How to contact us for advice
We provide advice to parents, grandparents, relatives, friends and kinship carers who are involved with children’s services in England or need their help. 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). For Textphone dial 18001 followed by the advice line number. 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 describes the processes that you and your family are likely to go through, so that you know what to expect. Our webchat service can help you find the information and advice on our website which will help you understand the law and your rights.
When a child becomes looked after in this way it is especially important that children’s services work in partnership with their family. And that fair processes will be followed.
Before a child becomes looked after under a voluntary arrangement, parents and carers should be given clear and accurate information. Children’s services should tell parents and carers about their rights. And about what responsibilities children’s services have. Parents and carers should never be pressured into agreeing to the plans proposed.
The following information aims to help families know what they should be able to expect from children’s services. And understand their rights and options when voluntary arrangements are discussed, put in place or continue.
What should a parent be told by children's services when a voluntary arrangement is first discussed?
What other points of good practice guidance have the courts suggested?
See for Re N (Children) (Adoption: Jurisdiction) [2015] EWCA Civ 1112) for example.
What if it is an emergency situation?
In an emergency, a child may be taken into a voluntary arrangement without discussing this with a parent or carer with parental responsibility. One example of this is where a parent or carer has been arrested or taken into hospital.
In such situations it may not be possible for a parent or carer be given clear and accurate information about their rights at the time the arrangement is put in place. But the Supreme Court has said that this information should be given as soon as possible afterwards (see Williams & Anor v LB Hackney [2018] UKSC 37 at paragraphs 40 and 41).
Open or download our note of some relevant extracts from the Supreme Court case of Williams & Anor v LB Hackney [2018] UKSC 37).
Children’s services departments are under a general legal duty to keep any child who is looked after in the care system safe and well cared for (see section 22(3) of the Children Act 1989). This duty applies to any child who is ‘in care’ under a court order. And it also applies to children looked after in the care system under voluntary arrangements. It is a duty that applies whatever the reason a child has become looked after.
There are a range of things children’s services must do to as part of keeping to this duty. Including making sure the views of parents (and other important family members) are gathered and are taken into account when any key decisions are being made about their child (see section 22(4)and(5) of the Children Act 1989).
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 two FAQs below look at What do children’s services have to do to understand the needs of child looked after under a voluntary arrangement? And the duties and rules that apply when deciding where a child should live.
There are three types of plans that families will hear about when a child is in the care system under a voluntary arrangement. These plans must be prepared. The FAQs below explain more.
Once a child is looked after in the care system, children’s services must prepare a care plan for them. This is required by regulation 4 of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010.
The care plan must be kept under regular review. These reviews will happen at a looked after child review meeting. Sometimes this is shortened to just ‘LAC’ review. This process should happen for any looked after child. The FAQs below explain more.
How often should a social worker visit a child who is looked after under a voluntary arrangement?
A child’s social worker must visit them during the first week in their new placement. After that, they should visit at least once every six weeks throughout the time the child is looked after.
If it is a permanent placement the social worker will visit less often. But government regulations say this should still be at least every three months (see regulation 28 of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010). A permanent placement is one that the child going to be living in long term. And until they are old enough to live independently.
The social worker must see the child alone. If they have concerns about the care being provided they must report this to their manager and the independent reviewing officer.
These same duties apply where a child is looked after under a court order.
What is an independent visitor and will a child looked after in the care system under a voluntary arrangement have one?
An independent visitor’s role is to:
If social workers think a looked after child will benefit from it, then they have a duty to appoint someone to become the child’s ‘independent visitor’. This person must have no connection with the local authority. The decision to appoint an independent visitor is looked at as part discussions about the child’s the care plan. It should be discussed during looked after child reviews.
Most independent visitors are likely to be local volunteers.
Examples of when an independent visitor might be appointed include where a child:
The duties in relation to independent visitors apply to all children looked after in the care system. So an independent visitor may be in place for child in care under a court order too.
When a child is looked after in the care system it is important for their wellbeing that they keep in touch with members of their family. If it is safe for that to happen. The term ‘contact’ is often used to describe who a child sees or stays in touch with. It also refers to the details of how often and in what way this happens.
Where a child is looked after under a voluntary arrangement, these contact arrangements should be agreed with the parent or other person with parental responsibility. It is always important to remember that when a voluntary arrangement is in place children’s services does not have parental responsibility.
The next three FAQs may be helpful for parents and others wanting to discuss or propose contact arrangements.
Seeing or keeping in touch with brothers and sisters is often called ‘sibling contact’. Sibling contact includes contact between full and half-blood siblings.
The relevant government guidance is called the Children Act 1989 guidance and regulations volume 2: care planning, placement and case review.
Children’s services must include in a child’s care plan the arrangements for contact between brothers and sisters. If the Family Court has made any orders about sibling contact (under section 8 of the Children Act 1989) then all the details should be included in the care plan. This is all required by government regulations – see schedule 1, paragraph 3(1 ) and (2) of The Care Planning, Placement and Review (England) Regulations 2010.
It can be helpful to remind a child’s social worker or independent reviewing officer of what the guidance says. It can be useful to do this if parents or carers are worried there are not good plans for sibling contact in place. Or if sibling contact is not taking place as agreed and planned.
Where a young person is 16 or 17 years old and is homeless, children’s services have duties to support them. What children’s services need to do depends on the situation. Open or download this table which explains more.
What housing support is available when a young person leaves the care system?
The government has produced good practice advice for local councils to guide them in how to support young people who are leaving care to access suitable housing. It includes information about the support available from housing services and others. It is called the Joint housing protocol for care leaves – good practice advice for local authorities.
Parents or family members of young people who are leaving care may find it helpful to look at our detailed advice sheets about young people Leaving the care system on our Advice sheets page.
If a child is 16 and does not want to come home, can they be made to return home?
16 and 17 year olds cannot be made to return home from accommodation if they wish to remain there. A 16 or 17 year old can agree their own care plan, which includes where they will live.
Parents in this situation may want to ask their child’s social worker to make a referral for a family group conference. A family group conference is a family-led decision-making meeting. It brings together the whole family and others who are important to the young person. Together, at the family group conference, they make a plan. It may be a helpful way to talk and think through r where the young person will live. And what support may be available to them from within the family and friends’ network. See our Family group conferences: advice for families page for more information.
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Social workers visiting children looked after under voluntary arrangements