Children and Court Orders

Public Law of Children can include Supervision Orders, Care Oders, Placement Orders and Adoption Orders

These types of legal cases usually involve local authorities, and usually also involve the Court. This is because a Court Order is needed for when a local authority raises concerns to a Court about the well-being and safety of a child.

A Voluntary Arrangement is governed by Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 (or by Section 76 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 in Wales.), the child is accommodated with parent agreement, but the council does not automatically gain parental responsibility.

A Supervision Order is a court order made under Section 31 of the Children Act 1989 during public law proceedings. It places a child under the supervision of a local authority, allowing the child to stay living at home or with a relative while the council monitors and provides support to the family. A Supervision Order includes a Support Plan. That plan must details what help and monitoring the local authority will provide. A Supervision Order typically lasts for one year initially, but can be extended by the court for up to three years. The Order can last until the child turns 18 if needed

A Supervision Order does not give the local authority parental responsibility.

The Court Orders that do give parental responsibility to a local authority means that the local authority then shares the legal rights, duties, and powers for a child's upbringing with the parents. This typically happens through a court-granted Interim or Full Care Order under the Children Act 1989.

An Emergency Protection Order grants immediate, temporary parental responsibility to a local authority, to safeguard a child at risk of significant harm.

A Care Order can be an interim or a full care order, in accordance with Section 31 of the Children Act 1989, giving the local authority parental responsibility.

A Placement Order is a legal court decision that gives a local council the power to place a child with people who want to adopt them. It does not mean the child is adopted yet, but it allows the council to match the child with approved adoptive parents and start the adoption process

Section 46 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 empowers a court to make an Adoption Order once a Placement Order has been made, but Section 47(b)(ii) of the Act prevents the court from making the Order if it is opposed by a parent. However, by Section 47(5) that parent may not oppose the making of the order without permission of the court,. By Section 47(7), the court cannot give permission unless satisfied that there has been a change in circumstances since the Placement Order was made.

1. Re P (Adoption: Leave Provisions) [2007] EWCA Civ 616 established that an application for leave involves a two-stage process:

(1) The court has to be satisfied that there has been “a change of circumstances of a nature and degree sufficient, on the facts of the particular case, to open the door to the exercise of the judicial discretion to permit the parents to defend the adoption proceedings”.

(2) If so satisfied, ‘the door to the exercise of a judicial discretion to permit the parents to defend the adoption proceedings is opened, and the decision whether or not to grant leave is governed by section 1 of the 2002 Act.”

Courts are also referred to the recent case of Somerset County Council v NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning [2002[ EWFC 31 in which it was stated that there had been a breach of the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005 in that no report had been obtained on the health of the children.