Special Guardianship FAQ
SGO FAQ
Most Asked SGO Questions
How Long Does an SGO Last?
A Special Guardianship Order is a permanent order and will last until a child turns 18.
Does Special Guardianship (SGO) overide parental rights?
A Special Guardianship Order gives the SG Carers overriding parental responsibility for a child as if they were their own child.
A birth parent never loses their parental responsibility when a Special Guardianship Order is granted, however, they cannot exercise this over and above that of the Special Guardianship carers.
Is a Child cared for under an SGO a Looked After Child?
No, a Child who is cared for under Special Guardianship is not considered a Looked After Child.
The child might have been cared for under a Care Order prior to the Special Guardianship Order being granted and they would have been a looked after child at that point. Once the SGO is granted, the child would no longer be looked after.
What is a Testamentary Guardian?
If you are a Special Guardian, you may be asked to identify a Testamentary Guardian.
This is similar to considering and naming guardians in your will for your own children. In the event that anything should happen to you, if you hold a Special Guardianship Order, this will mean that the Testamentary Guardian identified will be able to take on the care of the child/ren.
The Testamentary Guardian will still need to be assessed as suitable to care for the children. The SGO will not automatically pass to them and relevant applications will need to be made to the Court to transfer the SGO to them.
What happens if the Special Guardianship placement breaks down?
A Special Guardianship placement is not always easy and there may be many reasons for an SG placement breakdown. In the first instance, you should seek the support of the Local Authority Special Guardianship Support team to see if there is anything that can be done to prevent the placement ending.
In the event that it is decided that the Special Guardianship placement ceases, the LA will ask the SGO carers to agree to the child being placed into mainstream foster care and the local authority will need to find alternative permanent placement for the child.
Special Guardianship Assessment Questions
What is a Special Guardianship Assessment
A Special Guardianship Assessment is an assessment completed of alternative family members by the local authority.
The SGO assessment is usually ordered to be completed during family care proceedings. A Special Guardianship Assessment is used by the Court to help make decisions about a child’s permanency.
Is a Viability Assessment different to a Special Guardianship Assessment
A Viability Assessment is the first stage where a social worker will visit you once to make a recommendation about whether you appear able to offer good enough care to a child and that you have a suitable home.
A viability assessment is brief and does not go into depth as a Special Guardianship assessment does.
The viability assessment will make a recommendation about whether you should be assessed further as a Special Guardian or as a Family and Friends Foster Carer.
Who Can apply to be assessed for a Special Guardianship Order
- A person who has a Child Arrangements Order
- A person who the child has lived with for three out of the last five years.
- A person who has the agreement of the Local Authority
- A person who has the agreement of all the people with parental responsibility for the child.
- A Local Authority foster carer or relative that the child has been living with for at least one year before the application is made.
- Anyone who has the courts permission.
- They will need to be 18 years old in order to apply for a Special Guardianship Order.
You can find out more about making a Special Guardianship Order application with the court.
Do Special Guardianship Carers Need To Be Assessed?
Special Guardianship carers also need to be assessed in the same way as Kinship/Family and Friends Foster carers, but they are assessed under different regulations. They are assessed under Special Guardianship Regulations and a report and plan of support
The court cannot make a Special Guardianship Order without a report of the prospective special guardian and how they will be supported
What does a Special Guardianship Assessment template look like
The Special Guardianship Assessment report follows the Court template
Many Local Authorities have adapted the Court Template and use their own version. The most widely used is the Coram BAAF Form C Template.
Below is a brief overview of the parts required in the report.
The report is generally structured to cover:-
Part 1 – The Child’s information
Part 2 – The Birth Parents Information
Part 3- The Wishes and feelings
Part 4- The Prospective Carers information
Part 5 & 6 – Contains the Support and Statutory requirements
Part 7 & 8 – Addresses the key issues of SGO and any other orders that could be made
Part 9 – The Recommendation
Part 10 – Recommendation regarding contact.
What is a private special guardianship order application
If there are no care proceedings taking place, but you have been caring for a child in your family, then you may want to apply for a special guardianship order to provide security and enable you to obtain parental responsibility for a child.
You will need to make an application through the courts and notify the local authority in writing in order to make an SGO application. This is called a PRIVATE SPECIAL GUARDIANSHIP application.
Three months before you make the private application to the Court, you must tell the Local Authority in writing that you plan to apply to the Court for a Special Guardianship Order.
The Local Authority has to write a report in those 3 months for the Court to help it to decide what order to make.
