Moving schools with out other parent consent

[G3mR]

Hi all,
mom looking for a bit of advice from anyone in a similar situation.
background: myself and my husband have recently had his two children move in with us (10 and 12) due to a safeguarding concern. Whilst nothing has been officially given to us e.g full parental rights, we are responsible for the children. We also have a 5 year old as well. We are currently dealing with social services “waiting for the investigation to close”. We have been enquiring to move the childrens schools as they go to school 45mins away from where we live. It’s costing around £400 a month in fuel and breakfast clubs for the youngest and with the current cost of living crisis, we cannot keep it up. We have asked advice from social services and police and have been told we will have to make an application to the courts if mum won’t consent. We contacted mum and got the answer we expected, no! Just to add, she has had no interest in getting them back, has donated all their belongings and blocked them on social media. Her reasoning for not allowing the move is that her boyfriend had bail conditions in place that he cannot be near the children and has neices and nephews that attend a school in the (quite large) area we live? There are multiple schools in our area but she still will not agree until the charges are dropped.
so my question is, what do we do now? court proceedings will take a very long time and we physically cannot afford it but do not want to disrupt their learning.
many advice will be helpful

Is their mother paying CMS? She should be contributing to their upkeep if they aren't living with her.

we are in the process of changing it over, however to do so my husband has to make a child benefit claim, which could take 16 weeks if she disputes it, which she will. So until then we cannot claim anything from her. He has sent off the forms and waiting for a reply

If she NC with the children and your DH can you not just move their school. How would she find out?

The children have her surname, I’m unsure if the school will contact her?

Have you spoken to a solicitor specialising in family law regarding this?

I'm assuming there are core group meetings with school, social services, parents and whoever else? Your husband should raise it as an issue during one of those meetings, everyone should be working together to solve the problem then.

I knew children who were getting virtual school when removed from mum, but they were with a grandparent, not their dad, so may have counted as looked after children to be able to get that. But for sure social services could at least be trying to persuade mum to do what's best for them!

Social services and the police are correct. You need a specific issue order to allow you to move the children. If you attempt to move them without that and the mother makes her objections known to the LA and/or schools involved, they should refuse to process your application.

You don't have to use a solicitor for a specific issue order. It costs £232 to apply for an order.