SGO Info

About the author
Joan Hunt OBE was appointed Honorary Professor in Cardiff University’s School of Law and Politics in 2013, on her retirement from Oxford University, where she was a Senior Research  Fellow in the Centre for Family Law and Policy, part of the Department of Social Policy and Social Work. She has researched and written extensively on kinship care and most recently produced an overview of the past two decades of kinship care research in the UK.

You can read the full report at Research at Kinship.org

The Lancaster University has a new online Special Guardianship Resource Pack including a summary of relevant case law

The pack also covers support services for SGO, SGO stories, research and statistics

Best Practice Guidance: Special Guardianship Orders March 2021 which has recently been published.

You can find the full report by going to the Family Justice Council

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Special-guardianship-BPG-report_Clickable.pdf

Key Information : -BPG Guidance indicates that the Courts should consider extensions of care proceedings beyond 26 weeks but should always take into account the best interests of the child. 

Family Rights Group has an extensive list of resources that help Kinship Care assessments including that of Special Guardianship 

Kinship Care

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 provides the legal framework for Special Guardianship under the Children Act 1989. Section 115 (1) of the 2002 Act inserted new sections 14A-F into the Children Act 1989.

The New sections provided for;

• who may apply for special guardianship orders
• the circumstances in which a special guardianship order may be made
• the nature and effect of special guardianship orders
• support services for those affected by special guardianship

You can find all the forms and information the Court will need to make a Special Guardianship application at

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-c13a-supplement-for-an-application-for-a-special-guardianship-order

Special Guardianship Guidance: Children Act 1989 : The Special Guardianship regulations 2005, amended 2016 Department for Education and Skills  – January 2017 

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 introduced an important new permanence option for children, from early 2006, in the form of special guardianship.

A special guardian is invested with a high degree of day-to-day parental control, although the child’s relationship with their birth parent is not legally severed.

Four years on, the numbers of special guardianship applications have risen steadily and look set to increase.

This book describes these new provisions and provides a critical assessment of the implementation of special guardianship in eight local authority areas.

The research design comprised: document analysis; key informant interviews; a survey of special guardianship applicants and their social workers; and case study interviews with special guardians and, where feasible, their children.

The study examined how local authorities have responded to special guardianship and considers the policy and practice implications that have arisen in the first two years of implementation.

Special guardianship in practice 2010

The Poor Relations: Children and Informal Kinship Carers Speak Out’ is the largest authoritative report to date in the UK to look at both children’s perspectives of living in an informal kinship care setting and the views of their carers.

It provides insights into how well, both emotionally and academically, these children are doing, how this compares with children in the formal care system and what impact such arrangements have on both children and carers.

The Poor Relations: Children and Informal Kinship Carers Speak Out’

This report reviews the progress that has been made in implementing Special Guardianship,
explores the extent to which it is meeting the needs of children and families whose permanency plans have become enabled by Special Guardianship and identifies a range of important new messages for policy and practice. The study draws on national datasets to describe the extent to which Special Guardianship is being used by local authorities and the courts across England, how its use varies from one area to another, the characteristics of the children and their families and assesses the risk of disruption to these arrangements and the factors associated with breakdown.

At the heart of this study, however, is a three to six year follow-up of a sample of families in seven local authorities where a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) was made between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2009. The follow-up study charts their experiences describes the support they have received and assesses the progress and outcomes of children.

It is therefore the first study to assess how well Special Guardianship is working for children and their guardians over the medium term and to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this new legal order in providing permanence for children.

You can find the full report here:-

Investigating Special Guardianship: experiences, challenges and outcomes
Research report November 2014
Jim Wade, Ian Sinclair, Lucy Stuttard – Social
Policy Research Unit, University of York
John Simmonds – British Association of
Adoption and Fostering

 You can find the brief report here:

Investigating Special Guardianship experiences, challenges and outcomes Research Brief 2014

The aim of this study, was to further explore the
impact on SGO use of the introduction of the 26 week time limit for standard care cases
under the Public Law Outline (Children and Families Act 2014), and recent court
judgements (such as Re B-S).

The study comprised a qualitative analysis of c.50 case files in five local authorities (LAs) conducted over a four-week period in August and September 2015.

Specifically, the study explored the following areas:
• how the decision was made for the order
• how the special guardian was assessed
• whether the order applied for was the same as the order awarded by the court
• the relationship between the child and the special guardian and whether the child
was living with the special guardian before the SGO was made
• whether a supervision order was made with the SGO
• the type of support put in place for the special guardian
• whether there had been any disruption to the placement.

You can find the full research document here:-

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/485146/DFE-RR497_-_Special_Guardianship.pdf

This practice guide looks at the key issues than need to be considered in relation to special guardianship for looked after children.

It looks specifically at: the use of special guardianship; the role of local authorities in special guardianship; applications for a special guardianship order; assessing the needs of children; assessing the needs of prospective special guardians; special guardianship support services and needs of children; assessment, planning, outcomes and effectiveness in special guardianship support.

The guide is aimed to inform practitioners and managers working in family placement, but would also be relevant to other professionals, including lawyers and the courts.

The role of special guardianship: best practice in permanency planning for children (England and Wales) – John Simmonds

SCIE – Social Care Institute for Excellence – you will need to register in order to read this document

This review was commissioned by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory and has been
co-produced by CoramBAAF, led by John Simmonds, OBE, working in partnership with
Professor Judith Harwin and her team at Lancaster University.

The issues for consideration were scoped by family justice practitioners, policy leads and academics.  As the work has progressed, the issues have been discussed by members of the Family  Justice Board, led by HHJ Jane Probyn and David Williams and a sub-group of the President’s  Public Law Working Group, led by Mr Justice Keehan.

The review has been published in four parts:
• Special guardianship: a review of the evidence. Summary report
• Special guardianship: practitioner perspectives
• Special guardianship: a review of the English research studies
• Special guardianship: international research on kinship care

Special guardianship: practitioner perspectives Authors: Judith Harwin &
John Simmonds

Friends care: Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities – Department for Education  (2011)

The Fostering Network has a huge range of resources mainly with regard to family and friends care, however some of this will be relevant when assessing Special Guardians.

All You Need To Know Family and Friends Care 

This handbook aims to give families and friends who are kinship carers, or may become kinship carers, information about the choices they can make, the assessment process, the legal framework, the child care system, the support they can expect and the financial help available.

It discusses some of the most common problems faced by kinship carers who have to balance the interests of the child, and the child.

One of the Family – a Handbook for Kinship Carers -Heidi Argent

There is a cost of £6.50