The Court cannot make an SGO order without this report.
You can find all the forms and information you will need to make an application at
How long does a Special Guardianship Assessment take?
Local Authorities have to prepare a report for the Court, following the Special Guardianship Regulations 2005 updated in 2016.
The Special Guardianship court report timescales vary between local authorities and the court. Generally speaking, Special Guardianship assessments should take at least 12 weeks to complete, this is the golden standard that Local Authorities would like to see in place.
12 Weeks to complete an SGO assessment is still a very quick timescale for families to come to terms with the changes that will be taking place in their family.
More commonly, Special Guardianship reports are being completed in shorter and ever decreasing timescales, ranging from 4 to 8 weeks. Families are being placed under incredible pressure during this time, and we hope that in time, with support and awareness that there will be changes to allow sufficient time for Special Guardians to come to terms with the change in their lives until then we hope that you will find support and information to help you.
What information does the Special Guardianship Assessment Report cover
Local Authorities are bound to prepare a report for court consistent with Special Guardianship Regulations 2005 updated in 2016.
The court regulations provide a structure of the key information that is required in the Special Guardianship Assessment (SGO) report.
Over the past few years, however many Local Authorities have started to develop their own Special Guardianship report templates and tools to gather this information.
Below is a brief overview of the parts required in the report.
The report is generally structured to cover:-
Part 1 – The Child’s information
Part 2 – The Birth Parents Information
Part 3- The Wishes and feelings
Part 4- The Prospective Carers information
Part 5 & 6 – Contains the Support and Statutory requirements
Part 7 & 8 – Addresses the key issues of SGO and any other orders that could be made
Part 9 – The Recommendation
Part 10 – Recommendation regarding contact.
What Does Special Guardianship Order allow a carer to do?
Special Guardianship carers obtain parental responsibility for a child which overrides the parents’ legal parental responsibility.
They will be able to make most of the decisions about a child. However, a parent never loses their parental responsibility, but they cannot exercise this over and above the Special Guardianship carer.
There are only three main things that a Special Guardianship carer cannot do, they will need the permission of the Court or the parents in order to do the following:
- They cannot change a child’s name
- They cannot take a child out of the UK for more than 3 months at any one time.
- They cannot give consent for the child to be adopted.
What will I be asked during my special guardianship assessment
You can expect to have at least 5-8 visits from the assessing social worker as they will need to learn about you and your family members and what it may be like for a child to live with you.
Special Guardianship Visits are Usually Structured with a focus for each session.
Visit 1 – Introductions, completion of statutory checks (DBS, Health and Safety, Pet Assessment, Financial Assessment, Medical paperwork), booking onto any preparatory training. You will be asked to provide three personal references.
You should ask them to explain what Special Guardianship Order will mean for you and your family so that you understand what this means in terms of Parental Responsibility.
You will be asked the reasons for coming forward, your past and current relationship with the child and with the parents are like.
You will be asked to explain what you think are the concerns that have led to the matter and what harm you think the child has experienced.
Visit 2 – A full individual history will be completed for all applicants. This will include details of childhood, siblings, parents information using genograms to understand the family relationships. You will be asked about your experience of being parented and how you found this. You will be asked to provide details of your educational and employment history and your health. You will be asked about your personality, need to provide a physical description and will be asked to provide a photograph that will be used on the report.
Visit 3 – You will be asked about your relationships, both current and previous relationships and be asked to provide full details. You may also have individual sessions if you are in a relationship.
Visit 4 – You will be asked about your parenting experiences, both previous and current. The social worker will want to meet your family and ask your children what they think about a child coming to live with the family if they are old enough to provide a view. If your children are adults then the social worker will want to speak with them.
Visit 5 – The assessment will try to match your capacity to care for the child with what the child’s needs are. The SGO report asks that your ability to care specifically for the child into the future, your ability to manage contact and discussion about how you see contact in the future. You should also discuss your support needs, which should be raised throughout the process.
By the end of Visit 5, your assessing social worker should have gathered enough information required to complete most sections of the special guardianship report.
They should share a DRAFT of the report which relates to your information, with you. You should be given time to read this DRAFT report so that you can discuss that all information is recorded factually.
Visit 6 – You should discuss the DRAFT report and whether you agree that this is a fair evaluation. You should discuss any areas that have been omitted, any factual changes that need to be made, any areas of disagreement about the report.
It is important that you ensure this happens before the report is filed in Court, and you should ask to see the draft SGO report.
