Social Services Solicitors

The Stephens Scown Family Children team is here to advise and support you if social services become involved with your family. We are a leading team of specialist social services solicitors and have extensive experience in representing families, including parents, grandparents and special guardians.

Sympathetic, friendly and approachable, our team has extensive experience dealing with issues relating to social services involvement, representing mothers, fathers, children, adult siblings and grandparents. Our advice is clear, pragmatic and solution focused to help you at this difficult time. We will support you to make the best decisions for your family.

Social services legal advice

If social services become involved with your family, you need expert advice from a specialist social services solicitor at the earliest opportunity.

We understand that meetings or Court hearings are sometimes urgent, and you may not have been given very much time to prepare. We are used to this and will help you to understand the process.

If you are a parent or have parental responsibility and the Local Authority has sent you a pre-proceedings letter or asked you to attend Court, you will likely be entitled to legal aid, which means that your legal advice is free, no matter your income or savings.

Public Law Outline / Pre-proceedings

If you have received a letter (sometimes called a letter before proceedings) from social services saying that there is going to be a Public Law Outline (PLO) or pre-proceedings meeting, it is important that you seek advice from a solicitor straight away.

We can talk with you in advance of the meeting about the concerns which social services have raised and explain what will happen at the meeting. We will also come with you and help you talk to and work with the social worker.

Again, if you are a parent or have parental responsibility for the child, you will be entitled to legal aid which means the legal advice we provide is free.

Dealing with care proceedings

If you are being asked to attend Court, social services may have asked for a few different orders, including a care order or supervision order.

These situations can be emotionally challenging and legally complicated. Our dedicated team of social services solicitors are on hand to explain things clearly and apply wide-ranging expertise to assist you in every way.

It is important that if you are told about a Court hearing, you speak to a solicitor as soon as possible. We understand that you may not receive much notice of a Court hearing, and we are used to responding quickly.

These types of proceedings should usually only last for six months from start to finish. This might seem like a long time but there may be complex issues to deal with during this time. It is important to speak to a solicitor as soon as possible.

We also have significant experience representing children in relation to instructions from their court-appointed guardian. CAFCASS is the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service. They provide an excellent guide to care proceedings.

Expert legal advice from Stephens Scown

We understand that finding your way through a time when you and your children are involved with social services can be worrying and difficult. Our team of specialist social services solicitors will guide you through the process and give you clear, focused advice.

Our specialist team of social services solicitors have extensive experience in Children Law. Several of our team are accredited Resolution Specialists in matters which relate to children and are members of the Law Society’s Children’s Panel.

The quality of our advice in family law has helped us to achieve top ranking from Chambers and The Legal 500, the two leading independent legal guides for over 20 years. They rank us the best Family Law team in Devon and Cornwall, but we also help people across the UK and internationally.