29 Care Proceedings
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2. Who can make decisions about my child´s care?
3. Why would social services get involved in my child´s care?
4. What happens when social services start care proceedings?
5. What happens at the first hearing?
6. What orders can the court make at the first hearing?
7. Who will represent my child during proceedings?
8. What happens after an interim order is made?
9. How do I prepare for the final hearing?
10. What happens at the final hearing?
11. How does the court make its decision?
12. What types of order can the court make?
13. How long does a care order last?
14. How can I apply to end a care order?
You can ask the court to discharge (end) a care order. You may be able to receive public funding (legal aid) to pay your solicitor’s costs for helping you with this but you will not automatically get it.
If you have already asked the court to discharge the care order in the last six months, but want to ask again, you must get the court’s permission.
You will have to show the court that it is in your child’s best interests for the care order to be discharged. The court will then look at the current risk to your child.
The court may decide to replace the care order with a supervision order, which means the local authority will no longer have parental responsibility for your child but will supervise how you care for your child instead.
If the court discharges the care order, you and any other person with parental responsibility will take over caring for your child. If you cannot agree about the arrangements for the care of your child with anyone else who has parental responsibility for them, the court can order:
- who your child should live with; and
- arrangements to be made for your child to spend time with other people they know.
The leaflets are regularly updated but the law may have changed since they were printed so the information in them may be incorrect or out of date.
Leaflet Version: January 2006