Public Law Outline SS
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Hi, I was wondering if anyone has been subject to this and what there experience was, I'm on a child protection plan as my partner was registered for 5 years in 2017, we have a 3 month old son and I have two daughters from a previous, ages 5 and 9, SS can't come with an agreement with me and don't know how to move things forward, so they're applying for the PLO
Hi, sorry that you have joined us here, however you will find the forum to be non judgemental and very supportive. I work in children services and in my area the following happens regarding PLO. My apologies in advance has ita a long post
The Public Law Outline (PLO) sets out the duties local authorities have when thinking about taking a case to court to ask for a Care Order to take a child into care or for a Supervision Order to be made. This is often described as initiating public law care proceedings.
Under Section 31 Children Act 1989, a court may only make a Care Order or Supervision Order if it is satisfied that the Threshold Criteria have been met. Under the Public Law Outline (2014) and the Children and Families Act 2014, guidance states that care and supervision proceedings should be completed within 26 weeks.
PLO sets out, amongst other duties, that Local Authorities must ensure they identify concerns they have about a child early and where possible provide support for the family to address these concerns. This is pre-proceedings work and it is often what is referred to when social workers talk about PLO. Usually, when PLO is initiated, the child has been subject to a Child Protection Plan but insufficient progress has been made. Child protection core group meetings and conferences continue throughout the PLO process. Where the social worker feels that the risk of harm to a child is so great, or the case is so urgent, a decision may be made that the case should go straight to court and the pre-proceedings work does not take place.
When it is decided that pre-proceedings (PLO) work with the family will take place, there are specific things that need to happen from the date of the decision. These are:
Letter Before Proceedings—this letter is sent to the parents. It outlines the main or ’bottom line’ concerns and the help that has been provided by Children’s Services so far. The parents are invited to a Pre-Proceedings Meeting and advised to get a Solicitor who specialises in family law and to get their wider family involved.
The Letter Before Proceedings triggers free legal advice for parents. The letter is sent within five working days of the PLO work decision.
Pre-Proceedings Meeting— this meeting takes place within seven working days of the letter being received by the parents. The purpose of the meeting is to identify whether it is possible to reach agreement about what needs to happen to protect the child from harm, so that court proceedings can be avoided. The meeting involves parents, their legal representative, the local authority and their legal representative. The safeguarding concerns are highlighted, what support is being offered and what the parent needs to do to reduce the concerns—these are sometimes called the ‘bottom line’ actions. These actions now form the priority actions of the Child Protection Plan.
Period of change— this is the time for the parents to make the necessary agreed changes to reduce the concerns. Support is provided by the local authority and progress is monitored by them through for example child protection core group meetings and conferences .
Pre-Proceedings Review— This is a meeting held within six to eight weeks of the Pre-Proceedings Meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to review progress made against the bottom line actions.
The Pre-Proceedings Review is a very important meeting. It will clarify the way ahead following the period of change. There are a number of possible outcomes which include:
PLO ends as progress has been made—If the parents have achieved the ‘bottom line’ actions that are needed to reduce the concerns, it may be decided that the local authority is no longer considering care proceedings and this pre-proceedings work ends. The work to progress the child protection plan will continue unless so much progress has been made that this plan is no longer required to safeguard the child and a child in need plan is more suitable, or indeed that the social work service no longer needs to be involved. A recommendation for PLO to end (and to which plan the child will be subject to) should be made to the relevant Service Delivery Manager who will make the decision.
PLO—further period of change—If it is felt that further progress can be made through pre-proceedings work, a recommendation could be made to allow a further period for change and to hold a second pre proceedings review. This review should be held within 6-8 weeks of the first review. PLO should not go on longer than 16 weeks.
Pursue care proceedings—If the parents have made insufficient progress against the agreed actions, in exceptional circumstances the relevant Children’s Service Delivery Manager can agree a further period of change and will record the rationale for this. The Decision and Review Panel would need to give approval to initiate care proceedings.
Panel members will need to be satisfied that the required pre-proceedings work has taken place and that the Threshold Criteria for significant harm is met.
Through Children’s legal services, an application will be made to court for care proceedings and the parents informed by letter.
