Researching Reform will be showing social work staff how current care proceedings set parents up to fail and enable unjust child removals at an event hosted by Neath Port Talbot social services.
The Public Law Outline (PLO) is a legal framework which acts as a form of guidance for the family court about how to manage care proceedings. It includes timelines for each stage of the process which the family courts and all social work staff are required to follow.
It contains the order of the different stages of the process, the matters to be considered at the main case management hearings, and timescales within which the main stages of the process should take place in order to resolve the proceedings within 26 weeks.
Initially created to prevent children from staying too long inside the child protection system, the outline has been heavily criticised in recent years.
One of the key concerns stems from its use of timescales to try and push cases through the courts in instances where more time would have allowed parents to demonstrate their ability to care for their children, and keep them in their care.
Social workers also struggle to meet the deadlines in an increasing number of cases. Extensions are supposed to be granted in cases where additional time would resolve the case fairly, but many parents say they are simply refused more time to make the changes being asked of them.
Researching Reform decided that the best way to show social work staff the problems with this guidance and its timeframes was to collect real-life experiences of the families who have been exposed to them, and we would be so grateful for your help.
We are looking to gather experiences of families and children who have gone through care proceedings.
This post includes questions below which you are welcome to email or post your answers to if you would like to share your experience. There is also an accessible breakdown of the PLO so that you can point to which bits of the guidance affected you, and how.
The conference takes place at the beginning of February, so we would welcome as much input as you can offer over the next two weeks. We will keep sharing this post as well, so that you can come back to it whenever you would like to.
Questions we would love the answers to:
- Did you feel you the care proceedings process/ PLO was setting you up to fail, and if so, why?
- How did the timelines in your case affect your ability to carry out tasks, courses and assessments ordered by the court?
- Did any of the courses run over any of the time limits and prevent you from showing the results to a court?
- Were any of the timelines extended?
- Which part/s of the PLO do you think should be scrapped and why?
- Which parts of the PLO do you think are useful, and why?
- Was some of the PLO ignored or not carried out at all during your case?
- Was some/ all of the PLO wrongly carried out during your case?
Breakdown of the Public Law Outline:
Stages
- Pre-proceedings Checklist – submission of documents, evidence and records to the court
- Stage 1: Issue and Allocation – On day 1, a local authority files the application form, then 24 hours later a court must consider an application and give directions
- Stage 2: Case Management Hearing – advocates meet including litigants in person, no later than 2 business days before the case management hearing. Not before day 12 and not later than day 18 is a further case management hearing to be held only if necessary, and must listed as soon as possible and in any event no later than day 25.
- Stage 3: Issues Resolution Hearing – advocates meet including litigants in person, no later than 7 business days before the issue resolutions hearing. Court identifies key issues and evidence, and gives final case management directions including the filing of the final evidence and care plan, skeleton arguments and a listing for the final hearing.
If you would like to see the PLO in full, you can access it here.
There is also a good page explaining the PLO and the documents related to it on the Family Rights Group website.
You can post your comments below (we review comments before publication to ensure we don’t publicly share any confidential information) or you can email Researching Reform at Sobk13 at gmail dot com.
Researching Reform has not accepted any payment for taking part in this conference.
Researching Reform 
Who do we contact?
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Hi, you can contact Researching Reform, that’s me, Natasha Phillips at Sobk13 at gmail dot com, or leave a comment below.
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Most of the parents who contact me about interim care orders have the same story to tell. “My solicitor/barrister told me not to contest the interim care order but to save our ammunition for later” . Alas with the children gone and settling down “ever so well” with fosterers they never came back…………”.Later “never happened
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Kind of the same here , in the 2019 care proceedings my barrister in Bournemouth through legal aid advised me against going to a final
contested hearing as everyone else had sided with the falsified report from an independent not independent SW.
Barrister told me I would have the opportunity at a later date with legal support to challenge.the order.
I was refused any legal support when the case finally went to a long term care plan in 2021 and I’ve still not had a clear opportunity to end the plan.
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I have posted this across FB groups…. Hope it helps … x
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Thank you x
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We got done badly sw went to the foster panel 10mins before us to tell them don’t grant it for us they also told the independence but who actually work for the same place to change his report my daughter was acused of drug taking and risk to future harm so forced adoption was make but we still have no papers to sign
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Even with extra time it doesn’t make a difference. The 26 weeks we should have had has taken nearly two years and even now they are saying its not enough Blah blah. We are due for judgement this month but the LA are still against us including the guardian who has barely spoken two words to us. The LA are accusing us of causing autism and have delayed and delayed the case by not suitting documents on time. Even with the guardian accepting the LA have worked outside of guidelines and boundaries we are still being blamed. The extra time doesnt make a difference and if the LA have a biased against you it will stay that way unfortunately.
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Thank you for sharing your experiences. Some comments have been read but not approved for publication as we couldn’t remove identifying details like names and email addresses from the posts.
