Delete Any Unused Rows and Boxes (Or Add If Needed)

Local authority social work evidence template (Initial Statement) / In the Family Court sitting at Coventry
In the matter of the Children Act 1989

Everything shown in red italics is a guidance note. It should be removed before sending this statement to legal

Delete any unused rows and boxes (or add if needed)

The Children

Name / Gender / Date of Birth / With whom is the child living?
If living with a parent or connected person then give the name and relationship to the child (e.g. Lucrezia Borgia – Maternal Grandmother).
If living with a foster carer then just put “Local Authority Foster Carer”. Do not put name of carer.
Local Authority and Social Worker Details
Filed by: / Coventry City Council (Applicant)
Statement Number / eg 1st, 2nd, 3rdThis is the number of statements that YOU have done. It is not the number of statements done by Social Care.
Name of Social Worker: / Your name.
Qualifications of Social Worker: / Your qualifications
Experience of Social Worker: / Primarily your experience as a Social Worker. However, should include previous employment if relevant to this case (e.g. working as CPN, teacher, probation officer etc)
Office Address of Social Worker: / Your office address
HCPC Registration Number: / Your HCPC Registration Number
Date signed / Complete when signing. It looks dreadful if the date on this page and on the final page are not the same.
1. Case details

1.1 Family composition

Include family members and relationships.

Please set out the family members' full names, their dates of birth and their current addresses.

Where an address must be kept confidential put “Confidential”.

Name / Relationship to Child / DOB / Address
Please specify which child the relationship is with (e.g. “Father of Hercules”; “Paternal Aunt to Hippolyta”)

The Mother has Parental Responsibility for all the children.

The other person with Parental Responsibility for name of childis names of persons with parental responsibility.

1.2 Genogram

Mandatory - the statement cannot be filed without this
Include family members and their relationship to each child.
Can be handwritten
Can be prepared as a separate document if it will not fit in this template

This document is confidential and contains sensitive information. It should not be disclosed without permission of the court. Data protection standards must always be complied with.

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2. Chronology

•This deals with things that have already happened

•List significant events which can be evidenced.

•Focus on the last two years unless prior events are significant (certain things will always be significant – convictions or Cautions for offences against a child,Convictions or Cautions for sexual or violent offences, previous Care proceedings etc) .

•Where there are several significant events older than two years these can be summarised but should include the dates, e.g. 2010-2014 domestic violence reported on *, * & *, police attended on * & *.

2.1 Chronology

Date / Incident or sequence of incidents relevant to the welfare of the children

2.2 The Children’s Timetable

Important word here is “pending”. This section sets out future events that will be important to the one or more of the children and/or the case. The original SWET refers to the child starting a new school. But can also include events like operations, sentencing date for a parent, due date for birth of a new sibling etc. Do not strain for pending events. If nothing of importance due within timescale of case then just put that there are no significant pending events that the local authority is aware of.

Date / Significant pending events relevant for the children
3. Welfare Checklist from Children Act 1989

In completing the checklist below I have borne in mind that the welfare of each of the children shall be the court’s paramount consideration.

The best way to complete the checklist is to remember the basic advice given regarding answering exam questions – answer the question that is being asked. Do not regurgitate random things that you know about the subject.

For the sections regarding the children please use a separate subheading for each child to keep things clear. For example: -

Hercules

Hercules is …………………….

Hippolyta

Hippolyta is …………….……………………..

