Adarsh Patel

There are three levels of public funding for parents whose children are involved with social services. These are Legal Help Level 1, Legal Help Level 2, and Full Representation under Legal Aid. The level of funding you may be eligible to receive will depend...

Social Services will usually become involved with a family because they are worried that the care being provided to a child is not reaching a good enough standard. However, Social Services can and will be approached by parents who feel that they are unable...

Where the Court has been provided with all the evidence relating to a child’s parents in Care Proceedings and the professional assessments of them are negative, they can be ruled out as potential carers before a Final Hearing. This would happen at what...

If the Local Authority is completing a risk assessment, they are doing so to determine if there is a likelihood of a significant risk of harm to a child. This could be due to concerns regarding domestic abuse and violence between parents, significant...

Psychological and psychiatric assessments are commonly ordered by the Court in Care Proceedings and are frequently requested by the Local Authority during pre-proceedings. However, these assessments are not the same and there are key differences that...

In recent years, the Family Court has placed further emphasis on the consideration of post-adoption contact. This is where children who have been removed from their parents’ care and have been adopted by a new family will still have some form of...

For years, many calls have been made for the English Government to reform the law regarding smacking and hitting children. In England and Northen Ireland, any use of physical chastisement is illegal unless it amounts to a reasonable punishment. However, in...

In the last 12 months, it is estimated that more than 800,000 children in England and Wales have lived or continue to live in an abusive home. [1] Domestic abuse and violence remains a major concern for many families and can cause social services becoming...

Parental responsibility is the rights and responsibilities a parent has over their child. It simply encompasses completing the role of a parent that one would expect a parent to do. Parental responsibility is the legal term given to the legal rights and...

When the Local Authority issue Care Proceedings to seek Public Law Orders regarding children, the subject children will be allocated a Children’s Guardian to represent their views, wishes and best interests throughout the proceedings. The Guardian is...

Communicourt is an intermediary service mostly funded by HMCTS, with no charges or payments required by parents or legal professionals. In the context of Care Proceedings, their aim is to assist a parent who has a communication difficulty which impairs their...

By the end of 2023, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk plans to introduce a new law before Parliament which would result in parents who kill their partner or ex-partner with whom they have children to automatically have their parental responsibility suspended upon...

A Supervision Order is one of many orders that the Court has the power to grant a Local Authority in Childcare Proceedings under section 35 Children Act 1989. The purpose of a Supervision Order is to impose a duty on the Local Authority to support the...

The Local Authority will send you a Letter of Intent to Issue Care Proceedings once they have decided that there are significant concerns regarding the safety of your child/children, and the only way to keep them safe is to seek intervention from the Court....

Childcare proceedings are confidential, which means the disclosure of information deriving from proceedings is governed by strict rules and protocols. If the Police wish to obtain information from your childcare proceedings, they need to make an application...