Advice Sheets

Our advice sheets aim to build on the information on our main Who?, What? and Why? advice pages. They provide more in-depth advice on topics that families involved with children’s services or the Family Court might need guidance about.

In England, some children are looked after in the care system under voluntary arrangements. Other children enter and remain looked after in the care system under a court order.  Children’s services have specific duties to looked after children. The advice sheets below address some specific topics for the parents or carers of children who are looked after.

• 1a) What happens to parents’ welfare benefits when their child becomes looked after?

Kinship carers are relatives or friends raising children who are unable to live with their parents. Our Kinship carer pages explains more about kinship care and the different types of kinship care arrangements that exist. The page provide important information about practical help and financial support. It is aimed at kinship carers, and those who are considering taking on the care of a child from within their network.

Our advice sheets below provide more detailed advice to kinship carers. It includes advice for special guardians and kinship foster carers. We also provide information to parents whose children are in kinship care. These are short, easy to follow advice sheets to provide key information.

There are also some longer DIY guides for relatives and friends who are considering applying to court for a special guardianship order. Or for a child arrangements order.

Our Top tips and templates page also includes a number of letters that kinship carers can use to communicate with children’s services about their entitlement to support.

• 2a) Special guardianship: an introduction
• 2b) Special guardianship: information for parents
• 2c) DIY special guardianship orders: care proceedings
• 2d) DIY special guardianship orders: private law proceedings
• 2e) Practical and financial support for special guardians
• 2f) DIY Child arrangements orders: information for kinship carers
• 2g) Becoming a kinship foster carer: the process
• 2h) Welfare benefits for kinship carers
• 2i) The Education system in England information for kinship carers

Adoption is the legal process of a child becoming a permanent member of a new family. The Adoption page on the advice section of our website provides more information and advice for birth families. These advice sheets provide more detailed, specialist advice for parents whose children may be adopted.

• 3a) Foster for adoption: information for birth parents
• 3b) Adoption: challenging placement orders
• 3c) Adoption: challenging adoption orders

Children’s services have duties towards looked after children who leave care to return to parents or wider family. Or who are leaving care as young adults. The advice sheets below explain those duties. And the legal duties that apply where the young person is an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child.

There are a number of specialist organisations which support young people in or who have left the care system. See our Useful links page for more information.

• 4b) Children’s services duties to young people leaving care
• 4c) Financial support for young people leaving care

If families do not agree with a decision made by children’s services, or a social worker, they can make a complaint. For detailed information about how to complain or challenge decisions made by children’s services see our Complaints page. Parents or kinship carers who want to complain about a decision or the way a child protection conference has been run should see our Child Protection page.

Below we provide advice sheets with introductory information about other ways of challenging decisions made by the courts and local councils, including children’s services departments.

• 5a) Judicial review: an introduction
• 5b) Human Rights Act 1998 claims

The advice sheets in this section explain how parents and kinship carers can request to see what personal information children’s services hold about them and their child/ren. They also provide information about making a Freedom of Information request to children’s services.

• 6a) Accessing records held by children’s services: personal information about families
• 6b) Accessing records held by children’s services: non-personal information (Freedom of Information Act requests)