Special Guardianship Support Policy

Special guardianship is one way of providing a permanent home for a child or children when they can’t live at home with their birth parents. It is a court order that gives a child permanent legal security with carers who have an existing relationship with them. Carers have the majority of parental responsibility for the child but, unlike an adoption order, the child maintains ties with their birth family. However special guardians have overriding parental responsibility to make day to day decisions concerning the welfare of the child or children.

If a child is a 'cared 4 child', the special guardianship order (SGO) will replace the care order and the council will no longer have parental responsibility for the child.

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