Grandparents often feel helpless when a Local Authority becomes involved with their grandchild or grandchildren but there are many things that they can do to assist.
Sometimes the assistance of a grandparent, or another family member, will deter the Local Authority from issuing care proceedings. They can assist by offering to care for children in the short, medium and long term and can be approved as kinship foster carers. Grandparents are also able to assist by offering to facilitate and supervise contact between children and their parents.
Grandparents may be invited to a child protection conference, family group conference or other meeting to share information about their grandchild. It is important that they attend and in some instances, they can opt to take a solicitor or legal advisor with them.
In some circumstances, legal aid is available to grandparents to participate in Court Proceedings. If a grandparent has care of their grandchild, this can be non-means non-merit tested legal aid.
As Courts strive to deal with care cases within 26 weeks it is best to become involved as soon as a grandparent becomes aware of the Local Authority’s involvement. Assessments are a lengthy process and it may be that a grandchild can be placed with their grandparent rather than being placed in foster care whilst assessments of the parents are undertaken.
Being the subject of an assessment can feel intrusive and the Local Authority will need to ask lots of questions regarding the grandparent’s personal circumstances, including:
- Health questionnaires;
- Relationship history;
- Employment history; and
- Their experiences of parenting and being parented.
However, the Local Authority must be satisfied that the grandparent is committed to providing care and is a suitable carer for the grandchild.
Fostering allowance can be payable to kinship carers and if the arrangement becomes more long-term and a Special Guardianship Order is made, Special Guardian Allowance can be paid.
Even if they do not wish to be assessed as a potential carer they may wish to have contact with their grandchild in care.
How can Nelsons help?
If you would like further advice regarding the subjects discussed in this article, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your circumstances in more detail and give you more information about the services that our family law solicitors can provide along with details of our hourly rates and fixed fee services.
Please contact a member of our expert Family Law team on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.
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