotionally, he isn't able to cope with being removed from a home.
We do have a psychologist report showing this from his ehcp.

We have routines, boundaries etc anyone with a child with autism knows you can not survive day to day without routine.
We have a disability SW,
Who doesn't seem to understand my children's needs an we have had to fight all the way, it's exhausting.

We were all looking forward to starting back at school in September, but looks like my children will be removed before we get to that
We have a solicitor each, an have done everything asked of us, but not as quickly as SS would like, we have to introduce changes very slowly

SW have said we let our child do what they want when they want, eat whatever they want etc, I have shown her my food cupboards to prove they don't have access to junk food.
How do I prove they have boundaries routine etc,
My children get over excited when people come round an very emotional.

Help desperately needed please

[PurpleJelly]

Please I need help

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear PurpleJelly

Welcome to the parents’ discussion forum and thank you for posting. I am sorry it has taken some time to respond to your post due to workload.

I see from your post that you are currently involved in care proceedings and very worried about what the outcome of the proceedings is likely to be regarding your children.

From your post it seems that both your children have individual needs. You do not say how old your children are but children’s services has been involved with your family for some time. Is it the case that your son’s failure to attend school was the main reason for children’s services to become involved in respect of safeguarding concerns? I suppose that as there was a period when the children were on child protection plans.

Children’s services it seems, made the decision to start care proceedings because of the concerns relating to your children physically and emotionally. I see that your son has an EHC plan in place now and you are worried that he will not be able to start school as the outcome of the case will mean that your children are removed from your care. You say that you have done what has been asked of you and this is something the court will be made aware by your legal representative in the case.

You could discuss with your solicitor whether there could be a possibility that with appropriate support you would be able to meet your children’s needs and safely care for them. This could then possibly be considered and, appropriate assessments done to look at perhaps the type, level of support and whether this would be possible long term.

Your solicitor in the care proceedings who knows the full background of your case and children’s services’ evidence to the court, will be able to advise you more about your case. All the work that you have done should be made known to the court and it will be for the court to decide what would be in your children’s best interests,. The court has to consider the children’s welfare which is the most important aspect of its decision making for the children’s long term care. Please read information here about the welfare checklist.

The children’s guardian that solicitor for the children will put forward their views about what is considered best for your children. The final decision will be for the judge to make a decision after considering all the evidence.

You may also find it helpful to read our advice sheet Care (and related) proceedings

Should you wish to speak to an adviser, you can telephone our advice line on 0808 801 0366. The advice line is open from 9.30 am to 3pm Monday to Friday (except Bank Holidays)

Best wishes

Suzie