The parents are advised to get a Solicitor who specialises in family law and to get their wider family involved. The letter is sent within two weeks of the decision made at Decision and Review Meeting
The Public Law Outline (PLO) sets out the duties local authorities have when thinking about taking a case to court to ask for a Care Order to take a child into care or for a Supervision Order to be made. This is often described as initiating public law care proceedings.
Under Section 31 Children Act 1989, a court may only make a Care Order or Supervision Order if it is satisfied that the Threshold Criteria have been met. Under the Public Law Outline (2014) and the Children and Families Act 2014, guidance states that care and supervision proceedings should be completed within 26 weeks.
PLO sets out, amongst other duties, that Local Authorities must ensure they identify concerns they have about a child early and where possible provide support for the family to address these concerns. This is pre-proceedings work and it is often what is referred to when social workers talk about PLO. Usually, when PLO is initiated, the child has been subject to a Child Protection Plan but insufficient progress has been made. Child protection core group meetings and conferences continue throughout the PLO process. Where the social worker feels that the risk of harm to a child is so great, or the case is so urgent, a decision may be made that the case should go straight to court and the pre-proceedings work does not take place.
When it is decided that pre-proceedings (PLO) work with the family will take place, there are specific things that need to happen from the date of the decision. These are:
Letter Before Proceedings—this letter is sent to the parents. It outlines the main or ’bottom line’ concerns and the help that has been provided by Children’s Services so far. The parents are invited to a Pre-Proceedings Meeting and advised to get a Solicitor who specialises in family law and to get their wider family involved.
The Letter Before Proceedings triggers free legal advice for parents. The letter is sent within five working days of the PLO work decision.
Pre-Proceedings Meeting— this meeting takes place within seven working days of the letter being received by the parents. The purpose of the meeting is to identify whether it is possible to reach agreement about what needs to happen to protect the child from harm, so that court proceedings can be avoided. The meeting involves parents, their legal representative, the local authority and their legal representative. The safeguarding concerns are highlighted, what support is being offered and what the parent needs to do to reduce the concerns—these are sometimes called the ‘bottom line’ actions. These actions now form the priority actions of the Child Protection Plan.
Period of change— this is the time for the parents to make the necessary agreed changes to reduce the concerns. Support is provided by the local authority and progress is monitored by them through for example child protection core group meetings and conferences .
Pre-Proceedings Review— This is a meeting held within six to eight weeks of the Pre-Proceedings Meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to review progress made against the bottom line actions.
The Pre-Proceedings Review is a very important meeting. It will clarify the way ahead following the period of change. There are a number of possible outcomes which include:
PLO ends as progress has been made—If the parents have achieved the ‘bottom line’ actions that are needed to reduce the concerns, it may be decided that the local authority is no longer considering care proceedings and this pre-proceedings work ends. The work to progress the child protection plan will continue unless so much progress has been made that this plan is no longer required to safeguard the child and a child in need plan is more suitable, or indeed that the social work service no longer needs to be involved. A recommendation for PLO to end (and to which plan the child will be subject to) should be made to the relevant Service Delivery Manager who will make the decision.
PLO—further period of change—If it is felt that further progress can be made through pre-proceedings work, a recommendation could be made to allow a further period for change and to hold a second pre proceedings review. This review should be held within 6-8 weeks of the first review. PLO should not go on longer than 16 weeks.
Pursue care proceedings—If the parents have made insufficient progress against the agreed actions, in exceptional circumstances the relevant Children’s Service Delivery Manager can agree a further period of change and will record the rationale for this. The Decision and Review Panel would need to give approval to initiate care proceedings.
Panel members will need to be satisfied that the required pre-proceedings work has taken place and that the Threshold Criteria for significant harm is met.
Through Children’s legal services, an application will be made to court for care proceedings and the parents informed by letter.
The parents are advised to get a Solicitor who specialises in family law and to get their wider family involved. The letter is sent within two weeks of the decision made at Decision and Review Meeting
Social services have said they will pay for me and my partner to have a solicitor.
I'm feeling uncomfortable with this like they can't be trusted like they have an agenda and personal feelings have came into it a lot.
They've recently done a risk assessment on my partner and in that assessment it says my partner looked and both female and male images when right at the start of all this his probation officer clarified only female.
