Your Rights

  • Wrongly Accused Of Abuse By Social Workers ?

  • Have Social Services been in contact with you ?

  • Are you feeling threatened by the involvement of social services with your family

  • Look no further….You Have Rights !

If social services have contacted you in respect of your children, it is important not to panic as you have several rights :

  • You have the right to seek legal advice from a specialist solicitor
  • You have the right to consult a solicitor about any agreement or document you are being asked to sign by social services
  • You have the right to ask for a full explanation of why social services are involved
  • You have the right to attend meetings about your case with social services
  • You have a right to be accompanied to those meetings by a support worker
  • You have the right to request to change your social worker
  • You are entitled to seek legal advice right from the beginning of social services involvement with your family
  • As a parent you will be eligible for free legal help if the local authority are thinking of going to court to get an order in respect of your child, this will include legal advice for your solicitor to negotiate with the local authority in order to prevent any court action being taken.
  • In limited circumstances, legal aid will cover your solicitor coming to a child protection conference with you in a supportive role
  • If the local authority issue care proceedings in relation to your child, you are entitled to full legal representation by a specialist family law solicitor.
  • For care proceedings, there is no means test and, therefore, you will be entitled to legal aid regardless of your income, savings or capital.

If you are affected by social services involvement with your children or are facing care proceedings, do not suffer in silence, seek expert advice as soon as possible.

Call our helpline on 020 3889 8900.