Care Orders

What a Care Order Is

A care order is made by the family court under section 31(1)(a) of the Children Act 1989. It places a child in the care of a designated local authority, normally the council for the area where the child ordinarily lives. Only a local authority, or an authorised person such as the NSPCC, can apply for one. A parent or relative cannot.

No care order can be made for a child who has reached 17, or 16 if the child is married. A final order continues until the child's 18th birthday unless it ends earlier: if the court discharges it, if a child arrangements order decides who the child lives with, or if an order such as special guardianship or adoption gives parental responsibility to someone else.

Unless the Act says otherwise, the term includes an interim care order made under section 38 while the proceedings run. It is different from accommodation by agreement under section 20, where GOV.UK confirms you keep full parental responsibility. Our social services involvement page covers section 20 and the stages before court.

The Threshold Test and the Welfare Stage

Under section 31(2) a court may only make a care order or a supervision order if it is satisfied that the child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm, and that the harm or likelihood of harm is attributable either to the care given to the child, or likely to be given if the order were not made, not being what it would be reasonable to expect a parent to give, or to the child being beyond parental control. This is the threshold.

Harm means ill-treatment or the impairment of health or development, including impairment from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another person, and ill-treatment includes sexual abuse and ill-treatment which is not physical.

Crossing the threshold does not mean a care order follows. Under section 1 the child's welfare is paramount, the welfare checklist applies, and the court may not make any order unless it considers that doing so would be better for the child than making no order at all. Section 31(5) lets the court make a supervision order on an application for a care order, so that is often the alternative argued for.

Before making a care order the court must consider the permanence provisions of the authority's section 31A care plan: whether the long-term plan is for the child to live with a parent, relative or friend, for adoption, or for long-term care elsewhere. It must also consider the contact arrangements the authority proposes and invite the parties to comment on them.

What a Care Order Means for You and Your Child

Under section 33 the authority must receive the child into its care and keep the child there while the order is in force. It gains parental responsibility and the power to decide how far a parent, guardian or special guardian may meet their own, but only where satisfied that this is necessary to safeguard or promote the child's welfare. You do not lose parental responsibility.

The authority cannot bring the child up in a different religion, agree or refuse to agree to an adoption order, or appoint a guardian. Nobody may give the child a new surname or remove the child from the United Kingdom without the written consent of everyone with parental responsibility or the court's permission.

A care order does not always mean removal from home. Section 22C requires the authority to arrange for a looked after child to live with a parent, or another person with parental responsibility, unless that would not be consistent with the child's welfare or would not be reasonably practicable. Otherwise it must choose the most appropriate placement available, preferring a relative or friend who is an approved foster carer. It must find out the wishes and feelings of the child and the parents before any decision, and an independent reviewing officer must be appointed.

Under section 34 the authority must allow the child reasonable contact with parents, guardians, special guardians and certain others, and may refuse it only under a court order or, as a matter of urgency, for no more than seven days where refusal is necessary to safeguard or promote the child's welfare. You can apply to the court for an order about contact; fees for an application you make yourself are on the GOV.UK court fees page.

Evidence and Common Problems

The authority's application comes with a social work chronology, a social work statement and genogram, the assessments it relies on, a care plan and a threshold statement: no more than two pages of the facts it seeks to establish under section 31(2). Your side is the parents' response: no more than two pages answering the threshold statement, plus placement proposals naming every relative and friend you want the court to consider.

Problems we see often:

• threshold facts going unanswered, so disputed or incomplete allegations are treated as accepted
• a serious allegation, such as an unexplained injury, that needs its own findings before the welfare decision; our fact-finding hearings page explains that process
• assessments asked for late: under an interim order the court may direct an assessment of the child only where it is necessary to resolve the proceedings justly
• relatives who could care for the child coming forward after the care plan has settled on long-term foster care or adoption
• the letter before proceedings and the offer of a family group decision-making meeting going unanswered, which the chronology then records

How Care Proceedings Reach a Care Order

The Public Law Outline in Practice Direction 12A sets the stages. In outline:

1. Before applying, a local authority in England must offer the parents, and anyone else with parental responsibility, a family group decision-making meeting, unless it considers that would not be in the child's best interests (see our Public Law Outline and pre-proceedings page).
2. The authority issues its application (day 1) with the annex documents, and the court appoints a children's guardian from Cafcass under section 41 unless satisfied that is not necessary to safeguard the child's interests.
3. If the authority asks for an interim care order, the court may make one only if satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the section 31(2) circumstances exist; an urgent contested hearing is listed where needed.
4. The case management hearing takes place not before day 12 and not later than day 18, counting business days. The court decides whether there is a real issue about threshold, what evidence and assessments are needed, and the timetable for the child.
5. The parties file their evidence: your response to threshold, assessments, the authority's final evidence and care plan, and an agreed threshold document or a statement of the facts still in dispute.
6. At the issues resolution hearing the court narrows what remains contested, may hear evidence to resolve it and can use the hearing as the final hearing.
7. At the final hearing the court decides whether the threshold is crossed and, if so, which order serves the child's welfare: a care order, a supervision order, another order, or no order at all.

Section 32 requires the court to timetable the case to finish without delay and in any event within 26 weeks of issue. It may extend that period only where necessary to resolve the proceedings justly, and each extension ends no more than eight weeks after the period it extends. After a final order, our discharge or variation of care orders page explains who can apply to end it.

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

Advice matters most where:

• an interim care order is sought at the first hearing and the authority wants to move the child
• the permanence provisions of the care plan propose adoption or long-term foster care rather than a return home or a placement with family
• the threshold rests on disputed allegations that need findings of fact
• the authority wants to restrict how you exercise parental responsibility, or to refuse contact
• a grandparent or other relative wants to care for the child, where a special guardianship order would end the care order
• your immigration status or your child's could be affected; our family immigration solicitors advise alongside the family team

Legal aid for care proceedings is not means tested for the child, a parent or another person with parental responsibility, but it is only available through a firm that holds a legal aid contract. RakLAW does not hold one and acts on a privately funded basis, and we say so at the first call. The Family Rights Group helpline on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 3pm) gives confidential support to parents. If you or your child are in immediate danger call 999; the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is 0808 2000 247.

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

We act for parents and relatives in care proceedings from our office at 42 Shad Thames in Southwark, a short walk from Tower Bridge. The firm was founded by solicitor Rakesh Prajapati and is regulated by the SRA.

We go through the threshold statement and the care plan with you line by line, prepare your response and placement proposals, and put your case at each hearing. Where a return home or a family placement is realistic we build the evidence for it; where it is not, we work to secure the contact and the say in decisions that the Act gives you.

The first 15-minute consultation is free. Our charges are explained on the family law fees page, and you can book an appointment online or call 0203 345 2000. Our care proceedings and social services hub covers the related orders.