Social Services Involvement

Are you Eligible for Legal Aid?

Legal aid is available in a wide variety of circumstances for  family members when social care are involved with children.

On your initial contact, we can assess your circumstances and advise you as to your eligibility for legal aid. Our Children Law solicitors can help give advice, explain the Public Law Outline Process (PLO), offer confidential legal advice, and they can represent you in Care Proceedings at Court. We can also support you if you receive a letter before proceedings to help explain concerns social services may have and attend at the PLO Meeting with you.

Contact us or call us on 0114 2496693 to book your appointment today and we will be happy to assess you and advise you as to your eligibility of legal aid.

What Are Social Services

Social services are a department in your local council and their job is to ensure young people are safe, looked after and aren’t suffering from abuse and neglect.

They do this by providing services for children and families who need support. Social services will get involved if they have worries about a child’s safety and will do what they can to ensure the child is safe and looked after.

What Can Social Services Do

If Social services have concerns over a young person’s welfare, they will:

• Contact you in the first instance to make you aware of any concerns they have
• Complete an assessment/child protection investigation and talk to the child or young person, family members and may visit the family home
• Contact all agencies that are directly involved with the child and ask them for information about the child’s welfare.
• In some situations, social services may involve the police who also have a duty to investigate circumstances where it is believed a child has been harmed
• In some situations, invite you to a PLO meeting, and even escalate concerns and start court proceedings to ask a judge to decide where your child should live.

Families often feel anxious at the prospect of social services’ involvement because of experiences they may have heard from others, or just because they are frightened that social workers will remove their children from the family home.

At any stage of Social Service involvement, you should urgently contact us on  0114 249 6693  to book a  initial meeting, where we can advise you and discuss if you eligible for legal aid.

Reasons Social Services Would Get Involved

If concerns have been raised about the wellbeing or safety of a child Social Services will get involved. Concerns could be raised by:

• Family members
• Teachers
• GP
• Police
• Neighbours

Social services’ main aim is to protect the child. They, like the courts and the police, will always act in the best interest of the child, over the best interest of the parents. However, that does not mean that they will want to take a child from the care of the parents as soon as things go wrong.

Common reasons Social Services would take a child into temporary or permanent care include:

• Emotional abuse
• Physical abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Neglect
• Medical neglect
• Abandonment
• Concerns regarding drugs or alcohol in the home
• If the parents have been incarcerated
• Serious illness or death of parents
• Violence in the parents’ relationship

Social services can only take a child in to care with a court order or the consent of the parent. Social services could:

• Take a child from their home if an emergency protection order or interim care order is granted before, during or after care proceedings.
• Take a child away from their parents and place it in temporary care if the parents have agreed to this and have voluntarily signed a Section 20 Agreement

Contact us or call us on 0114 2496693 to book your appointment today.

What is a Section 20 Agreement?

A Section 20 Agreement refers to Section 20 of the Children Act 1989. The Section 20 agreement allows social services to take a child from their home and place them into safe alternative accommodation, often temporarily, with the agreement of the parents.

This is a voluntary agreement between the parent or parents and social services, and parents have the choice not to sign this agreement if they do not want to.

You should urgently contact us on  0114 249 6693 before making any agreements with social services. We can advise you on the best course of action. It is a big decision to allow social services to remove your child from your care, even if it’s only a temporary solution, so it shouldn’t be made without receiving proper guidance. In many cases Legal Aid will be available to you.

Letter Before Proceedings

A ‘letter before proceedings’ is notification social services are worried enough to think about applying to the court for an order about a child.. The letter will include:

• The concerns the children’s services have
• Changes they would like the parent or carer to make
• Information about any assessments or courses children’s services think parents should be involved in
• Any support children’s services can put in place
• Invite the parent or carer to a pre-proceedings meeting with the parents’ solicitor to discuss those concerns

At this stage you should seek representation from a solicitor. A solicitor will review the letter with you and offer advice. The solicitor’s fees are covered by legal aid for this service.

Contact us or call us on 0114 2496693 to book your appointment today and discuss if legal aid is an option for you.

Special Guardianship Order

Special guardianship orders provide stability for a child or young person who cannot be cared for by their parents. Only certain people can apply for a special guardianship order.

See more on our special guardianship page.

What Can Grandparents Do When Social Services Are Involved?

To be involved with the welfare of a child after social services involvement has started, grandparents do not need to wait until care proceedings are issued to try and support their family.

See more on our grandparents rights page.

A Care Proceedings Solicitor You Can Trust

Our Children Law specialists are experts in dealing with complex and sensitive childcare proceedings. We are Children Panel accredited solicitors and we offer representation to pregnant mothers, parents, grandparents, and children. We represent thousands of people each year across the UK.

At a distressing and difficult time, we are here to give advice and support without judgement. We can provide assistance and advice to parents, family members, children, and guardians across all aspects of childcare proceedings, including:

• Offering advice at the first instance social services contact you
• Explaining the contents of any letters or communication from social services to you
• Explaining your rights as a parent or guardian during any stage of the care proceeding process
• Contact social services on your behalf
• Review a ‘letter before proceedings’ with you and offer advice
• Give advice before a ‘pre proceedings’ meeting
• Represent you during a ‘pre proceedings’ meeting
• Give advice and explain your rights following a ‘pre proceedings’ meeting
• Give you advice and represent you at court

The intervention and investigations can be hugely traumatic for everyone, and given their complexity and consequences, it’s essential that you seek expert help from a care proceedings solicitor at the earliest opportunity.

Contact us or call us on 0114 2496693 to book your appointment today.