SGO

Question 1

What is an SGO seen as an alternative between

Answer 1

Between adoption and represents a middle road where adoption is not appropriate but needs greater security than a RCAO

Question 2

what does a SGO allow to do

Answer 2

Unlike adoption, parent will not lose consent but his PR to the exclusion of the other PR holders (s 14C(1) CA).

Question 3

What is the intention of an SGO

Answer 3

• The intention here is to give the SG clear control over all the day-to-day decisions about the child’s care and upbringing but to retain the legal link with the birth parents.
• The parents continue to be the parents in the eyes of the law but are normally prevented from exercising their PR. This makes the SGO particularly useful with parents who are likely to be disruptive or unreasonable.

Question 4

Can parent continue contact while SGO is in force

Answer 4

• Also, they will often be permitted continued contact with the child (s 14B(1) CA).

Question 5

What will an SGO still need to consent to

Answer 5

adoption S 14c(2)(b) and change name/remove form the UK S 14C(3) and any judicial;lly created exceptions

Question 6

Unlike a adptotion an SGO can be

Answer 6

• Unlike an adoption order, which is irrevocable, a SGO can be varied and discharged under s 14D. This puts SGs in a weaker position than adopters.

Question 7

Who can apply

Answer 7

S 14A(5); any guardian of the child; anyone who has a residential CAO in relation to the child or who has the consent of anyone with a residential CAO; anyone with whom the child has lived for three out of the last five years; anyone who has the consent of the LA where the child in question is in care; anyone who has the consent of all PR holders; any LA foster carer with whom the child has lived for the last year; or any relative with whom the child has lived for the last year.

Question 8

Non-entiled applications:

Answer 8

court’s leave in order to apply. In making a decision about leave, the court will have particular regard to the same factors as it does in a s 10 leave application, that is, the s 10(9) factors.

Question 9

In decideg whether to grant leave for an SGO what will be paramount

Answer 9

Welfare and - S 1(4)(b) was amended to make the welfare checklist applicable here, whether the application is contested or not.

Question 10

Cases for cultural concern

Answer 10

Re F, Re D

Question 11

Re D

Answer 11

better for a two-year-old boy to stay with his foster-parents under a SGO than to be placed for adoption. He would have continuity of care and the connection with his mother, sibling and Czech Roma ethnicity would not be broken.

Question 12

Re F

Answer 12

concerned a Congolese baby who had suffered injuries leading to brain damage at the hands of his parents. His parents wanted him to be cared for by a great-aunt but she was not considered capable of meeting his complex needs. However, as it was important to his welfare throughout his life that he maintain contact with birth family members and links with his cultural and ethnic heritage, his white foster-mother was granted a SGO rather than an adoption order

Question 13

An SGO may be more appropriate not to sever/distort family relationships

Answer 13

• Surrey County Council v Al-Hilli and Others: concerned the Al-Hilli sisters who were involved in an unsolved shooting in the French Alps. They lost their parents and grandmother. The aunt and uncle who are caring for them have been given SGOs rather than adoption orders so that they can retain their remaining family links and their identity as the children of their murdered parents.

Question 14

Case of disability

Answer 14

Re N (A Child)(Adoption Order): a girl with serious disabilities was adopted by her foster-parents. As she would be dependent beyond her childhood, she needed a life-long order rather than an SGO that would expire when she was 18. Any move would be catastrophic for the girl but the father had not fully come to terms with losing his daughter. The girl’s links to her Nigerian and Jamaican heritage would be maintained through the family contact that the foster-parents were prepared to arrange.

Question 15

security of adoption

Answer 15

N v B (CA): an adoption order was granted to a maternal grandmother. The children’s father had murdered their mother and raped their aunt. As the mother and father were first cousins, the adoption order would significantly skew family relationships. The children’s father would become their first cousin. However, it was considered important that the grandmother not be required to share PR with the man who had killed and raped her daughters. In addition, the court was convinced that an SGO, even if supported by a s 91(14) order, would be insufficient to prevent the father from attempting to control his children’s lives. Only an adoption order could guarantee the permanence and long-term safeguarding these children required.

Question 16

Re W CA

Answer 16

• appeal granted against a SGO which would have removed a two-year-old girl from prospective adopters with whom she had spent the last 17 months, to grandparents whom she had never met. The CA held that, when the decision about where to place a child is first being made, the welfare balance tilts towards a family placement if there are relatives able to provide good long-term care. But once a child is securely settled with prospective adopters, the welfare balance has to reflect those changed circumstances. The relationship that has developed between the child and the prospective adopters has to be taken into account. An adoption order was subsequently granted to the prospective adopters.