Special Guardianship is a formal court order which places a child or young person with someone permanently and gives this person parental responsibility for the child. An SGO will last until the child reaches the age of 18 years, assuming that it is not brought to an end by an earlier Order. The Order can be varied or discharged.
Any person making an application for a Special Guardianship Order must give 3 months’ written notice to their local authority of their intention to apply. In relation to a Looked After Child, the notice will go to the local authority looking after the child.
Who may apply
Applications for Special Guardianship may be individual or joint. Joint applicants do not need to be married. Special Guardians must be 18 or over.
The following persons may apply without having to obtain leave of the court:
- Any guardian of the child;
- Where the child is subject of a Care Order or an Interim Care Order, any person who has the consent of the Local Authority;
- A local authority foster carer who is a relative of the child or with whom the child has lived for 1 year immediately preceding the application (even if the Local Authority does not consent)
- Anyone who is named in a Child Arrangements Order as person with whom the child is to live;
- Anyone who has the consent of each person named in a Child Arrangements Order as a person with whom the child is to live;
- Anyone with whom the child has lived for 3 out of the last 5 years, providing the child has not ceased to live with the proposed applicant more than 3 months before the making of the application;
- Anyone who has the consent of all those with Parental Responsibility for the child;
- Anyone, including the child, who has the leave of the court to apply;
- Any other person (including the child and other than a parent) may apply for a Special Guardianship Order if he has obtained the leave of the court to make the application.
The parents of a child may not apply to become their own child’s Special Guardians. A person who is, or was at any time within the last 6 months, a local authority foster parent of a child may not apply for leave to apply for an SGO unless (s)he has the consent of the local authority, or (s)he is a relative of the child or the child has lived with him for at least one year preceding the application.
The Special Guardian will have parental responsibility for the child and will have clear responsibility for the day-to-day decisions about caring for the child to the exclusion of anyone else who might have Parental Responsibility (apart from another Special Guardian).
The child’s parents will continue to hold parental responsibility but their exercise of it will be limited. The parents will, however, retain the right to Consent or not to the child’s adoption or placement for adoption.
In addition there are certain steps in a child’s life which require the consent of every-one with parental responsibility, for example:
- The change of surname of the child;
- The removal of the child from the United Kingdom for longer than 3 months;
- The sterilisation of a child.