Family, collaborative Law and Mediation

CHILD ABUSE and CHILD PROTECTION

Care Proceedings

Allegations of abuse or neglect may have been made against parents or carers of children.

Our dedicated team act for parents, and/or the children themselves,

When a Local Authority’s Social Services’ department is worried about the care a parent or carer is giving to a child then they may apply for a care order.

If a Care Order is granted it will give Social Services Parental Responsibility, which will allow them to decide important issues about the child, specifically as to where the child will live. This often means that the child lives with a foster carer.

Reuniting children with their parents is the Local Authority’s duty if this is possible. Throughout the course of care proceedings many assessments need to take place. Once these assessments have been completed the Local Authority will file with the Court a document named a care plan, setting out their plans for the child’s future.

It is only if the Local Authority can show that the child has suffered significant harm as a result of the care given to it by its parents or carers that the Court can go on to consider whether to make a full care order. When deciding whether or not to make an Order, the Court must bear the child’s welfare in mind as its first consideration.

Proceedings can be extremely stressful and are, by their very nature, protracted.

The dedicated team at Lemon & Co is able to offer specialist advice to make those proceedings as stress free as possible.

All of the care team members have extensive experience of representing parents in both Family Proceedings Courts and County Courts and have acted in cases where there have been allegations of serious assaults resulting in severe injury to children and also the death of the children’s siblings.

The firm has a Legal Services Commission Family Specialist Quality Mark, which is an indication of the quality of advice given and allows the firm to act for the parents within care proceedings free of charge.

TELEPHONE: 0800 135 7917 (No Charge)