Care Proceedings are distressing for everyone concerned and sadly very often end with children being permanently removed from their parents under a Care Order allowing the Local Authority to place them in long term foster care or made subject of Placement Orders giving the Local Authority power to place them with potential adoptive families.
Contact between parents and children placed in long term foster care will continue in most cases but at a very reduced level. Parents faced with this situation often feel that there is little or nothing they can do and might not be aware that the Local Authority has a duty to keep each child’s circumstances under review so that contact arrangements can be changed if for example a parent’s circumstances change for the better or (with significant changes) to apply to the court to discharge a Care Order with a view to the child returning to his or her parent/s.
Contact between parents and children who are to be placed for adoption ends once a family has been identified but often parents are not aware that their Parental Responsibility remains in place at this point which means they are entitled to be notified for example if there have been problems matching their child/ren with a family. Also in those circumstances the Local Authority has a duty to consider making an application to the Court to revoke the Placement Order. The status of the child’s placement would be reduced to placement under a Care Order in which case contact with parent/s should resume.
If you are in a similar situation then we can help. Subject to Means Testing we can offer Legal Help initially to help you to work towards resolving your problems with contact/ consider whether an application to discharge a Care Order / Revoke a Placement Order is relevant in your particular case.