Court proceedings with children in care

hi.. im not sure ive posted in the right section but was after some advice. My partner was just about to start divorce proceedings with his ex when he was told his 2 youngest children had been removed from her and placed into local authority care and she was unsure why. It later transpired she did know why and had chosen to tell the social services that my partner was an absent dad when in fact he had the children every other weekend. We are now in the process of court proceedings with the local authority having obtained shared parental responsibility as he fights for residency of his 2 kids. The process seems very long, drawn out and as if he is to blame in some way. Each time we have been to court it just doesnt seem to move forward. Has anyone got some advice.. is it usual for things to be slow ( since aug 2011 they were placed in care but court only started in nov 2011)

I have some initial questions:


1. how old are the children?
2. was he not suspicious something was going on when the children went into care and he stopped seeing them at the weekends>
3. which area of the country are you in (please do not tell me which authority is involved, just a broad geographical indication (e.g. London, Yorkshire, West Midlands etc
4. is he represented?
5. were the children born within the marriage?


Thanks

Hi children are 11 and 13. He was told by his ex on the day the children were taken into care so he knew they had gone but did not know the reasons why and his ex claimed she didnt know but once court proceedings started it then turned out she did know but kept quiet. We are ­base­d in Essex and yes he does have a solicitor and the children were born within the marriage. The solicitor has been great just sometimes it helps to know that maybe its not just him going through things and that we can or cannot help to speed things up.

I can't give the expert advice that FB provides but wanted to make a couple of general observations.

I guess from your point of view you want to know:

1. Is the current care plan meeting the kids needs? eg contact arrangemnts, education provision, placement stability

2.Is the court process proceeding satisafactorily or 'drifting'. The ti­meta­ble you have posted does not on the surface seem unusual.

First and only bit of advice I can give is do nothing without speaking to your solictor. Which is not particularly helpful but I dont think there is going to be any substitue to expert advice from someone in the know.

Thanks zonked. Yes it does feel like you say drifting. Court is regular and progress slow so thanks for saying you feel this is normal! Will chat things over with solicitor. This feeling of feeling useless though I don't think will go away for a while. Myself and my partner do have respect for the social services as they removed the kids from what they saw as danger. Just very frustrating that when initial investigations took place before they were placed into care he wasn't told as he could have been able to take and house the kids.

My guess is that perhaps the children were placed intially into care 'voluntarily' (S.20) with the LA starting care proceedings months later.

As well as the social worker, the children will have a gaurdian (probably) appoitted by the court to represent their interests - it might be worthwhile speaking to him/her - but again only after taking legal advice.

Yes I think they do have a guardian. Aren't they meant to be independent though? They would not give advice on how long to expect things to take or who is more likely to be awarded residency?