A grandmother from Wythenshawe has this week breathed a huge sigh of relief as she has prevented two of her grandchildren from being placed into foster care with strangers. A judge at Manchester County Court rubber stamped an agreement reached with Manchester City Council Social Services which accepted that she was the best person to care for them.

Background

The 52 year old grandmother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, took over the care of her four grandchildren in 2010 when social services intervened due to grave concerns over neglect and domestic violence between the parents. The courageous grandmother knew that she was taking on potentially damaged children but was unaware of the true extent of their issues.

“I was aware that social services were involved with my daughter and the kids but I did not know that things had got that bad. All I wanted to do was provide a safe home for them,” the grandmother admitted.

The grandmother took on two boys and two girls, all with their own individual needs and issues. The eldest boy was quiet and withdrawn whilst the other grandson had global developmental delay and many behavioural issues. One of the girls would pull her hair out as a coping mechanism and the other girl is severely damaged emotionally.

The grandmother worked very hard alongside social services in order to turn these children’s lives around. Slowly but surely, improvements were made and the children began to settle into her care and make progress.

In January 2014, she was shocked when matters took an unexpected turn. The grandmother was told that social services were considering removing the two girls from her care. This however never materialised.

Then the social worker arrived at the client’s house in April 2014 and told her that social services were removing one of her grandsons from her care.

The grandmother commented, “I was in complete shock. The social worker just told me that I could not cope with him and they were going to take him straight from school to foster care. I was sick with worry about how the children would react. I could not understand what I had done wrong. I had always been praised for the care I was providing to my grandchildren. I had previously won an award for excellent family and friends carer!”

“I knew that I had to fight to get him back. I needed specialist legal advice and so I contacted Ridley & Hall Solicitors. Nigel Priestley and Helen Jarvis came to visit me and advised me to apply to discharge the local authority’s care order to enable me to get my grandson back.”

Court Proceedings

Proceedings were issued on that basis but the case took a turn for the worse when the local authority announced that they were now planning on removing the two girls from the grandmother’s care. It soon turned into a battle to save the girls from being placed into stranger foster care. What made the situation bizarre was that the local authority accepted that the grandmother could care for her other grandson.

“It seemed absurd that the local authority were suddenly saying that my client would not be able to cope with the girls when they reached their teenage years,” remarked Miss Jarvis, “Local authorities have a duty to support families in order to keep them together and it seemed as though Manchester were on a mission to tear this family apart.”

“It was obvious to everyone that the girls had had a rotten start in life but it was also very clear that they loved their grandma. Manchester thought that the best future for the girls was for them to be brought up by strangers. Our case was that grandma could care – she just needed specialist support.

“It was not until a report was filed by a psychologist that the local authority finally backed down and agreed that the girls should remain with their grandmother. The psychologist’s conclusion was that the girls would be emotionally damaged by being removed from her care. Her grandson should stay in foster care where he was now settled.

Miss Jarvis commented, “Frankly, the local authority had no other choice but to back off from their plan to take the girls following the psychologist report. The court were going to be told that the girls would be at risk of much greater harm if they were to be removed from their grandmother’s care than if they were to remain. The psychologist stated that there would be no guarantee that the children would receive a higher standard of care elsewhere and of course there would be no guarantee that they remained in a placement together. Contemplating what effect this would have on already severely traumatised children is incomprehensible.

“In court, the judge made it clear that the local authority needed to provide the necessary support to this family and that they must not remove the children from the grandmother’s care without first making an application to court.”

The grandmother commented, “I am absolutely delighted by the support I have received from Nigel and Helen. I might not have got my grandson back but they helped save my granddaughters from foster care and there is to be extended contact between my grandson and his siblings. I know that, if I had not have taken the local authority to court, there is no doubt in my mind that they would have removed the girls from my care in the same way they removed my grandson in 2014. I cannot thank Ridley & Hall enough for everything they did. They fought all the way and were always on the other end of the phone if I needed support or advice.”