Hi, first time here. I (we) have a complicated situation with regard to our Grandchildren.
They (4 young boys) were removed from their parents last February. We were called into their Primary school and told their parents had been arrested for alleged neglect, physical abuse, etc and were told by the Police could we take them or do they go into care. Well, obviously no way were they going into care, so we took them. When the duty social worker arrived at our home, he said we had entered into a "private arrangement" with the parents, as they had specified that Grandchildren be taken by us, but not talked to us directly as they were under arrest. They have now been in our care for the last 10 months. We have continued sending them to school (2 buses each way, around 4 hours a day travelling time) as we can't change their school, we have been funding everything out of our disability money, as we have issues with the parents handing over money for the Grandchildren until very recently (October). We have to pay school bus fares, etc as we can't get a council free bus pass as the Grandchildren are still registered at their home address near their school, rather than our address 3 miles away as we have no paperwork and have had no paperwork stating that the Grandchildren live with us and have done for the last 10 months, so we still have to use their original GP, Dentist, etc (and also pay bedroom tax, as the kids are not officially with us on paper). We have stated this at Child Protection Conferences as they are "Children in Need", to no avail.
The Father has failed a Hair Strand drug test (He is the Father of all 4 boys) and the Step Mother (Mother to 1 of the boys) has moved to another town/county over an hour away. We supervise visits by both parents at our home on different days, as the Step Mother can only see the boy that is her biological son, where the Father can see all 4.
Social Services sent us down the Kinship Fostering route, as I don't think there is a chance in the near future of the boys going back home. However, it appears we have not passed the assessments, yet we have done everything they said, including going to great expense to provide a single bed for the youngest (under 5) as they don't allow under 5's in bunk beds, which also entailed moving around rooms as we had 2 sets of bunk beds in the same room, but now we have the 2 older boys in their own rooms which we have had to furnish with single beds, furniture, tv's, etc. and made other changes, all seemed fine to Social Services.
Social Services are saying we are doing a fantastic job, but to then not pass the Kinship Fostering is a huge blow.
So, now what are we looking at ?
No way could the boys be split up, they are too interdependent of each other and have been with other since day 1, it would mentally wreck them considering what they came from and the stability they have with us.
Could we be looking at SGO, considering they have been with us so long or some other sort of legal standing to keep them here and together.