Frequently Asked Questions ' Children Law

• Published date: 03 October 2022
• Subject Matter: Family and Matrimonial, Family Law
• Law Firm: Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors
• Author: Ms Kim Stradling

This section endeavours to provide answers to frequently asked questions.

FAQ's Child Care Law

Can I tell social services to go away?

It is important to remember that social services are required by law to ensure that the children who are living in their area are safe.

If social services contact the family because they are concerned for the welfare of children, then they will have information which will cause them to be concerned.

In our experience, social services will normally wish to work with families to resolve the problems which caused social services to contact the family in the first place. The social worker's will wish to be reassured that the children are safe so that they can close their file.

Resolving the case could be demonstrating to social services that the information they had which cause them concern was wrong. Alternatively, the case could be resolved by working with social services to make changes (big and/or small) to get things on a better footing.

There are different levels of child protection. Most families who encounter social services where there are concerns about child welfare do not end up in court.

A parent does not have to work with social services. However, if a parent tells social services to go away - the social worker will still have the same concerns about child welfare. They will also be concerned that the parent is uncooperative and may not be focused on the needs of their child.

Telling social services to go away is much more likely to result in the case being escalated. This could mean legal proceedings and there could be a risk that children would be removed from the family.

No one is perfect. As parents we all get things wrong from time to time.

In our experience, parents are normally most successful in avoiding court proceedings if they cooperate with social services. This normally means accepting there is a problem and making changes.

If social services have concerns about the welfare of your family - then it is a good idea to seek legal advice from an experienced child law specialist. There is a level of legal aid available for free advice. If a letter threatening court action has been received, then legal aid is non-means tested. If there is no letter threatening court action - legal aid is available but is subject to a means test. Those in receipt of universal credit will be entitled to legal aid (provided they also pass the assessment of capital/savings).

What happens if you lie to social services?

To close the file, the social worker will wish to have confidence that the children are safe and that the care they are receiving is good enough. The parent does not have to be perfect.

For the social worker to have confidence that changes will be maintained means that the social worker will need to trust the parents.

If the case ends up in court, if children are to remain with their parents at the end of the court proceedings, then the court will need to trust that the parent will be able to provide good enough care of the child for the rest of their childhood.

Trust in a parent from social workers and the court is therefore very very important.

Over the years we have seen lots of cases where parents have lied to social workers and to the court. When these lies are discovered (as often they are), the lie becomes more of a problem to the parent than the reason why social services became involved in the first place.

No one expects parents to be perfect - but the parents to succeed, they need to except where things have gone wrong and make changes and they also need to be trusted.

Owning up to a mistake shows that the parent is being open and honest. They may have made a mistake but because they have owned up, this suggests they can still be trusted.

Being caught out having lied means a parent cannot be trusted and will have to work harder to get back to a situation where the social workers and/or court can trust them.

Therefore, lying to social services is not a good idea. It normally makes the situation worse.

Sometimes what has gone wrong is so bad that telling the truth will not save the family from being broken up. However, if things are really bad, being honest and telling the truth about how bad things are can still help to achieve better outcomes.

Every case is different.

If something has gone wrong and you are thinking that the answer is to try and lie your way out of it - then we would strongly urge you to seek legal advice as soon as possible.

What is the penalty for lying to social services?

Is there a penalty for lying to social services?

Lying to social services is not a criminal offence and so in that sense there is not a penalty.

However, it is important to remember why social services became involved with the family. This is because they wanted to make sure that the children in the family was safe and were being looked after to a good enough standard.

As we have explained in the answer to the question:what happens if you lie to social services? the best way of achieving a good outcome is through working with social services and through social services being able to trust that the children are safe and being cared for to a good enough standard.

The penalty for lying to social services could well be that social services feel that they have no option other than to take the case to court.

The judge will also wants to be able to trust parents to look after their children safely and to good enough standard - and if the judge is of the view that parents cannot be trusted - then the penalty is that their children will not be returned to their care.

Lying to social services is therefore very risky.

If you are in a mess and you are thinking that you could try and lie to social services to make them go away - then you really do need to get some urgent legal advice from a solicitor who is experienced in children law.

How do you get social services on your side?

The best way to win a case with social services is to stop it from going to court in the first place.

Being a social worker is not an easy job. Many social workers have too many cases and many of the people that they deal with are not friendly or communicative.

The best way to get social services on your side is to work with them.

This means being polite and friendly. It also means being open and honest.

No one is perfect - so you need to accept and understand where things have gone wrong. If social services suggest that you work with someone else - for example a counsellor or a domestic abuse service, then follow their advice.

Be reliable, both with the social worker and with other professionals you are dealing with.

There are often lots of demands on parents and not all parents are as well-organised as each other. If you can't make an appointment - best to contact the person who you were going to see first and rearrange.

If you say that you are going to do something then do it.

Recognise that the social worker is probably overworked. There may be times that they are not able to deliver what they say they are going to do. Be patient with them.

If you don't have a diary - it's probably a good idea to get one to make sure you don't miss appointments.

Make sure that you keep credit on your phone so you don't miss telephone calls.

Be a pleasure to work with.

All cases are different. Sometimes what has brought social services to a family is very very serious. It is therefore always a good idea to get legal advice from an experienced child law solicitor if social services become involved with your family.

What is public law outline?

The Public Law Outline was introduced in 2014. This introduced new rules and expectations as to how care proceedings were managed. The public law outline also introduced pre-Court proceeding meetings called PLO meetings.

We have a whole page on our website which talks about the PLO/public law outline. There is a link to this pagehere

How to win against social services?

What constitutes a win against social services would depend upon what the case is about. In most cases, a win could be ensuring that your family stays together. In some cases a win could be being allowed to maintain regular contact with your children.

The question is however a little misleading. Asking about winning against social services also implies thatthe case has to be a battle and social services are always going to be against you.

From our experience, it is often that if the case ends up with a contested final hearing - then the result is unlikely to bewhat the parents want to happen.

Cases are usually won and lost before the case gets to court orearly on in the case.

In order to win parents need to show that they...