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Yes they have set me up to fail, I have been judged based on disability and mental health. They said I wouldn’t be able to take care of my daughter due to my disability. The barrastier and the family court including social workers also said there wasnt a bond (which there was) . I was put into a foster placement with my daughter and it was so intense there and as very overbearing. Did not give me a chance of being a mum to my daughter, sadly she is now being put up for adoption. Since I lost my daughter my mental health have become worse and have had suicidal thoughts. So yes they have failed me AND my daughter.
Social services set up vulnerable parents to fail and judge based on disability and do not follow the disability act which is discrimination. They should hang their heads in shame for the pain they inflict on many parents like me that love their children so much regardless of disability or mental health.
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Of course we are deliberately set up to fail. Even the language social workers use in their reports are very ambigous. They pick out every negative word you say and this is what they use in their report, never anything positive? Social Workers manipulate the whole sittuation to work in their favour. They do not help and support families in any shape or form, their whole agenda is removal of children. They do not follow their own guidance. Their reports are sloppy cut and paste stuff. Sorry if this sounds negative but after thousands of hours researching this subject I can honestly say Family Courts are not fit for purpose.
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I was set up to fail. I did everything social services asked me to do and more. They didn’t acknowledge any of it. And then in final hearing for placement order a contact worker said in her own words that she thinks i could of possibly been with ex (childrens father) during a video call but she wasn’t sure as didn’t see or hear him. I wasn’t with my ex but judge decided I PROBABLY was. And granted placement order. I begged for a parent and child placement but they said no as there is nothing wrong with my parenting.
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Thank you for the latest comments, this is very much appreciated, and I’m so sorry you’ve all had such a difficult time.
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It would be very helpful to hear from parents who can point to a specific stage of the PLO and how it failed to offer the right interventions or bring about the right outcomes in your cases, as well.
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As grandparents trying to prevent our grandchildren going into care we found that social workers shaped their “facts” to fit their recommendations. I noticed that the reports were cut & pasted from other reports without even bothering to change he to she & vice versa or the fonts. To add insult to injury we used our savings & paid out £22,000 & they knew we were just going through the motions. We would not be allowed to care for them.
Even when we paid for a so called Independent Social Worker, who unbeknownst to us, used to work for the same council & knew some of the staff, reported we could look after the eldest child IF a foster carer could not be found but the youngest had already been earmarked for adoption, due to his age. She had a conflict of interest & should not have put herself forward as independent as she was known to the council.
The solicitor didn’t even bother to prepare for court by reading anything, he told us he would wing it. He knew we wouldn’t be successful.
The Psychologist a professional expert witness who called himself a Dr but who was not medically trained. His report was different from his testimony in court. Whilst he said neither of us (grandparents) had personality disorders or other mental issues in his written report, he implied it in the box, whilst flushing red! I should mention he was employed by the council so he was hardly unbiased. He had to earn his money.
The councils barrister was directing the Judge who was due to retire. The social worker was found to have lied about the father, after a witness said different & yet the Judge excused her as saying she has a hard job to do. That was one lie who had a witness to dispute what she said but the other lies were accepted because she was a social worker! I could go on…!
As “newbies” we were lost in a mire of social worker & legal practitioners deceptions. They would tell us one thing & do something else. The family court is mis-named as it not for families. It is simply a money making production line to remove children, regardless that there are other places they can go where they would be better off.
The trouble is Care Proceedings are just one section of the mire & trying to negotiate your way through the rest is a nightmare. Parents get legal aid for care proceedings but I’m not sure about the appeals etc. How many actually get their children back? The answer is likely to fly in the face of the law of averages.
The whole system is geared up to make parents fail & that bias is extended to grandparents too. We jumped through all the hoops asked of us & still we failed, because it was always going to. I know that now but at the time you try every which way to succeed because you love your grandchildren & don’t want them to go into care.
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We were definitely set up to fail. They used a physiologist who said that both mine and my partners profile were the same and that we needed CAT therapy which doesn’t exist and the Social worker changed her statement on the first day of trial which we didn’t get to see as on the statement we saw we just neded a bit of help in the community. The timescales were ridiculous and both myself and my partner saw physiologist separately and we didn’t fit the criteria and it is no longer used. We lost two boys to adoption and 4 to Foster care. I has now come to light that my partner has severe dyspraxia and severe dyslexia which the court physiologist should have picked this up so it proves she wasn’t doing her job properly and was allowed to be contempt of court I was labelled an alcoholic and hypercondriact. I have a rare genetic illness which I was born with and is very rare and causes chronic pancreatitis and heart disease diabetes and mental health. We also had no witnesses at trial which was against our human rights.
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Thank you for the latest comments sharing your experiences. Some comments have not been added as parents’ names could not be edited out, but Researching reform has made a note of these experiences as well. Very grateful to you all.
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I would be interested in having my say! Currently going through it but from what I have heard today, they have already made their minds up. They are going to panel to decide outcome. 6 weeks before my parenting assessment is completed, 4 weeks before my courses finish and 4 months before final court hearing
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Yes I did I did everything they told me to do and no matter what i did they turned it against me.
