Why special guardianship?

A special guardianship order secures the relationship between the special guardian(s) and the child or young person and enables the special guardian(s) to become more involved in decision making by giving them parental responsibility, whilst maintaining links with the child or young person’s parent(s). If there is conflict between the parents and the special guardian(s), then the special guardian’s opinion would prevail.

Alternatives:

Long term fostering has offered a similar approach but it does not always allow the child or young person to feel a sense of security and belonging. Also the long term foster parent would not obtain parental responsibility and therefore not have a legal right to have a say in the decisions involving the child/young person.

A residence order provides security for the young person and gives parental responsibility to the person with the residence order, but the parental responsibility is equal to that of the birth parent(s) and therefore agreement will have to be reached about the upbringing of a child. A special guardian only has to consult with the birth parent(s) about decisions in exceptional circumstances.

Also residence orders terminate when the young person reaches 16 (unless otherwise stated to terminate at 18 years old) and a special guardianship order will terminate when the young person reaches 18.

Adoption places a child or young person in a permanent home but upon adoption the birth parent(s) lose parental responsibility and links with the birth parent(s) are lost in most cases.

It is fair to say that special guardianship lies somewhere between fostering and adoption. The effect is not as final as an adoption would be, yet provides more stability than fostering.