Grandaughter taken into care

[Spider4222]

Hi, i hope someone here may be able to offer some advice with regards to a very unhappy family situation that has arisen. My daughter has been having some problems which, to cut a long story short, have resulted in my 13 year old grandaughter coming to live with me and my 8 year old grandaughter being placed on the child protection register. My daughter has refused to cooperate with social services, but has also continued to struggle with the 8 year old's behaviour.
Two weeks ago she asked social services for respite care for the 8 year old because she wasn't coping. She was told that if she went into foster care she would probably stay in foster care because of the situation. They suggested that she came here with her sister, but my daughter was adamant that she did not want her to come here.
After this meeting my daughter phoned me and told me what was going on. She was insistent that I should not volunteer to take the 8 year old. If I did take her then she would make trouble and take the 13 year old back. This could possibly happen because she is living here on a voluntary basis with me having no legal responsibility.
There was a further meeting between my daughter and her social worker last Thursday. During this meeting both myself and my 13 year old grandaughter were separately contacted by phone by my daughter. We were placed on speaker phone, with my daughter present and asked how we would feel about the 8 year old coming to stay for a few weeks. Neither of us felt we were able to give our honest opions because of the situation we have been put in.
My grandaughter was placed in voluntary foster care on Friday afternoon. My daughter was allowed to call her twice a day and it was hoped, by my daughter, that regular contact would take place. Today, she has called me and informed me that she is now only allowed to call twice a week and 45 minutes of supervised contact would be arranged. She also told me that they have advised her to get a solicitor because they will be seeking parental responsibility.
I have tried to contact the social worker to explain and discuss the options and she seems to be avoiding me. I was promised a return call on Friday which didn't happen and I was told she was out of the office today.

My 13 year old grandaughter is feeling very low at the moment and would like some contact with her sister, and although they did fight when they were together, misses her company.

We can take on my 8 year old grandaughter as well as her sister and feel we can provide her with a loving home. I have told the various social workers involved in the case in the past that we would do this if the time came that she was removed from my daughters care.

Firstly I would like to ask if I have grounds for complaint in the way this has been dealt with and secondly what should be my next course of action. How can I get children's services to reply to my calls? The situation is made more complicated by the fact I live 200 miles away from the family

I would also like to add, that since my 13 year old grandaughter moved here 6 months ago, I have had no support or contact from my own children's services department. Am I right in understanding that we should have had some contact from them as a legal requirement?
Thank-you

[leclerc]

Re: Grandaughter taken into care

Ok, firstly, it appears as though your daughter has agreed to what is called a section 20 agreement which is that she voluntarily agreed for the child to be placed in care. I am surprised to a degree that social services have not contacted you since you are informally looking after the child. There is one way to ensure that social services DO take notice which is to email the head of children's services in the area your daughter lives.

I have a couple of questions: if our daughter is stating that she does not want the 8 year old to live with you, are there any reasons why she does not want that to happen? You might want to look at something called a Special Guardianship Order.
Do you received any form of monetary allowance for your daughter being with you ie Child Benefit?

Another thing to consider is this: do you have space to keep your second granddaughter?

The issue of contact with your local social services department might happen as a result of the fact that you are looking after you eldest granddaughter within their area.
Does your daughter get contact with her sister on a regular basis?
If the case does go to court then you have two options:
1) Do nothing
2) if or when the case goes to court that you ask for permission to be joined to the case as a party and then to oppose the care order on the basis that the child should live with her sister and yourself. However, you need to be 100% certain that you can accommodate her and support her to deal with the issues that she appears to have.

[leclerc]

Re: Grandaughter taken into care

Another link that might be useful is Grandparents association.
I have linked you directly to the page which is about kinship carers: http://www.grandparents-association....ip-carers.html