Care Proceedings and the Family Court: What Actually Happens

Within a few weeks of a child moving in, a date lands in your diary that has almost nothing to do with you. A hearing, at a family court you have never been to, about the child asleep upstairs. You will not be cross-examined in some wig-and-gown drama. Most of the dread about court comes from not knowing how little of it falls on the carer. Here is the process, and the few bits that are genuinely yours.

Please note: general information about the family court in England and Wales, correct at October 2026. It is not legal advice, and no article can say what will happen in one child’s case. Your supervising social worker is your first call. The law here is the Children Act 1989; the reporting rules are in the government’s guidance on transparency and reporting in the family courts.

Which court, and who asked for it

Nearly every child who comes to live with a foster carer is there because a local authority has gone to the family court, or is about to. The application is made under section 31 of the Children Act 1989, and a care order can only be made if the court is satisfied the child “is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm” attributable to the care a parent gives or would give. A deliberately high bar, and not about an untidy house or a parent having a hard year.

Two principles sit above everything else. The child’s welfare is “the court’s paramount consideration”, and delay “is likely to prejudice the welfare of the child”. The second explains more than people expect. It is why hearings get listed at short notice, and why the whole thing can feel rushed around a child who badly needs it slowed down.

Twenty-six weeks is the law. Thirty-seven is the average.

The court is instructed to deal with a care application “without delay, and in any event within twenty-six weeks beginning with the day on which the application was issued”. It can give itself more time, but only in blocks of up to eight weeks, and only where that is “necessary to enable the court to resolve the proceedings justly”.

Then the real numbers. On 24 September 2026 the Ministry of Justice published its family court figures for April to June 2026:

• the average care or supervision case took 37 weeks to reach a decision, a week quicker than the same quarter in 2025
• just 36% of cases finished inside the 26-week limit
• extensions come in eight-week blocks, so a case that slips once has usually slipped twice

So plan for most of a year. If someone tells you in week two that this will be settled by the spring, hear it as a hope rather than a plan, and do not pass it to the child as a promise. What you can honestly tell a ten-year-old is that the grown-ups are taking a long time because they want to get it right, and that nothing changes today without someone telling her first.

Who is in the room, and who speaks for the child

A judge or three magistrates decide. The local authority and the parents each have a solicitor, and the child has a children’s guardian, appointed by the court from Cafcass “to represent the rights and interests of the child”. The guardian appoints a solicitor for the child and writes a report giving an independent view of what would be best, and at a final hearing normally gives evidence last.

Family hearings happen in private, and the Family Procedure Rules spell out who may be present: an officer of the court, the parties, their lawyers, the Cafcass officer, a witness, accredited journalists, and anyone the court permits. Read that list again and notice who is missing. You. A foster carer is not a party, so you are in the room as a witness, or because the judge has allowed it, or not at all. The person who knows what the child eats for breakfast has no standing, while people who have never met her have a great deal. Which is why the next bit matters.

What you will actually be asked to do

Mostly, write things down. The daily log you fill in on a Sunday evening is not admin for its own sake. It becomes evidence. A biro note saying a phone call on the Tuesday ended after four minutes because he wanted to play football is the kind of detail that shapes what a court decides about how often a child sees his family. Record what happened, not what you think the child is. Our guide to keeping foster care records goes into the detail.

Four other things are worth knowing now rather than later:

• you may be asked for a written statement, prepared with the child’s social worker
• the court can direct how often family time happens, so those arrangements may stop being negotiable partway through
• day-to-day decisions sit in the child’s placement plan under what is called delegated authority, which is how you sign a school trip form without ringing anyone
• some things sit outside it: a holiday in term time needs the local authority’s express consent, and a trip abroad its written consent

The part people get wrong: you cannot talk about it

Under section 12 of the Administration of Justice Act 1960, publishing information about Children Act proceedings heard in private can be contempt of court. Since 27 January 2025 accredited journalists and legal bloggers have been able to report from any family court in England and Wales, but only under a transparency order, with a presumption that the order protects the anonymity of the children and families involved. Reporters cannot name a child or say where she lives.

Neither can you. Not in a WhatsApp group, not on Facebook, not by liking a news story about the case. People slip up here with the kindest intentions, usually while asking for advice or while furious on a child’s behalf. If you need to vent, and you will, do it to your supervising social worker or in a support group your agency runs, where the conversation is confidential.

What the court can decide at the end

The possible endings are narrower than the uncertainty suggests. A care order can last until the child turns 18 and gives the local authority parental responsibility alongside the parents, which is why you hear about shared decisions rather than anyone having the final word. A supervision order leaves a child at home with the local authority keeping an eye. Or a child goes back to live with family, a grandmother is granted a special guardianship order, or there is a plan for adoption.

And sometimes the person a child should stay with is already making her packed lunch. Under section 14A of the Children Act 1989, “a local authority foster parent with whom the child has lived for a period of at least one year” is entitled to apply for a special guardianship order in their own right. One year, nobody’s permission needed. If that thought has crossed your mind, say it out loud to your social worker early. Nobody will think less of you for it.

If you do have to go

It is uncommon, and not a sign anything has gone wrong. Dull preparation makes the day bearable.

• check the date and the courthouse, and tell work straight away if you cannot make it
• ask about a private waiting area, and whether evidence can be given by video link or behind a screen
• ask for a copy of any statement you gave, so you can read it again before you go in
• take a snack, a drink and a book, because the waiting is longer than the hearing
• tell the truth, including the parts that do not help the outcome you privately hope for

You can ask for a question to be repeated, and you can say you have not understood. Nobody expects you to be a lawyer.

You won’t have to do this alone

Your supervising social worker goes through any statement with you line by line, and tells you afterwards what each hearing decided and why. Our carers have someone at the end of the phone around the clock. There is more on the support our foster carers receive and on getting ready for a child to move in. Criminal courts are a separate world, covered in our piece on remand fostering.

Fostering with us is paid as one fixed weekly fee for each child while they live with you, covering both the child’s allowance and your reward: as at November 2026, 479.50 pounds a week for a child under 11 and 507.50 pounds for a child aged 11 or over, with an enhanced fee of roughly 100 to 200 pounds a week more where a child’s needs are higher. Ofsted inspected us from 21 to 25 July 2025 and rated us Outstanding in all three judgements. It is completely normal to read this and wonder whether you could handle the formal side of fostering. Almost nobody feels ready, and almost everybody manages, because court is the part professionals carry with you.

Frequently asked questions

Will I have to give evidence about a child living with me?

Usually not. A foster carer is not a party to care proceedings, and most of what you know reaches the court through your written recording and the local authority’s evidence rather than through you standing up in a hearing. It does happen occasionally, most often where something you saw is disputed, and your supervising social worker will prepare you for it.

Can I find out what was said in court about the child?

You will be told what you need in order to look after the child, and the child’s social worker is the person who tells you. You will not get the full papers, because you are not a party. You must also not pass on what you do learn: publishing information about proceedings heard in private can be contempt of court under section 12 of the Administration of Justice Act 1960, and that covers social media.

Can a foster carer apply to keep a child permanently?

Yes, in the right circumstances. Section 14A of the Children Act 1989 entitles a foster carer to apply for a special guardianship order where the child has lived with them for at least one year immediately before the application, without needing anyone’s permission. Raise it early with your supervising social worker, and take proper legal advice before applying.