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When social services are involved with your family, it can be very worrying and upsetting. Our specialist child care solicitors can help.
What are Child Care Proceedings?
Child care proceedings begin when social services apply to the court to determine if your child should be legally protected from harm. This includes physical, emotional, sexual, and neglect.
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What to Expect From Our Child Care Solicitors
If social services are involved, our child care proceedings solicitors can provide expert legal advice and support in this complicated area of family law.
If you are a parent or a young person whose family is involved with social services (sometimes called “children’s services”), we can advise and represent you even before a case goes to court (the “pre-proceedings” stage).
We can also help if you want to support a relative whose children are involved with social services.
We are specially trained to deal with these complex children’s cases, and many of our children law solicitors are members of the Law Society’s Children.
Our advice is clear and independent and based on many years of experience handling cases involving children, families, and the law.
If you are dealing with a difficult issue related to children, or any other family situation and need specialist family solicitors in London to advise you, we are here to help
Why Choose TV Edwards?
Our specialist family team is top ranked in Chambers UK and highly commended in the Legal 500 2025 legal directories. The department has been recognised in The Times as a top 20 firm for family law in their 2025 guide.
Having a large team of dedicated and specialist solicitors means that we can advise in a wide range of family cases, including divorce, finances and children. Our specialist expert divorce solicitors handle complex cases with significant assets. Our specialist children lawyers are often at the forefront of family law handling groundbreaking cases in the high court and court of appeal. At the heart of every case is the individual we represent.
We are passionate about the work do and are committed to provide exceptional client service to get you the best possible outcome in often stressful circumstances.
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Child Care Proceedings Frequently Asked Questions
Can Social Services Remove a Child From Their Home?
Social services must be able to provide enough evidence to prove that your child is at risk at home and in the adult’s care before they are allowed to take any steps to have the child removed.
What are Child Care Proceedings?
At the beginning of the proceedings, the local authority will apply to the family court and may seek an order to protect the child/ren. This could include the child remaining at home with some further monitoring/supervision or could be an order which authorises the child being taken into local authority foster care or being placed with an alternative carer such as a family member. The court may have listed an urgent hearing to deal with interim order/placement or when the case is not urgent, the court will schedule a case management hearing, which is usually held 12-17 days after the application is made to the court. At the case management hearing, the court will consider any necessary assessments and set out the timetable for the case including dates for filing of assessments and evidence. The court will also list an issues resolution hearing.
At the issue resolution hearing, the court will consider the assessments and final evidence to consider the final care plan for the child/ren. If there is an agreed plan, the case could conclude at that hearing. If the plan is not agreed, the court will be asked to list a final hearing.
The final hearing should take place within 6 months of the application being put before the court.
What Outcomes Can I Expect From a Childcare Case?
The outcomes from a childcare case depend on several factors, but some common outcomes include:
- Child Arrangement Orders: These set out who the child will live with and how they will spend their time with each parent.
- Supervision Orders: The local authority provides support and supervision for up to a year.
- Care Orders: The local authority gains parental responsibility for the child.
- Special Guardianship: This gives a family member responsibility for the child without removing the child’s legal relationship with their biological parents.
- Adoption
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