Fostering Vs SGO

[SJ2024]

Hi, I am looking for some advice from anyone who has had a similar experience. My child had a friend who was cared for by a grandparent and unfortunately due to their health deteriorating the child and their sibling went into temporary foster carer until a permanent foster home could be found. We kept in contact with the children and they stayed with us every other weekend. My and my family had always discussed becoming foster carers in the future and after many long discussions we decided that we would open up our home and family to these two children. We made contact with the social worker and expressed that we would like to undergo the fostering assessment to offer the children a permanent home.
The assessment has been on going since June and we have just been accepted. We have been caring for the children since June under a Regulation 24 whilst the assessment was ongoing. All throughout the process the Social workers have been pushing for us to care for the children under SGO instead which we have declined many times and have stated on numerous occassions that we would like to care for them as long term Foster Carers. However an SGO assessment has been completed and court proceedings are are due to go ahead and on the correspondence we have received the LA are seeking for the children to remain in our care under an SGO. We are less that 6 months into are new family situation. The children are to continue contact with birth parents and grandparents etc and we feel that a Fostering agreement is right for us and for the children and would help us to navigate this new chapter. An SGO is something we will absolutely consider in the future as our experience and confidence grows but we are being pushed against our wishes. Has anyone else experienced this? and what can we do?

Have a look at the information this charity provide https://kinship.org.uk/support-and-advice/advice-and-information/special-guardianship-orders/

I would request the LA fund some legal advice for you…

They will not want for children to be looked after children unless they need to be

What's your reasoning for wanting Fostering to continue rather than SGO? Genuine question as it affects the argument you will need to pitch to the Council.
Bear in mind that an SGO probably genuinely will make your lives easier in the long term as you won't need social services' permission to draw breath and you won't have the numerous statutory visits, which the children often don't want and can end up becoming disruptive all round. Flip side is you will lose the level of support you currently have.

Just a heads up SGO is a good route but be careful what gets put in the forms eg payments stop after 3 years etc try this forum https://www.frg.org.uk/FandFCForum/viewtopic.php?t=4851

You will get lower allowances and less support as SGO. However, SGO gives more permanency and you parental responsibility and the child/ren will no longer be regarded as looked after children. There’s pros and cons for both. Hope it works out for you.

How old are the children?

Are social services looking to save money? If not that what is their reasoning?

We are new to the fostering process, I'm aware that one of the children will require some therapeutic support as they get older. We will require support regarding contact with parents who have drug related issues and prove to be very difficult. We have always worked hard and saved to support our biological children into further education and adulthood however we couldn't offer the same financial support to two additional children who should have the same opportunities. Means tested we won't be entitled to financial support which I feel the children should have, to offer them security into there early adulthood and further education.

We strongly believe that we will need support to manage contact with their bio parents. At the moment it takes place at a family centre in the best interest of the children but that support would be removed and we would need to navigate that. We feel our wishes should be heard and we are aware that due to our income we won't recieve any financial support for the children. We've worked and saved for our biological children for their future and that would be impacted heavily for us to be able to offer the same to our new children, which they should absolutely be entitled to. One of them is 15 and has ambitions of going to university and with an SGO she won't recieve any support from the LA. I know money is a difficult subject to discuss but it has to be considered when making decisions.

They are 12 and 15.

I think it's to save money and ease workload but how is that fair to the children.

If they are older then there is less of an argument that they need carers to exercise PR for them and that they need permanency via an SGO. In my experience where an assessment is positive for SGO it is also positive for connected carers and you as the carers need legal advice to understand the difference and make your arguments. The local authority should fund a session for you on this specific issue. I can very well see why you want them to remain children looked after. The only question I would ask is are they willing to have a social worker until they turn 18? Their wishes are also important.

You have expressed very well why you feel financial support is required and should not shy away from that regardless of how the LA view this. We too prepared for our bio children’s future and didn’t plan on extra child expense through to uni so it’s very relevant!

I am not clear why they have gone ahead with an SGO application/assessment if you have said you were not open to that.

Can you raise this in writing to the SW/LA/MP/Court ie that you specifically requested/offered to foster the children as connected people and made clear feelings around SGO. Then obviously outline your concerns re contact/future support/finances and so on.

sorry you are dealing with this stress now.

we continually make clear in all LAC reviews that SGO is not suited to our dynamic and although may be a future consideration, it is not suited to us or our LO at the moment.