You are said to be a child or young person in care if City of Wolverhampton Council provides you with somewhere to live for more than 24 hours. This can be in a children's home, a boarding school, with a foster family, and sometimes with another responsible adult your parents or guardians already know.
Some young people are in care because Children’s Services have asked the court for a Care Order to be made. This is when the court decide that you should be cared for by the local authority. This means that City of Wolverhampton Council will decide where you live and other important things like your schooling until you are 18. They will usually make these decisions with your parents and with you.
Some young people are in care because their parents are unable to look after them at the moment and ask or agree for the local authority to look after them. This means that you don’t live at home BUT your parents keep parental responsibility (that means they make the big decisions about life).
Care proceedings is the phrase used to describe the legal process by which Children’s Services ask the court whether or not a young person should go into care.
Depending on your case you might have a Cafcass worker called a guardian and you may have a solicitor, who talks for you in court.
Court is a place where important decisions are made. Care proceedings are dealt with in family courts. Young people do not usually go to a family court unless there is a special reason.
It normally takes about six to twelve months for a court to decide what is going to happen and sometimes it can take even longer than this. Only the court can decide what happens in the end, lots of different things are possible. Some young people go home and for others a new home will be found. For more information visit www.cafcass.gov.uk