Can I Stop Social Services Taking My Baby?
Social service have to have grounds to take your baby when they are born. If you have been concerned “Can I stop social services taking my baby?” the answer is yes, if you understand the circumstances under which your baby can be taken.
Social Services cannot simply walk in and have your newborn taken from hospital. The circumstances which would grant them the right to do this include:
- Where concerns exist regarding the mother’s or father’s ability to protect;
- Where alcohol or substance abuse is thought to be affecting the health of the expected baby, and is one concern amongst others;
- Where the expectant parent(s) are very young and a dual assessment of their own needs as well as their ability to meet the baby’s needs is required;
- Where a previous child in the family has been removed because they have suffered harm or been at risk of suffering significant harm;
- Where a person who has been convicted of an offence against a child, or is believed by child protection professionals to have abused a child, has joined the family;
- Where there are acute professional concerns regarding parenting capacity, particularly where the parents have either severe mental health problems or learning disabilities;
- Where the child is believed to be at risk of significant harm due to domestic violence.
- Where an unborn baby has siblings subject to a Child Protection Plan.
Knowing these factors, then, your next question must be:
“How Do I Stop Social Services From Taking My Baby?”
The answer is very simply to make the needed changes in your life style so that these circumstances are no longer there.
Remember: you have a head start on social services because you know you are pregnant long before they will find out. And you have a whole nine months in which to get ready.
If you have a problem with drink or with drugs, get the help you need to get cleaned up.
If your house is a mess, get it cleaned up.
If your new boyfriend will never pass an assessment, then get rid of him – it’s him or the baby!
Don’t expect any help from the social services in these matters, however. They will not work with you, no matter what they say. They have their own agenda. Work with your solicitor or other groups to get your life back on track. Get a to-do list and do it. Make the changes you need to make so that you can show the court that you have changed.
Social Services Can Take Your Baby
As worrying as it sounds, it is possible that Social Services can take your baby when it is born.
It is one of the worst nightmares a pregnant woman can suffer: Not knowing if she will be able to keep her baby when it is born; or will social services take the new-born child from hospital?
The truth of the matter is, if you have a history with the social services and you have had children taken into care in the past, there is a very real danger that social services want your unborn baby. An with the Children and Families Act 2014 and its foster-to-adopt policy, in pre-birth cases, care proceedings to determine if the child should be permanently removed from the parents may even be utterly bypassed, leaving the parents with no legal advice as to their options until it is too late.
The premise is this: if you have been found to be an unsuitable parent in the past, then it follows that you would still be an unsuitable parent at the for your new child when she is born.
In order for the Court to issue a Care Order, it must be satisfied that:
Your child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm; and
That the harm or likelihood of harm is attributable to:
The care given to the child is not what it would be reasonable to expect the parent to give him; or
The children are beyond parental control.
These factors are what is known as the Threshold Criteria. Only if these are met can a Care Order be issued.
At the time of the final hearing of the Application for the Care and Supervision Order, for you to have lost your previous child, the Court must have decided that these criteria had been met.
How Is It Decided If Social Services Can Take Your Baby?
In order for social services to take your new-born baby, they must hold a Pre-Birth Protection Conference where they will lay out their concerns that your baby is likely to suffer significant harm after birth because of the care they are receiving. This is similar to the conference held before taking your other child into care, and social services will use the exact same arguments they used to secure a Care Order before.
Unfortunately, the standard of proof required is no more than the balance of probabilities. In other words, if the odds are only so little as 51:49 against you, then social services will have the power to take your baby.
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Established in 1982, at Brendan Fleming Solicitors we specialise in Family Law, offering our clients expert legal advice in both Public and Private Law matters, including Care Proceedings, Non-Accidental Injury, Divorce & Children’s Proceedings and issues with Social Services.
Contact Brendan Fleming Solicitors by emailing info@brendanfleming.co.uk or by calling 0121 683 5000
Contact our Non-Accidental Injury Department on 07730 143 432. If it is out of hours, you can call our staffed 24 hour helpline on 0121 683 5000. Alternatively you can email us on help@nonaccidentalinjury.co.uk
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