The special guardianship assessment is looking at your future ability and will make a Recommendation, about whether you would be suitable to become a Special Guardians.
Who Will See My Special Guardianship Assessment Report
All parties in the care proceedings will have access to the Special Guardianship report that has been completed of you. The report will be seen by the Judge, The children’s Guardian and also the parents.
If there is any personal information contained in the Special Guardianship assessment which you do not want to be shared with the parents, then you will need to speak to your Assessing Social Worker to redact these parts, when they are filed with the Court.
What if my Special Guardianship Assessment is Negative
If you find yourself in this position, then you are likely to be feeling very upset and wondering what you can do about it.
You will need to ask to see a copy of the final SGO report that has been filed and the reasons for the negative SGO assessment.
The Assessing Social Worker should write to you and provide the report to you with the reasons for the negative SGO assessment. They will ask you to respond within given timescales, usually 10 -14 days as to whether you plan to challenge the SGO assessment outcome. They will also ask you to outline the reasons why you are challengings the SGO recommendation.
You should respond in writing with these reasons within the timescales set out.
Your reasons will be provided to the Court and the Court will then decide how to deal with the matter.
If the Court believes that your reasons are valid, then it may ask the Local Authority to complete an Addenemdum SGO report or request a new Special Guardianship Assessment is completed by an Independent Social Worker.
What Is Special Guardianship?
Why were Special Guardianship Orders introduced
Special Guardianship Orders often referred to as SGO’s were introduced in England and Wales in December 2005 as a way to provide greater security for children when the Local Authority were planning for their permanence and when adoption was not appropriate.
Special Guardians obtain parental responsibility for a child which overrides the parents’ parental responsibility. This means that they will be able to make most of the decisions about a child. A parent never loses their parental responsibility, but they cannot exercise this over and above the Special Guardian.
Who Can apply for Special Guardianship
- A person who has a Child Arrangements Order
- A person who the child has lived with for three out of the last five years.
- A person who has the agreement of the Local Authority
- A person who has the agreement of all the people with parental responsibility for the child.
- A Local Authority foster carer or relative that the child has been living with for at least one year before the application is made.
- Anyone who has the courts permission.
- They will need to be 18 years old in order to apply for a Special Guardianship Order.
If a family member is applying for a Special Guardianship Order because they have a child in their care where there are no care proceedings in place, but they need to obtain parental responsibility for a child they will need to make an application through the courts and notify the local authority in writing in order to make an application. This is a PRIVATE SPECIAL GUARDIANSHIP application.
Three months before they make the private application to the Court, they must tell the Local Authority in writing that they plan to apply to the Court for a Special Guardianship Order.
The Local Authority has to write a report for the Court to help it to decide what order to make.
The Court cannot make an order without this report.
You can find all the forms and information they will need to make an application at
What Does Special Guardianship Order allow a carer to do?
Special Guardianship carers obtain parental responsibility for a child which overrides the parents’ legal parental responsibility.
They will be able to make most of the decisions about a child. However, a parent never loses their parental responsibility, but they cannot exercise this over and above the Special Guardianship carer.
There are only three main things that a Special Guardianship carer cannot do, they will need the permission of the Court or the parents in order to do the following:
- They cannot change a child’s name
- They cannot take a child out of the UK for more than 3 months at any one time.
- They cannot give consent for the child to be adopted.
What Is the difference between Special Guardianship and Kinship/Connected Persons
Special Guardianship and Kinship carers are both achieving the same purpose; they are caring for a child who is a member of their family. The key difference is the legislation that is behind these two ways of ensuring that a child is cared for within their family.
Special Guardianship carers are assessed under the Special Guardianship Regulations 2005 and February 2016.
Kinship/Connected Carers are usually assessed under the Fostering Regulations and are also called or Family and Friends Foster Carers. Kinship carers can also be caring for children under other orders such as Child Arrangements Orders.
What are the support needs of Special Guardians and their families?
Special Guardians often come forward at a time of crisis in a family, when there are Care Proceedings in place and the Local Authority is looking at alternative permanent plans for a child.
This means that Special Guardians may not be prepared, they often have to leave their work and therefore finance becomes an issue, they may not have enough space in their home, they have to manage contact between the birth parents and the child, they have to help the child understand the reasons why they cannot live with their parents.
There is such a high expectation, within a short timescale. Special Guardians have to make life-changing decisions and after that, they find there is nowhere for them to turn to.
Find out more about the Assessment Process
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