New Guidance On Special Guardians In Care Proceedings

Interim guidance has been issued to enable an extension of the statutory 26-week deadline in guardianship proceedings. The guidance has been issued by the Family Justice Council and approved by the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane.

The deadline was introduced under the Children and Families Act 2014 and the general requirement is that alternative potential carers should be identified at an early stage, if possible pre proceedings. Child-centric assessments should be commenced promptly and will usually require a 3-month timescale.

However there are cases where possible carers are identified late in proceedings or further time is required to assess the relationship between child and carer. Sir James Munby, giving judgement in the 2018 Court of Appeal judgment, In the matter of P-S (children), stated that ‘practical experience and anecdotal material identified two concerning issues. The first was the 'not infrequent' examples of cases in which a special guardianship order is proposed to place a child with a relative where the relationship may be tenuous or non-existent. The second was that the assessments relied on by the court in deciding whether or not to make an order 'are not always as rigorous as might be thought appropriate'.

The Family Justice Council has picked up on Munby’s concern and issued the new guidance to enable the statutory deadline to be extended where proposed carers appear to be viable and more time is needed to assess the quality of the relationship.

The full guidance can be found here: https://www.judiciary.uk/announcements/family-justice-council-interim-guidance-on-special-guardianship/.