Kinship and Public Law Proceedings
Hall Brown’s Children Family Law team has extensive experience supporting families through a wide range of often complex public and private law matters, including those concerned with adoption and care proceedings.
KINSHIP CARE
‘Kinship care’ is a term used to describe those situations in which a family member is caring for a child of the family.
Quite often, the child involved is a grandchild, but it can also be a niece, nephew, younger sibling or even a more distant relative.
It is important that any adult entrusted with making day-to-day decisions about a child’s well-being, especially those relating to medical treatment or education, has the proper legal responsibility to do so.
Hall Brown can advise you as to the most suitable way to establish parental responsibility, either by agreement or via a formal application to court for a Child Arrangement Order or Special Guardianship Order.
PRIVATE AND PUBLIC LAW (CARE) PROCEEDINGS
The Children’s Law team at Hall Brown is also skilled in handling with other court proceedings aimed at protecting the best interests of a child.
They include Private Law proceedings dealing with issues which often arise with the divorce or separation of parents, such Child Arrangement Orders (which determine the living arrangements of children after their parents’ break-up), Specific Issue Orders (used to resolve parental disputes about very particular elements of a child’s upbringing) and Prohibited Steps Orders (which, as the name suggests, prevent parents taking unilateral decision on matters such as relocating a child within the UK or abroad, or taking decisions about its medical treatment).
In addition, Hall Brown deals with privately-funded Public Law care proceedings.
They are situations in which a local authority’s Social Services Department has deemed it necessary to escalate its involvement in a family’s affairs by beginning legal action.
These can be terribly stressful but Hall Brown has both the experience and expertise capable of providing reassurance and relevant guidance about how best to achieve a positive outcome.
