Going into care
If you have gone into care you
may be feeling all sorts of things. You may feel sad or happy,
angry or relieved. Or you may just feel mixed up. It’s okay to feel
any of these things. No matter how you’re feeling you may well have
questions you want someone to answer. Here are some of the
questions that young people often ask.
Why do young people go into care?
Young people are only
taken into care when people are really worried that you are
suffering or are likely to suffer significant harm from the way you
are being looked after by your parents.
Sometimes this is because your
parents aren’t doing a good enough job of looking after you.
They may be neglecting you or causing you emotional harm, or may
not be able to look after you properly, or protect you.
Sometimes it may be because they have
done something harmful to you or allowed someone else to do this.
This includes causing physical harm or sexual abuse. Both physical
harm and sexual abuse can also cause emotional harm. Harm can
also be caused by, for example, seeing or hearing
somebody else being ill-treated.
What are care proceedings?
‘Care proceedings’ is the phrase used
to describe the legal process by which social services ask the
court whether or not a young person should go into care.
To begin with, social services will
ask the court to make temporary orders (called ‘interim care
orders’) while matters are investigated further and plans are made.
In the end, if social services still think a care order is
necessary, they will ask for a full care order to be made.
What does ‘going into care’
mean?
It means a court has said that the
social services department of the local authority, acting through
its social workers, must make sure you are safe and properly looked
after. The court does this by giving social services a share of
‘parental responsibility’ for you. This means social workers are
allowed to make important decisions about you. Social services
should take those decisions in discussion with anyone else who has
‘parental responsibility’ for you (mothers always have parental
responsibility and fathers often do). Social services should
also discuss these things with you. But in the end, if there is an
interim care order or a full care order, social services have the
final say, subject to anything that may be ordered by the court.
The most important thing that social services can decide is who you
are to live with.
Who are social
workers?
Social workers are professional people
specially trained to make sure young people are safe and properly
looked after. If they think young people are not safe or properly
looked after they must take action. This might mean calling a
meeting, called a ‘case conference’, of all the professionals who
know the family (including doctors and teachers) to discuss whether
care proceedings are necessary. If care proceedings are issued, the
social workers should set out the reasons for the case, making
arrangements for you and making plans for the future.
What
about my parents and brothers and sisters?
Sometimes young people who are taken
into care are allowed to go on living at home. However it is more
usual for young people who are taken into care to have to leave
their home at least for some time.
If you have to live somewhere else,
the social workers will try to see if you can stay with someone you
already know. For example, this might be your grandparents, an
uncle or aunty, or some friends of your family. If that is not
possible you may have to go and live with people called ‘foster
carers’. All the people involved will try to make sure brothers and
sisters can stay together if at all possible. They know most
brothers and sisters want to stay together, even if they argue
sometimes!
Even if you are not living with your
parents you should still be able to see them unless the court
decides they are likely to hurt or upset you. The court can also
decide how often you should see your parents and where you should
see them. This might be where you are living, or it might be at
another place such as a family centre.
Who are foster carers?
Foster carers are people chosen by
social services to give a home to young people when there is no-one
else to look after them. Their job is to look after you during the
care proceedings and perhaps afterwards as well. Foster-parents may
have children of their own, or other foster children living with
them, in which case you would all live in the same house
together.
Is there anyone whose job is to help
me?
There will be quite a lot of people
involved in helping to sort things out. As well as foster carers
and social workers there may be others, such as doctors,
psychiatrists and psychologists. Sometimes there may also be police
officers if, as well as being concerned for your safety and
wellbeing, people think a criminal offence may have been committed
against you. All these people will be trying to do what’s best for
you.
However, there are two people who have
jobs specially to help you during care proceedings. One is called
your ‘Children’s Guardian’ and the other is your ‘solicitor’.
What does my Children’s Guardian do?
Your Children’s Guardian has a number
of important functions. They carry out investigations and advise
and report to the court. They check other people involved in
helping to sort things out are doing their jobs properly.
The report the Children’s Guardian
writes is very influential with the court. In that report, your
Children’s Guardian will set out the results of their
investigations and say what they think would be best for you. The
report must set out your wishes and feelings.
What does my solicitor
do?
Your solicitor is a lawyer who will
have special training and experience in doing care proceedings and
similar cases. Your solicitor normally works with your Children’s
Guardian, trying to persuade the court to do what your Children’s
Guardian thinks is best for you. However if you disagree with what
your Children’s Guardian is recommending, and if your solicitor
thinks you understand the matter well enough to give your own
instructions, then your solicitor will argue for what you think and
want - not for what your Children’s Guardian thinks is best for
you.
Tell me about the court.
A court is a place where important
decisions are made. Care proceedings are dealt with in family
courts. There are three levels of family court: the Family
Proceedings Court, in which decisions are made by magistrates; and
County Courts and the High Court, in which decisions are made by
judges. If people think a case is particularly difficult it will
probably be dealt with in a County Court or in the High
Court.
Family courts are not criminal
courts. They help make important decisions for
children and families. However the same things which brought about
your care proceedings could also cause criminal proceedings to
be brought.
Your solicitor, Children’s
Guardian or social worker should be able to answer any of your
questions about court.
Do I have to go
to court or can I go there if I want to?
Young people do not usually go to a
family court unless there is a special reason. Normally it will be
enough for your solicitor and Children’s Guardian to be there.
Occasionally it might be important for you to go to the family
court, especially if there is important evidence which only you can
give and which you want to give. Your solicitor and Children’s
Guardian will certainly talk with you about it if this is a
possibility.
Most family courts are reluctant to
let young people come to court just because they want to see and
hear what is going on. However a few more judges and magistrates
are beginning to think that it is sometimes appropriate, so if you
do want to go this is certainly something you should discuss with
your solicitor and Children’s Guardian.
How long will it take to decide what is going to
happen?
It normally takes about nine to twelve
months for a court to decide what is going to happen, and sometimes
it can take even longer than this. During that time a lot will be
happening. All sorts of people will be trying to understand the
reasons why people were so worried that you were taken into care.
Then they will carry out assessments to decide what the level of
risk of harm to you would be if you were to return home. They will
also try to work with your parents to reduce any risk there may be.
This may mean trying to help your parents to look after you better.
Or it may mean working with them to get them to understand what
they’ve done wrong, and to put right whatever caused this.
What will happen in the end?
Only the court can decide what will
happen in the end. Lots of different things are possible. Everyone
will try to let you go back home but only if you will be safe and
well there.
Many young people do go home in the
end. For others, a new home has to be found. Once again that may be
with other members of your family or with friends, or it may be
with a new family.
Your parents’ ability to understand
and acknowledge what went wrong in the first place and their
ability to change and do better in the future will all be very
important in deciding whether or not you do go home.
Even if you end up living with another
family there will still be issues about future contact with your
own family and, of course, about what you will choose to do when
you become an adult.
If I want to talk about something, who can I talk
to?
There are a lot of people you can talk
to and you should choose whoever you feel most comfortable with.
Your solicitor and your Children’s Guardian are particularly good
people for you to talk to. Whatever you say to your solicitor is
normally confidential. However, anything you say to your Children’s
Guardian will have to be told to the court if your Children’s
Guardian thinks it is important for the court to know it.
Do
many young people go into care?
Around 60,000 children and young
people were being looked after in March 2001 according to
Department of Health statistics, while around 38,000 were under
care orders. Remember, nobody ever thinks it is the fault of the
children or the young people.
Where can I get more information?
Your social worker, foster parents,
Children’s Guardian and solicitor are all people who can give you
more information.