Understanding Care Orders and Child Support Needs

Unexpected (Young person) reasons:
• Families might struggle to provide care and support needed for children with health complications.

• Parents might find it hard to manage children with emotional or mental health problems.

• Parents might struggle to cope with the child’s needs.

• If a child breaks the law, runs away from home or skips school, they child could end up in care.

Care order
A care order is given by a court to put a child under the care of a local authority. The local authority will share responsibility for the child with the parents. Most of the important decisions about the child's upbringing such as where they live and what school they go to will be made by the local authority. A care order can only be made if the

child has suffered or is likely to suffer harm.

Section 20 is part of ‘The Children Act’s of 1989’ and some children are looked after by the local authority with or at the request of the parent.

It can provide a child with a safe place to live. The local authority requires a parent to voluntarily sign the section 20 agreement in order to let the child live with someone else for a short or longer time. There are no court proceedings involved and the parents keep full parental responsibility.

Section 31 is part of ‘The Children Act’s of 1989’. When a child is put into care, responsibility of them is shared between the parents and local authority. A social worker has to apply to court for this care order when they suspect a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.

Significant harm
This was introduced through the Children Act 1989 and allows intervention to families making sure the child is protected from abuse. There are categories of significant harm such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse. It is where harm has already happened or is likely to happen to the child’s health or development.

Types of abuse:
Physical Abuse
Physical abuse is where a child is deliberately hurt with injuries such as bruises, burns, cuts and broken

bones.
A child may appear withdrawn, scared, anxious and may experience nightmares.
An example of physical abuse is the Baby P story in 2008 where 17 month old Baby P died following 8 months of abuse after suffering more than 50 injuries to his body inflicted by his mother and her partner.

Intellectual Abuse
This is where a child is made fun of with name calling. For example, being called ugly or stupid.
The child may lack confidence, be withdrawn and scared.

Sexual Abuse
A child would be forced to take part in a sexual act. There are two types of sexual abuse; contact, which is physical, and non contact which is grooming.