Special Guardianship Orders

Contents

Legal framework

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 provides the legal framework for special guardianship under the Children Act 1989.
The Special Guardianship (Amendment) Regulations (2016) amended the Schedule to the Special Guardianship Regulations (2005). The amendments deal with issues such as local authorities reports and support services for special guardians
After national consultation and an expert advisory group updated statutory guidance was issued in relation to the use of SGOs and came into force in February 2016.

In addition, the Children and Social Work Act (2017) requires that permanency planning, including SGOs must consider the child’s future and present: how the long-term plan for the child will meet current and future needs and the impact of harm the child has suffered or is likely to suffer. The Act also sets out a duty of LAs in relation to previously looked after children for promoting educational achievement.

References

Department for Education (2017) Special guardianship guidance. London

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Support

SGO assessments

The Regulations and Guidance (Schedule to the 2005 Regulations, amended 2016), sets out in full the matters to assess and report on in respect of both the child and the child’s family. Practitioners are expected to cover every point in the schedule.

Various court judgments have also had a significant impact on practice and decision making regarding SGO assessments. The case of Cheshire East Borough Council v PN & Ors (Flawed Local Authority Assessments) [2017] EWFC 20 is an example of the court adjourning a final hearing because of ‘inadequate and fundamentally flawed’ social work assessments undertaken in relation to wider family members (see RiP Case Law Summaries March 2017 for a summary of the learning points from this judgment). This case brings to light the importance of analytical, evidence based assessments.

The information that must be included within the SGO court report includes:

the child’s needs (current and future), their background and family history
the carers understanding of and ability to meet the child’s current and future needs (until the age of 18)
the nature of the relationship between the guardian and the child (if relevant) and the impact of SGO on the relationship between the guardian and the birth family
each potential carers’ ability to understand any risk to the child and how to protect the child from current or future risk of harm including potential identified risks posed by the child’s birth parents or other relatives
the proposed contact arrangements (including ability to manage contact safely)

The assessment of the applicants will also include detailed statutory checks such as local authority checks; employer references; a Disclosure and Barring Service check; a health assessment and a financial assessment.

The assessment of a prospective guardian should follow the principles of an analytical assessment. All information should be rigorously ‘evaluated, and its accuracy and consistency checked’, identifying the key issues that are relevant for each case and each child. Good practice in assessments is set out at paragraph 35 to 37 of the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015). Management of risk is dealt with in paragraph 47 of the guidance. Also see the principles of assessment in the Assessment section of this website.

SGO assessment of support

The regulatory framework requires local authorities to make provisions for support services for special guardians. Services that can be provided are wide ranging and can take the form of counselling, support for contact with birth families, therapeutic services, parenting courses and support (including respite care), financial support (including one-off cash payments).

Where the local authority carry out an assessment of a person’s needs for special guardianship support services they must consider:

The developmental needs of the child
The parenting capacity of the proposed special guardian
The family and environmental factors that have shaped the life of the child
What the life of the child might be like with the proposed special guardian
Any previous assessments undertaken in relation to the child
The needs of the proposed special guardian and of their family
Where is appears to the local authority that there is a pre-existing relationship between a proposed special guardian and the parent of the child, the likely impact of a SGO upon the relationship

[See Regulation 12 of the Special Guardianship Regulations 2005 (as amended)]

Local authorities are not only required to provide services but also to monitor, evaluate and review these services.

The local authority must prepare a plan if –

they propose to provide special guardianship support services to a person on more than one occasion and
the services are not limited to the provision of advice or information.

It is important that all services that are to be provided are agreed in writing in advance of the granting of the SGO. Support plans should also include a clear contingency plan to enable special guardians to access support should difficulties arise at a later stage. Not all guardians require support at the time the SGO is made, but may do so later as difficulties emerge.

Assessments for special guardianship support services should follow the guidance set out in, and use the domains of, the Assessment Framework, recognising that the context is different from that for birth families – i.e., the needs, background and relationship of both child and guardians are likely to be different than for a child living with their birth parents.

Supervision Orders or Family Assistance Orders

There is an apparent rise in the use of supervision orders attached to SGOs (Harwin et al, 2015).

The use of Supervision Orders alongside SGOs has been the subject of a letter from Michael Keehan QC, High Court Judge, Family Division to the Local Family Justice Boards. The main issue is the apparent use of such orders to ensure support is provided to the guardian – this should instead be included in the local authority SGO support plan.

“I discovered last week that in some care centres SGOs are commonly made side by side with Family Assistance Orders or Supervision Orders. Save in exceptional circumstances (a) FAOs or SOs should not be made to coerce a LA to provide support to the SGO. All such matters should be contained in the SGO Support Plan and (b) a perceived need to provide support to or monitoring of special guardians by means of a FAO or SO would appear to contraindicate the making of an SGO in the first place.” (March,2017)

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Learning resources

Sector guidance is available to support practitioners conducting special guardianship assessments. An example is the ‘Guidance notes for Connected Person/Family and Friends Report (Form C)’ from CoramBAAF.