Child returned home Sec. 47 initiated.

[Wayhar85]

Good afternoon, I would greatly appreciate some advice regarding my current situation with the Local Authority.

Background -

My wife's daughter is currently a 16 year old "looked after child", back in April she returned to our home address stating that she no longer wanted to be in the care system and wanted to live a normal life with us. In the three years she has been a looked after child she has moved schools, made new friends and kept the situation a secret from them. She feels like under the care of the local authority she can't live the life of a normal 16 YO girl, having to constantly lie and make up reasons why she can't stay at friends houses, and them unable to stay over at her home. Luckily she is a grade A student and has got through her exams, however this is now taking a mental toll on her.

Last week, she made her way to our home again and point blank refused to leave and return to the care of her home placement and staff. It goes without saying there have been endless welfare visits and calls from social workers, along with threats of police involvement, which is causing her significant mental stress and emotional exhaustion, to the point that she has blocked any contact numbers from the social services and care staff and refuses to be contacted by them. There was also an issue with the local authority withholding her personal belongings, which they have no right to do under the convention on the rights of a child. This has since been resolved and I with my wife have collected her belongings.

An emergency care plan meeting was carried out and section 47 initiated, where they have put unrealistic terms in place, such as hourly calls, visits every day our house.

I would be grateful if the following questions could be answered or if not some advice given in our current situation. I would like to add that the allegations made towards my wife have not been proven beyond reasonable doubt in a criminal proceeding with a result of NFA. I do however I understand that the standard of proof in civil proceedings is on the balance of probabilities, which hasn't been exercised with regard to the allegations made.

My questions are as follows;

1. What are possible/likely outcomes after the 45 days of the section 47, based on the fact that their parent assessment won't have been completed by then. Will my step daughter be removed again, also what rights does she have? she is under a court order until age 18.

2. As the factors of the emergency care plan are written on word document in an email, not officially issued or signed etc, what legal grounds do they hold? (for example it states that my step daughter is not allowed to spend the night at a friends house. If we allow her to spend the night at a friends house are we breaking any law).

3. Do we have any grounds to work with the local authority to come to a more suitable arrangement regarding their frequency of visits, calls as it is causing significant disruption, mental distress and exhaustion, bordering on harassment. As an example my wife and step daughter had a planned visit with their son/brother at the care home yesterday and returned home at 1530 hrs. At 1800 hrs a member of the care staff visited the home just to ask is she okay. This has already caused my wife who runs three businesses a financial loss together with the same exhaustion and distress.

4. Can the local authority use this situation to affect contact with my wife's son? My wife is worried that there will be a uturn on the recent decision to allow supervised contact with her son on a monthly basis.

5. With the initiation of the Sec 47, as a family are we entitled to free legal advice?

6. Does my step daughter have the right to not communicate with her care staff and the local authority?

I would also like to clarify something, my wife holds 49% parental responsibility of her children, does this actually account for anything in terms of decisions made regarding her daughter? If while in our care, as is the current situation, my wife decides it is safe for her daughter to stay at a friends house, surely a mature reasonable agreement should be made. The issue is My step daughter doesn't trust the local authority and doesn't want the address of where she wants to stay given to them for fear of them turning up.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but any advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[fru5trated]

Hi Wayhar85

I would contact a family law solicitor and ask them as I believe that you can get legal advice for a section 47

** please note I am just a parent not a professional
My thoughts are you have nothing to lose by asking the question and everything to gain

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Wayhar85

Welcome back to the parents’ discussion board. Thank you for your further post. I am sorry to hear about the current difficult situation.

You explain that your wife's 16-year-old daughter, is currently staying with your family as she has refused to return to the residential care home where she was placed, under a care order. It is not possible or helpful to revisit why the care order was made. It has not been challenged or ended by a court, to date.

As a result of your wife’s daughter's unplanned return home, without the agreement of children’s services, they are now doing a child protection investigation. There is a temporary safety plan in place involving frequent statutory visits and calls. You and your family find this very intrusive and disruptive.

You have several queries which I will try to answer as far as possible. Unfortunately, I cannot predict the outcome or what children’s services will do, in certain situations.

The 45 working day timescale is a maximum and a child protection investigation may be completed sooner. If there is to be a child protection conference, this must take place within 15 working days of the strategy meeting which began the investigations. So, there could be a child protection conference soon, if children’s services decide that it is necessary. The intense monitoring in place may mean that this is likely. You are right that the specialist parenting assessment may not be completed within 45 working days, but it does not have to be, this could continue in parallel to any child protection processes. Potentially your wife’s daughter could be removed. However, it seems that children’s services are undertaking a number of assessments to determine what next steps to take. Your wife’s daughter could have an advocate or get her own legal advice. My previous response contains some links to advocacy for children and young people. You can also find out more about advocacy for your wife’s daughter, here. The young person may also have a personal adviser as part of the pathway planning that children’s services should be doing.

If there are parts of the temporary safety plan for your wife’s daughter that your wife is unable to comply with, she should discuss this urgently with her daughter's social worker. The document, presumably sent from the social worker’s or the legal department’s email address, sets out the expectations that they have which allow your wife’s daughter to remain safely at home currently. As children’s services have a care order and are doing a child protection investigation it would not be wise or in your wife’s daughter’s best interests to make decisions which breach this. Your wife or her daughter should contact the social worker if they want to discuss making any changes.

3) You and your family can discuss, with the social worker, your concerns about the frequency of the visits and their impact on your wife’s daughter in particular to see if you can come to a more manageable arrangement. You can also ask the social worker to explain exactly what the concerns are and why the current plan is so intense. If you are very unhappy and feel that children’s services are being unreasonable you could consider making a complaint.

4) It is good to hear that it has been recently agreed that your wife and her son should have supervised contact once a month. Contact is about your wife’s son’s needs. So, hopefully, the current situation should not impact as children's services have recently agreed that this is best for the child. However, it is important that your wife can work with social workers and professionals. They would also need to consider the outcome of the current child protection investigation, for your your wife’s son too.

5) No, unfortunately, parents are not eligible for legal aid during child protection investigations or where child protection plans are made.

6) It is better for your wife’s daughter to be involved in decisions that are being made about her, especially as she is now 16. Advocacy can help with this so I would recommend exploring this urgently.

7) Although your wife still has parental responsibility (PR) children’s services are the main decision-makers and can limit the extent to which a parent exercises their PR. My advice is that your wife and daughter communicate with the social worker about issues such as visits to friend’s houses and try to reach an agreement. You can also contact the Independent Reviewing Officer in relation to any difficulties with the care plan.

You may find it helpful to read this guide to working with a social worker.

I hope this helps.

If you need further advice, please post back on this forum, or contact the advice service via one of the methods linked to here.

Best wishes

Suzie