click the link for your pack:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/protecting-the-vulnerable/care-proceeding-reform/parents-pack.pdf
parent pack!!! been around since 2010!!! did you get one?
Your local authority is very worried that your child is not
being looked after properly or is out of control. So they are
thinking about whether to ask a court if your child should
be taken into care.
In the next few days, you will get a “letter before
proceedings” from your local authority. You may have
already got one. This letter explains why they think your child
is not being looked after properly. It also tells you to come to
a meeting to talk about the way you look after your child.
If you do not follow the instructions in this letter, you
may have to go to court and your child could be taken
into care.
What you need to do
If you want to have a say in how your child is looked
after, it’s up to you to work with your local authority to deal
with their concerns.
You must show them that you understand why they
are worried and that you will do something about it.
You should try to get a solicitor now to help you.
Information on where to ind one is in this lealet.
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How this pack can help
The pack tells you:
• about the legal process local authorities have to follow
when they think your child is not being looked after
properly
• what each stage of the process is
• what you must do at each stage
• what the local authority will do, and
• who can help you.
Don’t forget: if you ignore the letter before
proceedings, your local authority will probably
ask a court to take your child into care.
YOU SHOULD SEE A SOLICITOR NOW
Your child could be taken into care
This information pack is for guidance only and is not a full statement
of the law. You should get legal advice about your own situation from a
qualiied solicitor.
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The process – Overview
Letter before proceedings
Local authorities send a letter before court proceedings
when they are worried about how a child is being looked
after. It is often sent after the local authority has drawn
up a plan for your child to be kept safe and well cared for
but they are still concerned. The letter is a inal notice for
parents. If you don’t follow its instructions, you may have
to go to court and your child could be taken into care.
Pre-proceedings meeting
The letter asks you to come to a pre-proceedings
meeting with your local authority to talk about the
situation. At the meeting, you will talk about how to
change the way you look after your child and how the local
authority can support you to do this. If you agree some
changes, these will be written down in a formal agreement
that you and the local authority have to follow. If you don’t
agree, your local authority will probably ask the court to
take your child into care.
Keeping to the agreement
You must keep to any agreement you make at the
pre-proceedings meeting and the local authority should
keep to any agreements they make too. You will probably
be asked to go to review meetings to check you are keeping
to the agreement.
Going to court
If you don’t keep to the agreement or there are still serious
or new concerns, your local authority will apply to a court
to start care proceedings. You will have to go to court –
possibly several times until the court makes its decision
about your child’s future.
If your local authority thinks your child’s situation is urgent, they may ask the court
to make a decision about your child sooner, without going through all the steps above.
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5
The process – Overview
OR
At the end of this process, one of these things
will happen.
Your child stays with you under a new agreement
about how you will look after them. If you keep to the
agreement, your child should stay with you. If you don’t
keep to it, you may have to go back to court and your
child could be taken into care.
Your child moves in with a friend or family member.
This can be for a short time to help you make changes
to your life so that you can look after your child better:
or it can be permanent.
Your child goes into care. If you can’t agree how you will
change the way you look after your child and there’s no
suitable friend or family member, the court will tell your
local authority to ind a place for your child to live. This
will be either with a foster family or in a children’s home.
This could be for a long time, possibly many months, until
the court decides whether your child can live with you or
needs to live with someone else.
If your child goes into care, the local authority will
continue to work with you so that your child can
return home, but a time will come when decisions have
to be made about the future of your child. If your child
cannot return home to you the other options are that
they stay in long term fostering; go to live with a friend or
another family member under a residence order or special
guardianship order, go to live in a children’s home or be
adopted. You can read more about what this means on
page 22 and 23.
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