Special Guardianship

What is a Special Guardianship Order? 

A special guardianship order (SGO) is an order made by a court that allows a child to live with someone who is not their parent on a long-term basis.  

This usually happens when it is in the child’s best interests not to live with a birth parent and is often seen as a useful alternative to a child being adopted or placed in long-term foster care. An SGO does not legally end the child’s relationship with their birth family and the parent/s keep their parental responsibility (see below). 

The person or people given the SGO become known as the child’s special guardian/s. Most special guardians are relatives of the child such as grandparents.  

The child will live with them permanently and the special guardian/s will have responsibility for the care and upbringing of the child. 

An SGO usually lasts until the child is 18 unless there is another court order which ends the SGO (see below). 

Effect of a Special Guardianship Order on parental responsibility 

The special guardian will be given “overriding” parental responsibility for the child, which means that they will have legal rights and duties towards the child that are shared only with anyone else named as a special guardian to the child.  

The SGO does not remove parental responsibility from the child’s parents (or anyone else who has parental responsibility) but this becomes limited. The special guardian will have the final say in most decisions and doesn’t need to consult the parents for day-to-day decisions. The special guardian can therefore decide things such as which school the child should attend, where the child should live (in England and Wales), and their religious upbringing. 

However, there are some important decisions which a special guardian cannot make without the consent of everyone who has parental responsibility, such as: 

• changing the child’s surname;  

• taking the child abroad for more than 3 months; 

• the child having surgery for reasons which are not essential for their health (such as circumcision or cosmetic surgery); or 

• putting the child up for adoption. 

If everyone with parental responsibility does not agree with the important decision that the special guardian wants to make, then the special guardian can apply to the court and ask the court to make the decision. The court will not automatically order what the special guardian wants but will decide what is best for the child. 

Contact with birth parents  

SGOs do not automatically prevent contact between the child and their birth family. The purpose of an SGO is to maintain the family links for a child, so ongoing contact is usually seen as important. Whether or not contact should take place, and the type of contact, will often depend on what has happened in the past and whether it is in the child’s best interests to have some form of contact. 

Contact is not limited just to birth parents but can also involve siblings, grandparents, and other relatives. 

When granting the SGO, the court can also make an order setting out whether and what contact should take place, but the court won’t always do this, particularly if contact is agreed by everyone when the SGO is being made.  

Suggestions for contact are often part of a special guardianship support plan prepared by the local authority before the order is made and it can be helpful if it specifies the type of contact, the frequency, and whether any professional support is needed to help it to happen. The type of contact might be direct in-person contact, supervised contact (if there are concerns for the child’s safety), or indirect contact (letters, cards or video calls).  

If the court does make an order about contact and the special guardian doesn’t allow the contact to take place without good reason, then this is likely to be a breach of the order. If this happens, the birth parent (or person named in the order) should first contact the local authority for assistance or can apply to the court to enforce the court order. 

If the child’s circumstances change and the special guardian believes that the contact set out in the order is no longer suitable, then the special guardian can apply to the court to vary the order. 

Sometimes the court does not order contact because an agreement is made between the special guardian and the birth parents. If one of these people later feels that the contact arrangements aren’t working and they can’t reach a new agreement with each other, then the birth parents can apply to the court for a decision to be made about contact. For example, this might happen if the special guardian thinks there should be less contact, or the birth parents want more contact but this is denied by the special guardian. 

When any application is made to the court, the child’s welfare is the most important consideration – not just what the special guardian or the birth parents want to happen. 

Applying to the court for a private Special Guardianship Order 

Full details of who can apply to become a special guardian and how to make an application for an SGO can be found on the government website here: Become a Special Guardian and in the Family Rights Group notes here: Family Rights Group Private SGO advice. 

The applicant can be just one person or can make a joint application with someone else, who is usually their partner. 

Someone can apply for an SGO if they are over the age of 18 and not a parent of the child and one of the following: 

• they are already a legal guardian of the child; 

• they have a child arrangements order, so the child is already living with them; 

• they are a relative of the child or a local authority foster parent and the child has lived with them for at least one year before the application is made; 

• the child has lived with them for at least three of the last five years; 

• they have the consent of the local authority, if the child is in care; or 

• they have the consent of everyone who has parental responsibility for the child. 

If the person wanting an SGO doesn’t fit one of the points above, then they need to ask the court for permission to make the application. 

When does the court make a Special Guardianship Order during care proceedings? 

Care proceedings take place when the local authority applies to the court because they are concerned that a child has suffered, or is likely to suffer, significant harm.  

When the local authority starts these proceedings, it must consider whether any relatives or others might be able to care for the child if it is unsafe for the child to live at home. If such a person is willing to offer the child a long-term home, then they should be assessed to see if they are suitable to be the child’s special guardian and if it is the right thing for the child to live with them.  

A judge can make a special guardianship order during these proceedings. In this type of case, it is not necessary for an application for an SGO to be made by the person who would like to be the child’s special guardian.  

Detailed information can be found in the Family Rights Group notes here: Family Rights Group SGO Care Proceedings Advice

Financial support for Special Guardians 

If a child was looked after in the care system immediately before the SGO was made, then the local authority must assess the special guardian’s need for financial help.  

If the child was not being looked after by the local authority before the SGO was made, then financial support is not automatic. However it is important to ask for it as there's lots of evidence that social guardians can struggle with the cost of looking after a child. 

There is some very detailed information in the Family Rights Group notes here: Family Rights Group SGO Financial Support Advice

Ending a Special Guardianship Order 

An SGO usually comes to an end when the child reaches the age of 18. In this case, the SGO will end automatically and no court order is needed. 

Also, if the special guardian dies (and there is no other special guardian living), then this also brings the SGO to an end automatically. 

Sometimes, someone might want to end the SGO before the child is 18. For example, circumstances might have changed so much that it would be best for the child to return to the care of their birth parents or perhaps the special guardian is no longer able to care for the child properly. In such cases, an application can be made to the court for the SGO to be ended – which is called “discharged”. 

To apply for this you need form C1. 

The following people may apply to the court for the SGO to come to an end:  

• The special guardian 

• Any person who has a Child Arrangements Order for the child, which says that the child lives with that person 

• The local authority, if they have been granted a care order for the child after the SGO was made.  

There are other people who need the court’s permission before they can apply to end an SGO and they are:  

• The child’s parents 

• The child (if the court thinks they have sufficient understanding) 

• A guardian of the child (which is not the same as a special guardian - it means a “testamentary guardian”, who is named in a will as being responsible for the child and the person who made the will has died) 

• Anyone else who had parental responsibility for the child before the SGO was made, for example the child’s step-parent. 

The court will only give this permission if it is satisfied that there has been a significant change of circumstances since the SGO was made, that there is a chance that the application to end the order will be successful, and it is in the child’s best interests for the court to hear the application. 

This means that a parent applying to end an SGO needs to show a significant change in circumstances (of them, of the child, or of the special guardian) since the order was made. 

If the application for the SGO to be discharged is heard by the court, the court will consider whether it is in the child’s best interests.  

A court also has the power to end the SGO if there are other family proceedings about the child taking place. The court can do this even if no-one has applied to end the order. Once again, the court has to do what it believes is best for the child. 

The local authority will usually be asked to make an assessment of the situation and provide a report to the court.