Court case dragging on

[petal87]

We applied for our adoption order last summer and feel like we're getting nowhere. There have been a few directions made by the court and all that seems to have been established is that our son's birth dad needs an assessment done to determine if he can fully participate in the proceedings. The local authority have been terrible at communicating with us, my son's appointed court guardian keeps directing us to them but they don't have a clue. Now I'm being told I'm not allowed to speak to my son's appointed solicitor as it's a conflict of interest - my son is 4! No one seems to be willing to do anything to move this forward and our son has been home 18 months. Where do we go from here? Should we be looking to get our own representation? Any advice appreciated.

Sorry I don't have any advice other than try the AUK helpline,

Very difficult for you, hope you can resolve it soon

Could contact www.frg.org.uk have a free help line and offer legal advice

I think a lot of this depends on specifics of the case which for obvious reasons you might not want to share. Is the delay purely due to issues with birth parents or are there any concerns from your end? I think it's likely you will only really benefit from legal representation if there's something on your side that's perceived to be a problem. It is so frustrating I know but the reality is that there's a large element of powerlessness as the adoptive parent and you do just have to go with the flow. However I would say that after 18 months of being with you it's highly unlikely you won't be granted the AO eventually. Remember that even if there's situation changes on bp side the longer he's with you the harder it will be to justify removing him and re-traumatising him. I am speaking from experience here. We also had quite a delay and unfortunately this was due to a change in situation on our end that was unavoidable and devastating as we were really scared it would lead to adoption disruption. I can second the above advice that AUK are well worth contacting for legal advice. At the very least they can reassure you that things are being done the way they should be and help you get things into perspective. Good luck. Remember that the last thing the authorities really want is any more disruption for your little boy xx

Thanks everyone. I have no concerns that he will be returned to birth parents - the circumstances which resulted in him being removed in the first place have not changed and he was in foster care since birth so is now 4 and has never lived with them. I'm just frustrated that despite this, the court guardian is insisting on these assessments and the judge is allowing leave of appeal. I can't see how this is in our son's best interest and we just want to move on with our lives without social worker visits/calls which our son finds traumatic.

Absolutely nothing has changed on our side - the hold up is purely so that cognitive assessments can be done on the birth parents.

@petal87

how often do SWs visit? I think many children find them difficult.

My son was absolutely traumatised by them, so much so I asked my SW to speak to his SW to reduce the visits. We also started meeting in the park so I had lots of lovely ( not!) cups of tea sitting outside the cafe making small talk whilst he careered round on his bike. On other occasion I met the SW before he was due home from school, she would be on her way out when he got home but she got to satisfy herself that he was actually still alive in my care.
I would speak to the SWs about reducing visits and organising them in such a way that its doesnt upset him so much

Cognitive assessments are pretty tricky at the moment because they’re hard to do remotely and so many services aren’t seeing people face to face just now. I can think of two such assessments that have been pending for 9 months so far with no sign of them going ahead. The court will want them to avoid suggestions that the process was unfair or that the birth parents didn’t get to support they needed (potentially leaving the decision of the court open to review at a later date).

In terms of your sons solicitor, I would seek advice on that as your son would be too young to contract with a solicitor in his own right - the appointed solicitor to all intents and purpose is there to represent the local authority’s interest in your son (as corporate parents). In saying that, if the issue is that they don’t know if the birth parents has the capacity to understand the proceedings, your own solicitor wouldn’t be able to change that but they could get more information from the court, push sw along if the delay sits there.

The system is different where I am, but we did appoint our own solicitor who was an expert in adoption law, the whole process was done in one hearing because the solicitor knew what groundwork had to be done ahead of time. We had a significant legal bill but it was worth it. I’d seek legal advice from a specialist and go from there.

Sorry I have no input I can add but can see you've got some good advice here.

But I just wanted to say about this - "...we just want to move on with our lives without social worker visits/calls" - I completely understand this. I was lucky that visits for my child weren't at all traumatic and my relationship with their SW was good. But I still couldn't wait to be free to get on with ordinary life, even though I understood why the visits have to happen.

For these to still be happening for you after all this time, and for them to be difficult for your son too, must be so difficult to bear. I hope you get some resolution soon.

G xx

Thank you for the replies everyone. We have now heard that cognitive assessments have been completed and birth father has now applied to the court for an intermediary. It is incredibly frustrating that it has taken over 9 months to get to this point. I really hope it doesn't drag on much longer as it's not fair on anyone.

Ours took a long time as well. It was cruel on the birth parents as well, all the assessments in the world would not change the fact once child has been placed and is settled another move would have negative impacts on a child's life.

Luckily out LO was young so knew nothing about the stresses.

I felt the same about the SW visit as our LO got upset when they saw her. I think out LO associated her with change.

This did settle after 12 months with us and she was amazing at keeping the meeting quick and happy.