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P

Parental responsibility

Parental responsibility are the words used when describing the rights your parent(s) have to make decisions about your life and the responsibilities that they have to look after you properly.

When you are born, your mother has parental responsibility for you. This means she has a right to decide where you should live, what religion you should have, what medical treatment you should be given, where you go to school etc. She also has a duty to care for you and protect you as you grow up.

If your mother is married to your father he also has parental responsibility for you and they will share the decisions they make about you.

If your mother and father are not married then your mother may agree to share parental responsibility with your father. Or your father could go to court and ask for a Court Order to give him parental responsibility.

If you are being looked after by Plymouth City Council on a Care Order:

• we are also given parental responsibility for you which means we can make decisions about your future.
• your parent(s) keep their parental responsibility, but they must share it with us.
• it is Plymouth City Council that decide where you will live.

Your parent(s) will still have a right to say what they want for you and they should be involved as much as possible in meetings with your social worker.

If you are accommodated by us with no Care Order:

• we do not gain parental responsibility for you.
• your parent(s) have a right to decide everything that happens to you whilst you are looked after by us.

Apart from your parent(s), other people can get parental responsibility for you:

• we can get it if the court gives us a Care Order in respect of you.
• relatives of friends of the family or foster carers can get it if you are living with them and they apply to the court for a Residence Order. A Residence Order says who you should live with and it gives that person some parental responsibility so that they can make decisions about your life.
• a Residence Order does not take away your parent(s) parental responsibility so they can still have a say about what happens to you even if you are not living with them.

A few people can have parental responsibility for you at the same time and just because someone gets it does not mean another person loses it.

Usually the only way your parent(s) would completely and forever stop having parental responsibility for you is if you were adopted and an Adoption Order was made. Your adopted parents would become your new parents and would gain parental responsibility for you.

The Adoption and Children Act 2002 sets out provisions, some of which relate to parental responsibility:

• it enables unmarried couples to apply to adopt jointly.
• the Act introduces a new ‘Special Guardianship’ order to provide security and permanence for children who cannot return top their birth families, but for whom adoption is not the most suitable option.
• it provides new options of being adopted or living with other members of your family, other relatives, so they will get parental responsibility.

If you want more information about who has parental responsibility for you, talk to your social worker, as they should know.

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Passport

If you want to travel abroad you will need a passport. You would need to talk to your social worker about this because you would need our permission and/or your parents' and they would need to sign the passport form.

Once you are 18 years of age you do not need permission and can apply for your own passport.

Forms for British passports can usually be found in the Post Office. Passport forms for other nationalities, eg Irish, have to be obtained from the Embassy of that particular country.

You will also need a copy of your birth certificate, and a couple of small photographs when applying for a passport. Someone who knows you well, like a doctor or other adult who is not related, has to sign the back of the photographs to say it is a likeness of you.

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Placement

‘A placement’ is the word used:

• to describe the place where you will live when you are looked after by us.
• when you are looked after and you might have a placement with a foster carer which means you will go and live with a foster carer.
• or you might have a placement in a Children’s Home which means you will live in a Children’s Home.

Sometimes you might have more than one placement. When you are first looked after you might have a short placement with one foster carer while we decide which foster carer you can live with for a longer period of time. Then you will move to a second placement where you will live with your new carer(s).

When your social worker is looking at places where you can live, they should ask you for your views, so that you can tell them what you think.

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Placement with parents

If you are looked after by us because you are on a Care Order made by the court, then we will usually make plans to try and get you living back home if this is possible. If the plans go well, and we decide that the court should think about removing the Care Order, then we will try to let you live at home with your parent(s) for a few months. If this is successful we will then go back to court to ask for the Order to be removed. This is called a placement with your parents. We will still have responsibility for you while you are placed at home and this will continue until the Court Order is removed.

There are quite strict rules that we have to follow by law before you can be placed at home and this sometimes means we are slower at getting you home than you would like them to be.

If you want more information about going to live back at home or perhaps with other relatives while you are still on a Care Order, you should talk to your social worker.

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Pocket money

When you are looked after by Plymouth City Council:

• we should make sure you get weekly pocket money for you to spend on something of your choice or perhaps to save for something special.
• you should be given pocket money every week by either your foster carer or the staff in a Children’s Home.
• if you are over 16 years and are receiving benefit payments, then you will have your own money, and your pocket money will stop.

The amount of money you receive will depend on your age. The older you are, the more you get.

If you have any issues about your pocket money you should talk to your carer who will explain the amount you receive. Or you can talk to your social worker.

All children and young people probably feel at times that they should get or want to get more pocket money. However, adults are not usually given more money just because they want it. It’s the same with pocket money. You can’t expect to be given more just because it would be nice to have it to spend.

