A date for a review meeting should be agreed at the end of the first pre-proceedings meeting. The parents’ solicitors will attend these meetings as well.
Once assessment reports have been received, the parents should arrange to see their solicitor to go through the report. Parents may find it helpful to note down what they think about what is in the report. They can then take these notes with them when they meet their solicitor.
The parents should update their solicitor on how helpful they have found any of the support that has been put in place.
What happens next will depend on the situation. And on the outcome of any assessments. It may be that at the review meeting:
- No further action needs to be taken
The parents and family may have been positively assessed. And it is clear they can now safely care for their child. Or extra help and support put in place may have been all that was needed to reduce children’s services’ concerns. The review meeting can be used to discuss whether children’s services want the family to continue to engage them in some way. For example, with the child on a child in need or child protection plan.
- Further work needs to be done
The meeting would be used to review the outcome of any assessment and agree next steps. The written agreement might be updated. A date for a further review meeting should be agreed.
- Care proceedings are going to be issued
If the outcome of the pre-proceedings process is that the child is still likely to suffer significant harm at home, children’s services may feel that they need to apply to the Family Court to start care proceedings. If this is the case, they should provide the parents with a letter of issue.