3.1 / the ascertainable wishes and feelings of each of the children concerned (considered in the light of his/her/their age and understanding);
In each sub-section you should put the wishes and feelings of that particular child.
If the child is under a year old the sub-section should simply say “[name] is too young to express her wishes and feelings.” Nothing else.
Sub-sections should not contain filler such as “It is reasonable to assume that [name] would wish to live in a safe, secure and nurturing environment in which his basic care and emotional needs are consistently met and whereby is not exposed to conflict or ongoing harm”. To the court this is just unhelpful waffle. To the advocate for the parent it is an invitation to ask you to consider the possibility that at different stages of his life the child may have different views and that in some of those stages the child might say that wanting to live with birth parents (even if birth parents were not capable of providing good enough care).
To a large extent this is a factual section. It should set out what was said or observed and when it was said or observed and by whom it was heard or observed. For instance: -
“On 12 December 2016 the child told me that she did not wish to live with her mother, Medea, as her mother planned to kill her. On 31 December 2016 the female foster carer told me that the child often said that her mother wished to kill her and that she did not wish to live with her mother.”
Where you rely on your Social Work training and experience is in dealing with the phrase “considered in the light of his age and understanding”. Where a 5 year old has repeatedly said that she wants to live with her mother you might for instance comment that this is what you would expect of a child of that age.
Name of First Child
Name of Second Child
3.2 / The physical, emotional and educational needs of each of the children;
This is a completely factual section. Under each subsection you should set out what you know about the physical, emotional and educational needs of thatparticular child at the time of writing this statement. If these are previously unknown children who have come to attention of Local Authority due to a NAI or similar you may not know a lot. If this is a long-running neglect case you should know everything.
This section does NOT set out how the needs are to be met.
Name of First Child
Name of Second Child
3.3 / the likely effect on each of the children of any change in his/her circumstances;
Legal Services often sees here just the likely effects of the change in circumstances that the Local Authority is recommending. This is wrong.
What are the changes in circumstances that could take place (this links with section below at 4)? It needs to be the changes that the court could realistically order. Thus if the Local Authority is recommending a move of child from parent to foster care an Interim Care Order can be made and the effects of that change have to be considered. If Maternal grandmother is looking after older siblings under an order made in previous proceedings then placement with her is a realistic possibility and effects of that change have to be considered.
You should set out the positive effects as well as negative effects.
You should not set out theoretical effects of a move to an as yet unidentified and unassessed connected person.
If the siblings may have to be separated as the result of a particular move you should make sure you set out the effects of potential separation from siblings on that particular child.
Name of First Child
Name of Second Child
3.4 / His/her age, sex, background and any characteristics of him/her which the court considers relevant;
In each sub-section the age, sex and background is entirely factual. For instance “Hercules is a 6 year old boy of White British origin from an English speaking background. Neither of his parents follow a religious path.”
Name of First Child
Name of Second Child
3.5 / Any harm which he/she has suffered or is at risk of suffering;
This section is primarily factual. For instance “The child has not attended school for 3 weeks” and “The new partner of Mother is a convicted paedophile. Mother was told of his convictions on [list dates]. She says he was wrongly convicted and refuses to separate from him.”
For many facts the “harm” will be obvious and need not be spelt out. In the 2 examples set out above the harm suffered by missing school is obvious and the likely harm that will be suffered as a result of a paedophile living in the home is also obvious.
For some facts you will need to set out why it has either caused harm or is likely to cause harm. For instance “On 02 March 2017 the Health Visitor told the Mother that she should not prop feed the baby. The Health Visitor told her why. On 06 March 2017 the Mother prop fed the baby.” You will then need to explain why prop feeding is a risk of harm.
This section deals with “harm” which is much wider than “significant harm”. It is not the Threshold Criteria.
The Threshold Criteria is a specific legal document that will be prepared by legal services. It will be based on what you set out in this section. The case holder in legal services will decide which particular facts – or combination of facts – will be relied upon for the Threshold Criteria document.
Name of First Child
Name of Second Child
3.6 / How capable each of his/her parents, and any other person in relation to whom the court considers the question to be relevant, is of meeting his needs;
Mother

