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To speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential advice line 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, excluding Bank Holidays). Or you can ask us a question via email using our advice enquiry form.
Are you a parent, kinship carer relative or friend of a child who is involved with, or who needs the help of, children’s services in England? We can help you understand processes and options when social workers or courts are making decisions about your child’s welfare.
Our advice service is free, independent and confidential.
To speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential advice line 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, excluding Bank Holidays). Or you can ask us a question via email using our advice enquiry form.
Our online advice forums are an anonymous space where parents and kinship carers (also known as family and friends carers) can get legal and practical advice, build a support network and learn from other people’s experiences.
Our get help and advice section has template letters, advice sheets and resources about legal and social care processes. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, you can use our webchat service to chat online to an adviser.
Child who are on remand because they are awaiting trial in the youth court are also looked after children. These children will usually be placed in a secure children’s home, a secure training centre or a youth offender’s institution.
Not always.
Some looked after children in England enter or remain in the care system under a court order. This is because the Family Court has decided that is in their best interests. And that children’s services should have parental responsibility for them. These children are described as being ‘in care’.
But some children are looked after in the care system under a voluntary arrangement. A voluntary arrangement can be put in place without any court oversight. It is not a court order. Children’s services do not have parental responsibility for a child looked after under a voluntary arrangement. So, children in voluntary arrangements are not described as being ‘in care’. Instead, they are described as ‘accommodated’ by children’s services. See our Children looked after in the care system under voluntary arrangements (section 20) page for further information.
The law sets out the duties children’s services has to children who are looked after in the care system. Some of these duties are slightly different depending on whether a child is looked after under a court order or under a voluntary arrangement. Open or download this table to see the main duties children’s services have when any child is looked after in the care system. The table describes:
Children in the care system under voluntary arrangements (section 20) and Children in care under a court order.
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