Special Guardianship can be an appropriate arrangement by which a relative or family friend can provide permanent care to a child. This can be when children are already placed under temporary fostering regulations or to offer the child stability and future security by transferring a fostering placement to a Special Guardianship arrangement.
In contrast to the situation where a child remains with a kinship carer subject to a care order, a special guardianship order gives the special guardian day-to-day control of and shared parental responsibility for the child which, in the main, can be exercised without parental interference.
It gives the child the security of a long-term placement and contributes to a more natural living arrangement without the stigma and interference of the local authority (save for the provision of agreed support).
Our special guardianship assessments can be prepared within public and private law children’s proceedings and pre or post proceedings.
Each assessment is prepared as per the relevant Local Authority’s specific template to ensure compliance with individual policies, procedures, and panel requirements.
Our assessments comply with statutory requirements and also follow the recommendations made by the Public Law Working Group to ensure that these are of a sufficiently high quality to enable the court to make a fully informed welfare decision.
Our assessments consider the full range of orders available to the court and make recommendations both as to the appropriate form of order and required level of support.
We have prepared a number of Special Guardianship assessments internationally and this can essentially make the difference between a child remaining with his birth family and possibly even links to his or her parents or being adopted.
These are detailed assessments and whilst we do have Independent Social Workers who can prepare them within a 4 week timescale, it is important to recognise the timeframe for statutory checks to ensure that a comprehensive report is undertaken.
