Special Guardianship Orders Solicitors

Managing special guardianship orders requires specialist knowledge and sensitive handling. Our team of special guardianship order solicitors recognises the emotional complexity of these orders and is experienced in guiding families through this area of law.

Applying for a special guardianship order can be overwhelming, particularly when facing assessments from local authorities and potential court procedures. Balancing these matters with fulfilling your family’s needs is a challenge that our solicitors recognise and can help you with by taking the lead in the process.

Should issues arise around the success of your application, or if you have questions about the long-term impact of your special guardianship order, our family solicitors can explain how they may interact with your parental responsibility order and benefits. No matter the complexity of your arrangement, our team will guide you through the legal remedies available.

Get in touch with our special guardianship solicitors

To speak to our special guardianship solicitors in West Sussex and Hampshire, get in touch by giving us a call at one of our local branches in Chichester, Fareham, Havant or Petworth. Alternatively, please fill in our online enquiry form for a quick response.

How our special guardianship lawyers can help

When family circumstances become tangled with the law, knowing how to act in a child’s best interests can be an emotional struggle. When it comes to legal issues surrounding special guardianship orders, you are strongly advised to seek early advice from a professional, as guidance can make a massive difference to how smoothly your application goes and the protection of your rights.

Understandably, most people apply for a special guardianship order because they feel concerned and protective of the child or children in question. Our experienced team will work with you to ensure the child has the standard of care and living that they deserve, working to secure you the right legal framework while recognising the value of a connection to their birth parents.

Our solicitors will guide you through the application process, helping you collect and prepare the necessary documents and ensuring that any available special guidance order payments or support packages are properly considered. We take care to set up safeguards about future disputes, helping to handle them if they arise, and managing any breaches to the order.

Our special guardianship solicitors’ expertise includes:

Applying to be a special guardian

The process for applying for a special guardianship order is complex, involving assessments from local authorities, applications to the court, and detailed documentation.

Our special guardianship solicitors can guide you through each step of the application, ensuring that your application is correctly prepared and submitted on time.

Advising on financial and practical matters

Becoming a special guardian involves taking on significant legal responsibilities and financial considerations.

Understanding special guardianship order payments and allowances, and how they could impact your benefits, is crucial to your confidence when taking on a special guardianship position.

Our solicitors can advise you on the financial and practical implications of long-term care, ensuring that any support from local authorities is fair and appropriate.

Handling disputes

Disputes most often arise between birth parents and special guardians, but can also come from wider family members and concerned individuals.

Our solicitors can step in to represent your interests and find a solution, negotiating on suitable relationships outside of court wherever possible.

Our priority is always the child’s best interests, and we will represent you in court wherever necessary, safeguarding the child’s welfare and protecting your rights as a guardian.

Handling a breach of a special guardianship order

If there has been a breach of a special guardianship order, such as a parent ignoring contact, restrictions, or failure to respect the court order, our solicitors can provide legal remedies.

This could include making applications to the court for enforcement or variations of the order to ensure that your position as a guardian is respected and the child continues to receive support.

Frequently asked questions about special guardianship orders

What is a special guardianship order?

A special guardianship order is a legal arrangement made by family court that allows a child to live permanently with someone other than their parents. Most often it is used to provide a secure, long-term home for children, including guardian parental responsibility, with their relatives, family friends, or foster carer, without severing the legal link between a child and their birth parents.

When is a special guardianship necessary?

Special guardianship orders may be appropriate when adoption is not needed, but a child cannot safely remain with their parents. More often than not, they are needed when it is in the child’s best interest to live elsewhere, but for parents to preserve the special guardianship order birth parents’ rights and the child’s connection to their family.

What rights do I have with a special guardianship order?

If you have a special guardianship order, you share parental responsibility with the child’s birth parents, but usually have first decisions relating to education, health, and day-to-day care of the child. However, there remain some restrictions, such as needing the court’s permission to take the child abroad for more than three months.

Who can apply for a special guardianship order?

Applications for a special guardianship order can be made by a range of people with connections to the child, such as siblings, grandparents, aunts or uncles, and foster carers. Furthermore, if you have cared for the child over a significant period of time or have another legal order in place, you may be able to make an application. In certain circumstances, you may need permission from the court.

What financial support is available for special guardians?

Local authorities may provide special guardianship order payments to help cover the cost of supporting a child under an SGP, potentially including separate therapeutic services, educational help, or respite care. This will vary depending on the child’s needs and the guardian's circumstances.

What legal rights and responsibilities do special guardians have?

A special guardianship order grants individuals parental responsibility and allows them to make decisions about the child’s upbringing, ranging from schooling to healthcare. While birth parents may retain some rights, the guardianship authority will usually take priority. If there has been a breach of special guardianship order terms, then the court may step in to protect the child’s best interests.

Does the special guardianship allowance affect benefits?

Yes, special guardianship order payments can affect some means-tested benefits. They will be considered income when assessing benefits such as Universal Credit or Housing Benefits, potentially reducing your entitlement.

However, non-means-tested benefits such as Child Benefit should remain unaffected, because each situation varies. You are strongly advised to speak to an expert when considering how an SGO allowance might affect your household.

Why choose Glanvilles for help with special guardianship orders?

At Glanvilles, we are experienced with helping clients from a variety of backgrounds with their special guardianship needs.

Our solicitors hold the Law Society’s Family Law Advanced accreditation, and members of our team are part of Resolution, the expert family law group for family law solicitors committed to non-confrontational methods of resolving disputes. Wherever possible, we preserve and strengthen family bonds.

As a firm, we work hard to ensure that your experience with us will be professional and instructive. We hold the Law Society’s Lexcel accreditation in recognition of our high standards of client care, and can guarantee you our total commitment.