Give a brief pen picture of the Mother (eg “Medea is 25 years old of White British origin from an English speaking background. She says she is a Muslim but she is not observant (she cannot say which branch of Islam she follows and cannot remember when she last attended a mosque). She has a Low Average IQ but does not have a learning disability (Cognitive functioning assessment dated 31 December 2016). She has never held a job and is dependent on welfare benefits. Hercules is her third child. Her first 2 children were removed by Care Orders. She lives with the father but says that she is not in a relationship.”)
Please state what assessments have already been done and their outcome. If there have been assessments in pre-proceedings please say when it was done and its recommendation. If there were assessments in previous proceedings please say when they were done and their outcomes. If there was a judgment in previous proceedings please say what the court said about Mother. If an assessment has been unsuccessful (for example because Mother has refused to co-operate) please set out when it was offered and why it was abandoned.
To the extent that you know it when issuing set out her parenting capacity as a SOLE parent. Can she meet the needs of all of the children? If she cannot meet the needs of all of the children could she meet the needs of just one child and if so which one? Could she meet the needs of two of the childrenand if so which two? (it is this section that considers how the needs of each of the children can be met). Whenever there is more than one child you must consider
To the extent that you know it when issuing consider whether she could manage as a sole parent with support from Local Authority and other professionals (the case law requires the local authority to consider this). ). It is perfectly okay to say that the level of support needed would be such as to amount to full-time alternative carers and thus not feasible.
To the extent that you know it when issuingif another person (father, grandmother, sister etc) is being proposed as a joint carer set out whether that person and mother together will be better or worse than mother as a sole carer.
To the extent that you know it when issuing consider whether the mother and other joint carer could manage as joint carers with support from Local Authority and other professionals (the case law requires the local authority to consider this). Once again it is perfectly okay to say that the level of support needed would be such as to amount to full-time alternative carers and thus not feasible.

Father of [insert names of which children he is father of]
If Father is putting himself forward as a sole or joint carer then have to consider as for Mother above.This includes whether he could manage with “support”.
If Father is not putting himself forward as a carer then still have to consider his capability to meet the needs of the child during contact (supervised or unsupervised; duration etc).
Father of [insert names of which children he is father of]
If Father is putting himself forward as a sole or joint carer then have to consider as for Mother above.This includes whether he could manage with “support”.
If Father is not putting himself forward as a carer then still have to consider his capability to meet the needs of the child during contact (supervised or unsupervised; duration etc).
Connected Person
If any person has already been nominated say who they are, when they were nominated and what information you have on them already.
If child is already living with a Connected Person (eg Maternal Grandmother) then describe them and why they are suitable or unsuitable (hint – if at any time Social Care suggested that child should be placed with this person then you should have formally assessed them and should be able to say a lot about them. You can save a lot of time in writing this statement by referring the Court to the separate assessment).
If a full assessment has been done it should have considered whether, or not, the Connected Person could manage with support. Sadly they often do not so you must also consider whether, or not, the Connected Person could manage “with support” and if so what that support would need to be. It is perfectly okay to say that the level of support needed would be such as to amount to full-time alternative carers and thus not feasible.
3.7 / The range of powers available to the court under this Act in the proceedings in question;
The orders that the court can make for each of the children are as follows:

No Order
A Child Arrangements Orderfor who the child should live with in the interim
A Special Guardianship Order(can only be made if there has been a full SGO assessment of a connected person – whether negative or positive. If there has not been a full SGO assessment then this option should be deleted).

AnInterim Supervision Order
AnInterim Care Order
An order regarding Contact (under s8 or s34 dependent on what orders are made regarding who the child should live with).

4. The proposed interim S31A care plan for each child – the reasons for the option recommended by the Local Authority and the analysis of the other options available to the court

The case law says that we only need to consider the “realistic options”. The problem is what does a realistic option mean? There are rare “beauty contest” cases where 2 sets of connected persons could provide good enough care for the children. In those cases the Local Authority can name 2 plans as realistic options and recommend one as a preferred option. In most cases though there will only be one realistic option as far as the local authority is concerned. But an alternative interpretation of “realistic option” would be the orders that the court could make in the case. In a case where no connected persons have been nominated the court cannot make an order placing the children with a connected person. Therefore it is not a realistic option and does not need to be considered. However, the court can always: -

Decline to make an order (leaving children with mother who has parental responsibility)
Make an Interim Supervision Order (leaving children with mother who has parental responsibility)

The Local Authority can say that the negative parenting assessment, psychological assessment and negative ISW assessment of Mother makes her an unrealistic option. However, the court can still leave the children with her. Is it a realistic option if the court can order it? Likely that it is. Therefore have decided that it is best to list the options that the court can order. But start with the LA recommended option and work downwards. Each option should be set out as what would happen to the child (e.g. “Child moves to foster care”, “Child remains with parent”) rather than the order needed to make the option happen (e.g. Interim Care Order, No Order). In the example below there are 3 options for each child but please feel free to add or delete options.