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I had my son removed from me 5 years ago due to domestic violence and past mental health, the prediction was potential future emotional harm, since the proceedings I got signed off my mental health I have been stable for over 6 years now , I also never repeated a dv relationship after the one I was in, I was not given by far any help from social care my son was in my care in a mum and baby Foster placement for 7 and a half months, there were no parenting concerns at all. The liar of a social worker jeopardised my community placement as I was next to be moved into a unit to show I could care for my son there. They gave Me only 2 hours to say goodbye of which I was meant to get a week, and I was homeless and childless within 2 hours after the judge passed the final judgement. I have since fought to discharge the SGO my son was placed with for 18 years of his life but I have been unsuccessful. And to top all of this he was given to my ex partners sister under her promise she doesn’t have anything to do with her brother and she keeps my son safe,
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Sending my thanks to every parent who has offered their experience so far, and I’m truly sorry to hear about what has happened to you. I will make sure your experiences are shared at the conference.
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My daughter was taken straight to court over blisters on her child. Done by a 3rd party. The social did not want to work with her or try and get to bottom of things. No previous social involvement. But made it sound like she had to court. Not told she could appeal this initial stage so the judge granted everything they asked for! We are STILL in proceedings….19 months now. We have got social workers sacked. Reports have been given to the judge about their failings. 13 social workers in 19 months. The social didn’t turn up to our final hearing last year so instead of dropping the case they just keep postponing. WE NEED REFORM. My mum died in the 1980s because of family courts. And STILL things have not changed. Actually got worse.
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Yes I was set up to fail and have the written evidence, which went ignored through Family Court before live proceedings came to an end. Had the Final Hearing happened when intended and not at the Approved Judgement stage, which it become, said evidence would not have been in Court for the Final Hearing, which suddenly and bluntly become so at an Interim Care hearing instead. I had already give evidence at what was meant to be the Final Hearing, when I found out I was been set up. It was at though I had both not found out on time, yet I had, all in one go, with more proceedings left to follow, which only fell on deaf ears.
It was as though I almost got my son home, I think me been given this chance was nothing short of the Judge pretending or appearing to put the wrongs right he noticed of the second long term Social Worker and particularly the Guardian.
I self-investigated my Case for years, discovering serious procedural errors on top of serious procedural errors.
I learnt there was no adoption but got sent the newer birth and adoption certificate anyway, which is nothing short of fraud I believe, when no records could be found for an adoption. By the second time I requested them both there was a discrepancy with one of the names been different and a new middle name either added or removed. I don’t want to be too specific publically regards the latter, to help protect his identity, even though it’s been messed up for him with his identity.
Many were in on it and the first long term Social Worker set me up, which was pre-planned with a couple of family members with her telling them her plans, to use mental health against me, from early days.
I challenged serious procedural errors through Family Court years later, only to be told there was no jurisdiction to investigate.
There is nowhere to go years later, even before your child reaches the age of 18 also, who just too might want answers but like with my son, the child’s voice gets ignored there too.
You can end up restricted or gagged because they do not want the truth to come out. Your evidence gets ignored or not read almost as if they have been expecting it.
This is why I now deal in irregularities with adoption. If there was no adoption, then surely in the eyes of the law the parent/s maintained parental responsibility both legally and lawfully.
I have been offered no compensation.
Cafcass only sent me 6 mm of my data, when I requested it. The Guardian ad litem played a part in it too, as did the second long term Social Worker who both committed serious crimes against me, with the Judge noticing.
Consumer Relations Department was an eye opener too with all the discrepancies held in writing on my Case.
All I got was minimal compensation from the 2 law firms I used. One for breaching my personal data, the other for losing my files.
When your child wants to know the truth and not yet reached 18 years of age, the Family Court ignores there voice too and your evidence goes ignored with you been told there’s no jurisdiction to investigate.
You face been restricted or gagged. There is no place to go about suffering a miscarriage of justice.
After the first long term Social Worker not only planned but succeeded in setting me up re mh, I was wrongly or unlawfully diagnosed.
All I had done was to ask for temporary support with one of my children. It was all engineered, with written evidence, with Social Services getting a second out of my four children out my house. Although they was allowed to come home to stay, even live at my house in between time.
I ended up with 3 children back in my Care out of 4 children.
When you are set up to fail, there seems to be little you can do, other than to self-investigate. But as I have found, you can have the evidence, it does not mean that proof alone will be enough. Although yes, it really should be with the so called balancing exercise.
Xxxxxxxx
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I went through care proceedings February 2013 ss initiated eventually concluded March 2015. The ss made fake court documents which I have proof of as one care plan submitted to courts and different care plan to my solicitor they also got a secret court date where they removed my oldest the judge at the time did state he was unhappy how the ss had conducted themselves. The amount of failings I have evidence of is crazy they made it personal fast forward to 2016 less than a year after the whole mess I had all 3 children back in my care. I would love the change to have a review of my case and highlight how bad these people can actually be.
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SS lied saying that I was a high risk male that shouldn’t be around women or children because I had spent 18months in prison for knife crime, they reckon that I had stabbed my neighbour.
All false reports, I’ve never once been arrested for knife crime nor have I ever been to prison.
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False reports seem to be a common trate with the SS.
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