Care Proceedings

What Care Proceedings Are

Care proceedings are the family court process that follows when a local authority applies under section 31 of the Children Act 1989 for an order placing a child in the care of a designated local authority, or under its supervision. It is a civil process about your child's welfare; any police investigation runs separately.

The parties are usually the authority, each parent with parental responsibility, and the child, for whom the court must appoint a Cafcass officer, the children's guardian, unless satisfied that this is not necessary to safeguard the child's interests (section 41). A father without parental responsibility, a grandparent or another relative can ask to be joined or assessed as a carer; our parental responsibility page explains who holds it.

No care or supervision order can be made for a child who has reached 17, or 16 if married (section 31(3)). Most applications follow the Public Law Outline pre-proceedings stage, which starts with a letter before proceedings. Where the risk is immediate the authority may instead apply for an emergency protection order under section 44.

The Threshold Test the Court Must Apply

Section 31(2) says a court may only make a care order or 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 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. The authority sets out the facts it relies on in a threshold document, and you respond to each one.

Harm means ill-treatment or the impairment of health or development, including impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another, so a child who witnesses domestic abuse can be harmed in law (section 31(9)). Whether harm is significant is judged, where it turns on health or development, against a similar child (section 31(10)).

Meeting the threshold does not decide the outcome. The court then decides which order, if any, to make, with the child's welfare paramount and the section 1(3) welfare checklist applied, and it may not make an order unless that would be better for the child than no order at all (section 1(5)). On a care order application it may make a supervision order instead, and the reverse (section 31(5)).

Evidence and Common Problems

The application comes with the authority's annex documents: a social work chronology, a social work statement and genogram, the assessments it relies on and its care plan (Practice Direction 12A). Earlier records, including the letters before proceedings, must be disclosed on request. Read all of it before you respond; the court's picture of you begins with how you answer the chronology.

Your own evidence is a statement that answers each allegation, with evidence of change such as course certificates, treatment letters or test results. Expert evidence needs the court's permission, given only where it is necessary to assist the court to resolve the proceedings justly (section 13 of the Children and Families Act 2014); the same test applies to an assessment of the child under an interim order (section 38(7A)).

Problems we see most often:

• not replying to the letter before proceedings, or declining the family group decision-making meeting without advice
• missing contact sessions or assessment appointments, which the next social work statement records as disengagement
• putting relatives forward late, after the timetable is set, so there is no room for a viability assessment
• disputing every allegation, including those the records plainly support, instead of concentrating on the ones that matter

How Care Proceedings Work

The Public Law Outline in Practice Direction 12A fixes the stages and the latest business day for each, counted from the day of issue.

1. Pre-proceedings. The authority sends a letter before proceedings. In England it must offer a family group decision-making meeting to the parents and anyone else with parental responsibility, and arrange it before applying if at least one accepts, unless it considers that not in the child's best interests (section 31ZA, in force from 15 July 2026).
2. Issue and allocation (Day 1 and Day 2). The authority files the application with its annex documents; within a day the court gives standard directions, including appointing the children's guardian and directing your response, and lists the case management hearing.
3. Urgent interim hearing, where sought. The court may make an interim care or supervision order only if satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for believing the threshold is met (section 38(2)). This hearing can decide where your child lives for months, so be represented at it.
4. Case management hearing (not before day 12 and not later than day 18). The court identifies the key issues, decides what evidence and which experts are necessary, directs assessments of family members and any interpreters, and draws up the timetable for the child and for the proceedings.
5. Issues resolution hearing. Final evidence, the threshold agreement or the facts still disputed, and the final care plan are filed. The court narrows the issues and can treat this as the final hearing if what remains can be decided there.
6. Final hearing and order. The court decides whether the threshold is met and, if so, whether to make a care order, a supervision order, a child arrangements order, or no order at all. Where a relative is to bring the child up, a special guardianship order may be considered.

Section 32 requires a timetable that disposes of the application without delay and in any event within 26 weeks of issue, extendable only where necessary to resolve the proceedings justly, and not routinely. That is a statutory limit, not a prediction.

Interim Orders, Contact and the Care Plan

While an interim or final care order is in force the authority holds parental responsibility alongside you and may limit how you exercise yours, but only where satisfied that this is necessary to safeguard or promote the child's welfare (section 33(3) and (4)). Detail is on our care orders and supervision orders pages.

A child in care must be allowed reasonable contact with parents, guardians and special guardians (section 34(1)). The court can define contact and can authorise the authority to refuse it; without such an order the authority may refuse contact only as a matter of urgency, where necessary to safeguard or promote the child's welfare, and for no more than seven days (section 34(4) and (6)).

The care plan under section 31A sets out the long-term plan: the child living with a parent, a relative or a family friend; adoption; or long-term care. The court must consider those permanence provisions before making a care order (section 31(3A)). Where the plan is adoption, a placement order application may run alongside, covered on our adoption page. A final care order lasts until the child is 18 unless discharged, or another order such as adoption or special guardianship gives parental responsibility to someone else.

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

Care proceedings can end with your child living elsewhere permanently, so advice before you respond to anything matters. It matters most where:

• the authority is asking for your child's removal at the first hearing
• the allegations include domestic abuse, so a fact-finding hearing may be needed and domestic abuse injunctions may run in parallel
• the care plan is adoption or long-term foster care rather than a return home
• a relative wants to care for the child and needs a viability assessment before the timetable closes
• findings about your family could affect your or your partner's immigration status; see our family immigration pages
• you need an interpreter or an intermediary, or there is a question about your capacity to litigate

A parent or other person with parental responsibility in section 31 proceedings is not means tested for legal aid, under regulation 5(1)(c) of the Civil Legal Aid (Financial Resources and Payment for Services) Regulations 2013. RakLAW does not hold a legal aid contract and is privately funded; GOV.UK explains public funding and how to find a provider. The Family Rights Group helpline on 0808 801 0366 offers confidential advice. In immediate danger call 999, or the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247.

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

We act for parents, grandparents and other relatives in care proceedings, on a privately funded basis. We read everything the authority has produced, prepare your statements and your response to the threshold, and represent you at each hearing in the Public Law Outline. We put family options before the court early, press for fair assessments and for expert evidence only where it is necessary, and deal with contact while the case runs. After a final order we advise on the discharge or variation of a care order once circumstances have changed.

What social services can do without a court order, and what a child protection conference decides, is on our care proceedings and social services hub and our social services involvement page. Our charges are on our family law fees page; court fees and help with fees are published on GOV.UK.

RakLAW Solicitors is at 42 Shad Thames in Southwark, a short walk from Tower Bridge, with Tower Hill, London Bridge and Bermondsey stations nearby. We offer a free 15-minute consultation: call 0203 345 2000, book an appointment or use the callback form to Book a Free Consultation.