Am I still her legal guardian?

[peaches99]

Please could somebody out there help me.
My DD is a heroin addict, due to this, sadly, my DGD was born dependant on opiates. She was not allowed to stay with my DD, therefore I took her on, I have raised her virtually all of her life and I became her legal guardian.
A few months ago, (partly due to lockdown), DGD was finding our village boring, and wanted to live in our nearby town, where my DD lives, and all of her school friends.
She is now living with the family of a school friend, the Mother now being DGDs private foster carer.
Very sad for me, but she appears to be happy.

And now, for several reasons (one being a small amount of money being held in trust for her), I really want to know if I am still her legal guardian? I know that her Mother cannot be, but what about the private foster carer?
I should have said she is nearly 15 and a half.

I would be so grateful if anyone could help me.
TIA

When you say you became her legal guardian what do you mean? Is there a court order? If not, then you are not her legal guardian and it was probably a private family arrangement. If so, then the type of court order will determine whether you have parental responsibility for her and whether you share that with anyone else.

This may not be relevant for the money in trust as this will having nothing to do with who the trustee is - this will be set out in the trust deed (or will) and can't be changed unless the trustee steps down or is removed by the court. However if you do have PR for her then it does mean that the trustee is more likely to have the power to pay the money to you on her behalf, as this power is commonly included in trusts. The trustee may have wide powers to do this anyway for "her benefit" but this will depend on the finer details of the wording of the trust.

Do you have a special guardianship order? If so, that stays in place until the child is 18 or it is discharged by the courts.
In this situation it sounds unlikely that anyone would make that application and the court would likely be reluctant to do so.