Family and Children

Child Care Proceedings & Adoption

The Social Services Department in your Local Authority are responsible for making sure that children living with their families are safe and well cared for by their parents or the person looking after them. Sometimes Social Services receive information that makes them worried about a child's welfare. If Social Services believe that your child may be harmed, they have a duty to take action to protect your child. Social Services must get the Court's permission to take any action you do not agree with; they can apply to the Court for a variety of orders, such as an emergency protection order, child assessment order, care or supervision order or a secure accommodation order.

Before Social Services apply for a court order, they may call a meeting called a "child protection case conference" to see if your child could be properly protected without a care order being made, for example, by providing you and your family with support services. All the professionals, organisations and agencies involved with your child, such as doctors and schools, will be invited to the meeting.

When either the Social Services or the Court advise you that they are going to start care proceedings, it is important that you obtain legal advice. You may be upset or angry or feel that nobody is listening to you. It is essential to have a solicitor who knows the law about children and how the Courts make decisions in these types of cases. These solicitors are usually members of the Law Society's Children Panel.

At Cozens-Hardy LLP our Family Department has two fully qualified Children Panel experts. If you should find yourself, or a member of your family, involved in care proceedings, please contact one of them as soon as possible.

If you know who you want to contact in the Family Law Dept.,
follow their link for details;

Iain White or Sandra Nunn

Cozens-Hardy LLP is a limited liability partnership