Offering children permanence and security

When children cannot live with their parents it can often be family members or friends that step in to offer care.

Carers such as grandparents, siblings, other relatives, or adults who have a connection to a child are collectively known as kinship carers. They play an important role across the length and breadth of the UK in providing a loving, nurturing, and safe environment for children to live.

Placements outside the immediate family can be implemented under the terms of a number of orders. Although they have increased in popularity, special guardianship orders (SGOs) still appear to be less
well known than other options despite it being nearly ten
years since the provisions
came into force.

Unfortunately, not all local authorities are embracing SGOs as a desirable outcome and, in some cases, don't even mention them to non-parents wishing to care for a child long-term.

SGOs were designed in part
to provide a framework of permanency for a child while preserving the link with the birth family. They cement the relationship between the carer and child to a greater degree than a child arrangements order and provide enhanced parental responsibility (PR), so much so that the special guardian can exercise it to the exclusion of other holders of PR.

Written notice of intention
to make an application for
an SGO must be given to the
local authority, triggering the need for an investigation and preparation of a report to
provide a recommendation
as to whether an SGO should
be made.

A local authority should also receive a written request to assess the needs of the proposed special guardian and provide a support services plan. While the majority of carers are willing to commit to a long-term placement regardless of support services, it is difficult to think of a case where assessment isn't appropriate. Carers often have to make substantial changes to their lives, such as reducing working hours, which can import additional pressure into an already delicately balanced arrangement.

A financial support assessment, help with contact arrangements, counselling, advice, therapy and respite care will be undertaken.
A person must also be nominated to monitor provision of the services in accordance with
the plan.

Some 85 per cent of children have difficulties at the point of placement with kinship carers, with 29 per cent categorised as 'challenging throughout placement', therefore it's imperative that carers receive any help available from local authorities. A child may also need help with understanding why they live with a carer and coping with any parental rejection.

I hope that as we approach
a decade since SGOs became available, their benefits continue to be recognised and their availability brought to the attention of those willing to
offer children long-term permanence and security.
As to support services, like they say here in the North East, 'shy bairns get nowt'! SJ

Simon Dakers is a partner at Gordon Brown Law Firm

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