Supervision Orders
Where a child is supervised by Social Services
A social worker is there to assist you and your family and oversee the care of your child.
A social worker is there to assist you and your family and oversee the care of your child.
A Supervision Order allows the local authority to 'advise, assist and befriend the supervised child'. This basically means the local authority have an appointed social worker and an open case on the family for the duration of the order (often for 1 year but it can then be extended to a total of 3 years) to assist the family as appropriate, and oversee the arrangements for the care of the children.
In Care or Supervision Order proceedings, the court can make orders for the duration of the proceedings, before deciding upon a final plan and order for the child, called Interim Care or Supervision Orders.
Parents and others with Parental Responsibility for a child automatically qualify for Legal Aid meaning they can have a lawyer represent them throughout the case for free.
Legal Aid is also sometimes available to other family members, such as to challenge negative social work assessments of them, depending upon the person's financial circumstances and the merits of their case. We can advise you about all of this for free in an initial advice session.
In order to justify making a Care or Supervision Order, the court has to satisfy a two- stage test: The first stage (called “the threshold stage”) there must be sufficient reasons to justify making a Care or Supervision Order. In other words, the facts of the case must cross a threshold. This threshold can only be crossed if the court agrees: that things have happened that have already caused significant harm to a child, or pose a serious risk that significant harm will be suffered in the future, or which shows that the child is beyond parental control.
The second stage (called “the welfare stage”) means that even if the threshold is crossed, it must be in the child’s best interests to make an order.
These cases tend to last about 6 months, and during the process, the court looks at all possible plans for the safe care of the child, before making a final decision. This may be for the child to live with a parent or other family member, or family friend, who has been positively assessed to care for them, and the court decides this is the best plan for the child. The type of order the child lives with a person can include a Child Arrangements Order or Special Guardianship Order.
Jonathan manages our excellent Childcare Law team who work closely with families in crisis to achieve the best outcome for children.
Director & Head of Childcare Law
