Interim supervision order

An interim supervision order places a child under the supervision of children’s services. This means children’s services must be directly involved with the child’s life. They will have a duty to ‘advise, assist and befriend’ the child. If the order is made the child will still have a social worker.

Requirements can be added to an interim supervision. Examples include the child having medical treatment. Or for having to live in certain places for specific periods of time.

Just like with an application for an interim care order, the law sets out when children’s services may make an application for an interim supervision order to start care proceedings. It is the same legal test in section 38 of the Children Act 1989. It says that children’s services may only start care proceedings if they have good reason (‘reasonable grounds’) to believe a child is:

1. Suffering significant harm, or is likely to suffer significant harm, and
2. That is because either:

• The care a parent is giving to the child is not what it would be reasonable to expect a parent to provide (see section 32(1)(b)(i)) Or

• The child is beyond their parents’ control (see section 32(1)(b)(ii)).

If children’s services apply for the order, it doesn’t mean the Family Court will make it.