Acting for parents in care proceedings, sadly it is not always possible to persuade the court the children should continue living with their family.

Acting for parents in care proceedings, sadly it is not always possible to persuade the court the children should continue living with their family. There are always some problems which have been felt by the local authority to be enough to start the case in court. If those problems are found by the court to exist, it is then a question of being able to show that they have been resolved, but this has to happen in a limited timescale. This can be difficult if there is a good deal of progress to be made.

At the start of the case, parents are asked to put forward alternative back-up carers, in case the children cannot go back home. This needs to be done as soon as possible, so that there is time for assessment. I recently had a case in which this worked well. My client was not in a position to care for their child and suggested their mother might be able to. However, she lived abroad. Following a successful initial assessment, she travelled to this country, and impressed the social workers with her commitment to her grandchild to the extent that it was agreed that she could care for them.

There were then immigration issues which were dealt with, and as to how the position could be secured in the other country, once orders had been made here. It was necessary to obtain specialist legal advice concerning the law that applied abroad, but once this was done, the way forward was cleared. A financial package was also agreed, once I had raised this issue with the court. The court here made an order that the child should live with the grandmother.

Given the current turbulence in so many areas, I have to say that the prospect of being brought up on a Caribbean Island seems very appealing, and I was glad that this result was achieved.

By using Greens Solicitors, a child got to remain within their family unit.