However if you feel you are being unfairly treated by the amount of pocket money you do get, you should talk to your social worker who will look into it for you. If you still feel you are not being treated fairly, you can contact the Complaints Officer.

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Police

The job of the police is:

• to prevent crime and protect the public from criminal activities.
• to make sure that people who are believed to have broken the law are arrested and appear in court for their case to be heard. This includes young people who commit a criminal offence as well as adults.
• to protect children and young people from serious harm. This could mean helping us protect children and young people from abuse. This can sometimes mean the police have to consider the evidence to see whether the person who is said to have harmed a child should be brought to court.
• to protect children and young people by using their own powers. For example, if the police found a child or young person wandering the streets who was at risk of serious harm, they would give them police protection. (See Police Protection).

When you are looked after by us, you may or may not have some involvement with the police. This might have happened for example if the police had helped us protect you from abuse or risk of abuse while you were living at home or elsewhere. Or it might have happened or could happen if you commit a criminal offence.

It is also possible that you could have some involvement with the police if you or your foster carers wanted to report a crime like theft or if you saw a road accident or a crime happen and were asked to say what you saw. However, not many adults witness such things and it is less likely to happen to you.

If you are ever in a situation where you have been harmed or are scared of being harmed and you can’t get in touch with an adult you know and trust, or if there is not time to contact an adult you know you should phone the police on 999 and ask for their help.

Or if you are near a police station you should go in there and tell them what happened or what you feel is likely to happen. The police in the station will get in touch with an officer in the Police Child Protection Team whose job it is to help and protect children and young people who have been, or are scared of being, harmed.

When you are talking to the police, you should let the police know you are looked after by Plymouth City Council and they will get in touch with your social worker or someone else who can help.

If you were harmed whilst you were looked after by Plymouth City Council then your parents need to be informed by us as soon as possible. (If you are accommodated, your parents still have full parental responsibility for you). However, if you were harmed by a member of your family, we would have to consider how best to deal with the situation, and how to involve your parents, depending on what happened and according to the requirements of the Child Protection Procedures.

Your parents should also be informed if you get into trouble and arrested by the police or if you are brought to a police station for questioning. Your parents may wish to be involved in the discussions as much as possible.

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Police protection

The Police have the power to take children or young people into Police Protection for up to three days if they think you may be suffering from harm.  

They may do this if:

• you are living at home and they feel you need protection.
• you have run away from home and are at risk of significant harm.

Usually the police work with us on child protection matters but in situations where this is not immediately possible, the police will use their powers if necessary and involve us afterwards.

If possible, the police should ask your views if they are going to use their police powers to protect you. If you are given police protection, the police will ask us to find you a home, or, if you are already in a safe place such as a hospital, they will make sure you are not discharged.

Often we apply for an Emergency Protection Order before Police Protection runs out. This means that we can continue to look after you while the court decides what is best for you.

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Privacy

When you are being looked after by Plymouth City Council you have the right to keep certain things private. These include:

• you should have a place in your home where you can keep your personal possessions. This place should be safe and secure.
• you have the right not to have your private place searched unless you are told why it is being done by your social worker.
• you have the right not to have your personal details talked about with people who do not need to know about them.
• you have the right to dress, undress and bath/shower in private and only receive help if you request it.
• if you feel you are not being allowed enough privacy where you are living them ask your social worker or Complaints Officer.
• you have the right to speak to an advocate/personal adviser if you feel speaking to your foster carer or social worker may affect your placement.

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Prohibited Steps Order

A Prohibited Steps Order is:

• a court Order that can stop anyone taking an important decision about your life.
• often taken by one parent trying to stop the other parent from doing something. For example, if you were living with your mother and she wanted to take you abroad, your father might not want this to happen. He could go to court and ask for a Prohibited Steps Order to stop this happening.

The court would want to know your views before making a decision.

When you are accommodated by Plymouth City Council and there is no Care Order, one of your parents would still have a right to try and stop the other or perhaps someone else making a decision about you. They could ask the court for a Prohibited Steps Order.

If a court decided to make a Prohibited Steps Order, the Order would finish when you reached 16 years old unless there were special circumstances. At 16 years you should be able to make any decisions for yourself.

If you are looked after by us and there is a Care Order, the court cannot make a Prohibited Steps Order relating to you. This also means that you cannot ask the court to make such an Order. Also if there were a Prohibited Steps Order operating before you became looked after by us, then it would stop operating if a Care Order were made.

However, if you are accommodated by us, you could ask the court for permission to apply for a Prohibited Steps Order to be made. You might want to do this if your parents were planning something for you or making decisions about you that you did not want, eg changing your name, sending you out of the country. You would need a Solicitor to help you if you wanted this Order made.

When children or young people are living at home, or even if they are accommodated by us, then we have a right to ask for a Prohibited Steps Order. They would only do this if they felt they had to stop someone doing something that was not in that child or young person’s best interests.

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