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Contents

1. Legal Planning Meetings
2. After the Issue of Care Proceedings
3. Role of Legal Services in all Proceedings
4. Format of all Statements and Reports     
5. Format of Care Plans filed in Care Proceedings
6. Correspondence during Court Proceedings  
   
   Appendix: Legal Services Commissioning Form

1. Legal Planning Meetings

Before a decision can be made to initiate Care Proceedings, a Legal Planning Meeting should be held and the approval of the Designated Manager (Care Proceedings) obtained.

NB Any decision to commence Care Proceedings should have regard to the requirements of the Public Law Outline - see Public Law Outline and Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities – Frequently Asked Questions

The child’s social worker is responsible for requesting the meeting by completing the Legal Planning Commissioning Form and sending it by email or fax to Legal Services. 

The social worker’s team manager will chair the meeting; the child’s social worker and a representative of Legal Services will attend. 

The issues to be considered at the meeting will include the following:

• The reasons for the concerns and the evidential basis for establishing Significant Harm and the Threshold Criteria.
• Why Care Proceedings are necessary - what is their aim, objective and purpose?
• The steps already taken to clarify the issues of concern - i.e. Initial Assessment and Core Assessment, as well as other medical and other expert involvement
• Whether the requirements of the Pre-Proceedings Checklist set out in the Public Law Outline have been met, including the notification to the parents of the areas of concern
• When will the Initial Assessment or Core Assessment and other supporting documentation be available, if not already?
• The action/decisions already taken and where the decisions were made e.g. Strategy Discussion/Meeting, Child Protection Conference, Core Group meeting
• The proposed Care Plan for the child, including the proposed placement and any cultural, language and ethnic issues, the need for a Twin Track Plan, consultation with parents and the wider family, whether any family members are available to care for the child on an interim or permanent basis, if so whether the required checks have been made, the proposals for contact
• How the proposed Care Plan is to be achieved,
• Whether it may be appropriate to instruct any further expert assessment before the commencement of court proceedings - if so, what are the proposed remit of the instructions and the areas to be addressed, who should the assessment be done by and what are the likely timescales?
• Have there been previous Court proceedings in relation to the family?  If so, what steps are required to obtain the papers in relation to the case - from the Court? or another local authority?
• When will the social worker’s Statement of Evidence be ready?

If Care Proceedings are recommended at the meeting, the team manager will seek the authority of the Designated Manager (Care Proceedings).

If authorised, the child’s social worker will advise the child and the relevant family members of the decision.

The social worker will then liaise with Legal Services as to the documents that are required to be produced for Court.

2. After the Issue of Care Proceedings

It is essential that the social worker and the local authority solicitor have regular contact during the course of the proceedings, and that the progress of the case is kept under constant review.

This will include discussion of any disclosure issues, which may need to be the subject of directions by the Court.  For example, where there are parallel criminal proceedings, the Court may be asked to make directions in relation to the disclosure of evidence from the criminal investigation within the Care Proceedings.  In addition, there may be other pending Court proceedings, which are relevant to the Care Proceedings and the Court may need to consider whether the cases should be transferred and/or consolidated.

The Public Law Outline checklist will become a running document and completion of the Checklist will require regular liaison between the social worker, local authority solicitor and barrister (if instructed) during the course of the proceedings.

In addition the social worker must keep the local authority solicitor and Children’s Guardian up to date with any changes in relation to the child during the proceedings, for example, placement, contact, school/education, health.

Arrangements must not be made for any change to the child’s placement without prior consultation with the Children’s Guardian.

3. The Role of Legal Services in all Proceedings

Legal Services will:

1. Provide legal advice.
2. Draft Court applications and liaise with the Court
3. File and serve the local authority’s Statements of Evidence, Care Plans, Section 7 Reports, Section 37 Report etc.
4. Make arrangements for legal representation.
5. Prepare Court bundles as required.
6. Attend all Court hearings, including Directions appointments and Case Management Meetings as required under the Public Law Outline.
7. Renew Interim Care Orders as and when required.
8. Deal with all correspondence with solicitors during the course of the proceedings.
9. Confirm in writing to the social worker the outcome of each hearing highlighting the dates for filing statements, Court hearings and any other key actions.
10. Forward Court Orders to the social worker.
11. Where an expert is to be instructed by the local authority, draft the letter of instruction to expert in consultation with the social worker and team manager and circulate for approval of other parties.

4. Format of all Statements and Reports

All social work statements and reports must be:

• In numbered paragraphs
• Double spaced
• Paginated.

The Statement/Report must be accurate, succinct, relevant, well reasoned and balanced.  Fact must be distinguished from opinion and opinion must only be expressed within the limits of the author’s own expertise.

All statements, reports and exhibits should have a front/cover sheet.

The front sheet of the statement or report and cover sheet of an exhibit must contain the correct case number and on the top right hand corner:

• The author’s name
• The number of the author’s statement, i.e. 1st Statement, 2nd Statement etc.
• The date the Statement is signed (N.B. This must be the same as the date under the author’s signature on the back page of the Statement)
• The date the Statement is filed with the Court.

The social worker must ensure he or she has read all the other Statements already filed in the proceedings to enable an appropriate response to be given.

The draft Statement/Report must be seen by the team manager 7 days before the date it has to be filed with the Court.

The draft must be sent by e-mail to the local authority solicitor 5 days before the filing date. The local authority solicitor will send amendments/suggestions/advice within 2 days.

The original of the final Statement/Report (signed and dated) must be sent to the local authority solicitor at least one day before the filing date.

5. Format of Care Plans filed in Care Proceedings

The format of the Interim Care Plan and Final Care Plan, which must be exhibited to the social worker’s Statement in Care Proceedings, should follow the headings set out in the Model Care Plan.

• Overall aim
• Child’s needs including contact
• Views of others
• Placement details and timetable
• Management and support by local authority.

There must be a separate Care Plan for each child.

The Care Plan must include a Contingency Plan, and where a Parallel Plan is involved, the Fostering and/or Adoption Teams must be involved at a Permanence Planning Meeting at an early stage with regard to family finding – see Permanency Policy and Permanence Planning Procedure.

Where adoption is part of the Care Plan either as the preferred or Contingency Plan, legal advice should be sought as to the need for and timing of a Placement Order application.

The social worker and team manager must sign the Interim Care Plan. In addition the Designated Manager (Care Plans) must sign the Final Care Plan.

6. Correspondence during Court Proceedings

All correspondence received from solicitors for other parties during court proceedings must be passed to the Legal Services to deal with.

Where the Legal Services receive correspondence during court proceedings and require the social worker’s instructions for the reply, the letter will be faxed to the social worker within 2 days of its receipt and the social worker must give clear instructions to the solicitors within a maximum of 2 days.

In relation to any other contentious correspondence, including letters received from an expert received during court proceedings, the social worker must send the letter to Legal Services as soon as possible, together with detailed instructions for the reply.

Appendix: Legal Commissioning Form

Click here to view form

End