A Special Guardianship Order is a private law order, meaning that it is the person(s) wishing to be the special guardian(s) who has to apply to the court. The court also has the discretion to grant an SGO to a person(s) following an assessment during other court proceedings. An SGO does not remove PR from birth parents or others having PR prior to the order being made. It does, however, give the special guardian the power to make almost all decisions relating to a child by exercising their parental responsibility to the exclusion of all others with PR (apart from another special guardian). See Children Act 1989, as amended by Adoption and Children Act 2002. Who are the children? Children who are adopted have all had experiences of separation and loss. They may also have experienced some form of abuse or neglect, resulting in them being removed from their birth families and placed in the care of the local authority. The local authority has a duty to help to reunite the child with its birth parents, with support where this is possible. Failing this, Children’s Services will seek a home for the child with other family members. If there is no safe or suitable alternative, the child will be placed with a foster carer. For some children in care, where there is no possibility of them going to live with family, the local authority may decide that they will place the child for adoption. In these cases the parent may object to the application for a Placement Order or an Adoption Order and the court has to decide whether there is enough evidence to dispense with parental consent. Some children’s parents are content for them to be placed for adoption or accept that they cannot care for them within the family. In these cases a court official can witness them giving formal consent for adoption. Children made subject to Special Guardianship Orders may have had very similar experiences to those outlined above, although in some cases there may have been no abuse or harm or involvement with social care. In the latter cases, the child’s parents may have had long-term health problems or have died, and relatives may have stepped in to look after the child before applying for an SGO.
A Special Guardianship Order is a private law order, meaning that it is the person(s) wishing to be the special guardian(s) who has to apply to the court. The court also has the discretion to grant an SGO to a person(s) following an assessment during other court proceedings. An SGO does not remove PR from birth parents or others having PR prior to the order being made. It does, however, give the special guardian the power to make almost all decisions relating to a child by exercising their parental responsibility to the exclusion of all others with PR (apart from another special guardian). See Children Act 1989, as amended by Adoption and Children Act 2002. Who are the children? Children who are adopted have all had experiences of separation and loss. They may also have experienced some form of abuse or neglect, resulting in them being removed from their birth families and placed in the care of the local authority. The local authority has a duty to help to reunite the child with its birth parents, with support where this is possible. Failing this, Children’s Services will seek a home for the child with other family members. If there is no safe or suitable alternative, the child will be placed with a foster carer. For some children in care, where there is no possibility of them going to live with family, the local authority may decide that they will place the child for adoption. In these cases the parent may object to the application for a Placement Order or an Adoption Order and the court has to decide whether there is enough evidence to dispense with parental consent. Some children’s parents are content for them to be placed for adoption or accept that they cannot care for them within the family. In these cases a court official can witness them giving formal consent for adoption. Children made subject to Special Guardianship Orders may have had very similar experiences to those outlined above, although in some cases there may have been no abuse or harm or involvement with social care. In the latter cases, the child’s parents may have had long-term health problems or have died, and relatives may have stepped in to look after the child before applying for an SGO.
1_emass_toolkit_adoption_and_sgos.docx