My social worker also tried telling me he was offender for 6 years, when I challenged her a couple of weeks later she said she thinks there's been a typo error and 6 years was 6 months.
I'm just finding it very hard to trust them, and then paying for solicitors seems off to me.
Is there anything I can do about this?
I'm feeling uncomfortable with this like they can't be trusted like they have an agenda and personal feelings have came into it a lot.
They've recently done a risk assessment on my partner and in that assessment it says my partner looked and both female and male images when right at the start of all this his probation officer clarified only female.
My social worker also tried telling me he was offender for 6 years, when I challenged her a couple of weeks later she said she thinks there's been a typo error and 6 years was 6 months.
I'm just finding it very hard to trust them, and then paying for solicitors seems off to me.
Is there anything I can do about this?
I believe you can only get legal aid if domestic abuse is involved :( it's a real nightmare, we've done everything, followed the rules, I've done a sexual awareness court which i had good feedback from, my partner only has 2 years left on SOR after doing 3, his probation ends July this year we've come so far only to be told the risks are still the same, he's only allowed to be supervised with his son by family members as I'm not approved, all I want is to supervise that access.
I can't say this to social services but all I want to say is what are you going to when he comes off the register and has no restrictions? What are you going to do then, work with us now or not at all, it's so frustrating
I can't say this to social services but all I want to say is what are you going to when he comes off the register and has no restrictions? What are you going to do then, work with us now or not at all, it's so frustrating
I have been through this process and I’m unsure as to why social services would need to pay for a solicitor for you and your partner.
As fairandlovely has said, as parents you should be entitled to free legal advice.
I’d suggest you contact a solicitor and tell them you need them to attend an initial PLO meeting with you and see what they say. That’s what I did and they arranged a meeting with me to discuss what had been going on and then I just had to confirm a few details and I think sign a form which they sent off for legal aid; I assume that’s how they get paid.
As fairandlovely has said, as parents you should be entitled to free legal advice.
I’d suggest you contact a solicitor and tell them you need them to attend an initial PLO meeting with you and see what they say. That’s what I did and they arranged a meeting with me to discuss what had been going on and then I just had to confirm a few details and I think sign a form which they sent off for legal aid; I assume that’s how they get paid.
Slowly sinking in, could I please ask what the outcome of yours was? Did you get what you were hoping for or did things get worse?
Our PLO meeting took place before our son was born (he’s 6 months old now).
To be honest with you, I’m not sure what the point of the meeting was. It felt like they were basically saying ‘do what we want you to do or we’ll take your child away’ which was silly really because we always said we’d do what they wanted us to do anyway!
I’m not sure of your situation, though I understand from your original post that you cannot come to an agreement with social services so I expect you meeting will have more purpose than ours did. I’m sorry I cannot be more help in terms of an actual outcome from the meeting because for us it felt as if it was more of a tick box exercise.
When our son was born I lived with my parents while social services carried out their assessments (as this was what was agreed and formed part of our child protection plan) and towards the end of last year me and my son were allowed home to live with my husband. He is allowed to look after our son unsupervised and we have been downgraded to a child in need plan with the view that, as long as everything goes okay over the next 3 months or so, social services involvement with us will end.
I have written my full experience under the ‘The Family and Children’ section with the title ‘Social Services Experience’ if you would like to read it.
To be honest with you, I’m not sure what the point of the meeting was. It felt like they were basically saying ‘do what we want you to do or we’ll take your child away’ which was silly really because we always said we’d do what they wanted us to do anyway!
I’m not sure of your situation, though I understand from your original post that you cannot come to an agreement with social services so I expect you meeting will have more purpose than ours did. I’m sorry I cannot be more help in terms of an actual outcome from the meeting because for us it felt as if it was more of a tick box exercise.
When our son was born I lived with my parents while social services carried out their assessments (as this was what was agreed and formed part of our child protection plan) and towards the end of last year me and my son were allowed home to live with my husband. He is allowed to look after our son unsupervised and we have been downgraded to a child in need plan with the view that, as long as everything goes okay over the next 3 months or so, social services involvement with us will end.
I have written my full experience under the ‘The Family and Children’ section with the title ‘Social Services Experience’ if you would like to read it.