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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.