How Long Is Long Enough? How Long Do Care Proceedings Take?
How Long Do Care Proceedings Take? Care Proceedings like any set of legal proceedings cannot continue for an indefinite period of time.
Care proceedings should conclude within 26 weeks as prescribed by the Children and Families Act 2014 which came into force in April 2014. Prior to this, cases commonly took over a year to conclude which caused a great deal of uncertainty for children and their families. It is well recognised that delay can be very harmful to children and families. However, the 26-week time limit does not give parents long to address the Local Authority’s concerns in respect of the care afforded to a child.
Many were concerned that the 26-week limit could mean that care proceedings may be rushed without all the necessary evidence having been considered. Furthermore, there was concern that families would not be given a reasonable opportunity to demonstrate their ability to change and meet the needs of their child. The law maintains that wherever possible, children should remain cared for by their parents.
Care Proceedings – Length of Time Needed
The concerns of a Local Authority may focus on issues of neglect, parental drug or alcohol misuse, poor mental health or learning disabilities to name just a few and these issues will take differing degrees of time for a parent to address and evidence change. For example, depending on the severity of the issue, a recreational drug user without an addiction can effect positive change and abstain from drug use relatively quickly and evidence abstinence over a significant period within care proceedings, whereas some issues cannot be overcome at all, they can only be managed such as diagnosed long term mental health conditions.
Therefore, from the moment that care proceedings are issued the clock starts ticking. It is therefore vital that parents fully understand the Local Authority’s concerns and exactly what they need to do to address those concerns, they also need to know what support is available to help them. Good quality social work will often have provided that information before proceedings are issued but this is not always the case. It is very common to see parents assume that they have the entire 26 weeks to make changes but this is not accurate and they could be criticised by a Local Authority for not effecting change quickly enough. Given the fact that assessments will begin soon after the first Hearing, changes need to begin and be evidenced by a parent as soon as possible.
Care Proceedings – Flexibility with the Time Limit
In certain exceptional and necessary circumstances, care proceedings can be extended. This is not a common occurrence and certainly should not be relied upon. Where placement for adoption is a potential outcome for a child, the Court is more likely to extend proceedings than if the potential outcome is a care plan within the family or long-term foster care. Proceedings could be extended to ensure that all possible options available to keep a child within the family to prevent adoption have been explored.
Potential alternative carers may have been put forward by a parent at a late stage in proceedings which would warrant an extension of proceedings. Or further assessments may be required to test a parent’s commitment to maintaining the changes they have made, their abstinence from drug use, to enable them to source appropriate housing or their ability to maintain separation from an abusive partner amongst other reasons but only where there is the potential for real evidence of change.
Whilst the Court has moved towards shortening the timescales for care proceedings, it is still, of course, mindful that final decisions should not be made at the expense of fairness to the parents. In E (Through Her Children’s Guardian) & Anor v A Mother & Anor [2019] EWCA Civ 1557 it was stated that “parents should have reasonable opportunity to make changes before an adoption order takes effect, but it is difficult to envisage any case where an adoption decision for a 7-month baby should be delayed for 18 months” which gives us an indication of the general approach towards extensions of time.
Care Proceedings – Extensions of Time
When the Court is asked to consider an application by a party to care proceedings for an extension of time taking the case beyond 26-weeks, the Court’s approach is to deal with each application on its individual merits. The Courts realise that the final decision regarding the long-term placement of a child is life changing for the child and their family. All cases therefore require thorough exploration before a final order is made.
The provision used to allow the Court to extend the timetable is found within the Children and Families Act at S32 (5). The extension is only allowed by increments of up to 8 weeks and only if the Court considers that it is ‘necessary to enable the court to resolve the proceedings justly’. Furthermore, ‘extensions are not to be granted routinely and are to be seen as requiring specific justification’. Sir James Munby’s Judgement in Re S (A Child) [2014] EWCC B44 (Fam) provides further guidance for the Courts when considering whether or not to grant an extension to proceedings.
Timescales are often difficult to manage for all concerned within care proceedings due to the significant number of external factors which will impact upon the case. Furthermore, different parties will be focussed on different timescales e.g the Guardian will focus on the child’s timescales and the parents’ solicitors will focus on how long the parent needs to evidence change. Often the Court has to grapple with the wider context of the proceedings, balancing the child’s best interests and the parents right to a fair Hearing. The right to a family life is a fundamental human right and must be given proper consideration, however parents should never lose sight of the fact that the overriding principle is that the welfare of the child is paramount and must come first.
Eleanor Derry
October 2019