If a local authority is involved with your family, you will have a social worker assigned to do direct work with you and your child/ren. There are a different levels of social work intervention prior to court proceedings and these include PLO proceedings, child protection plans and child in need plans.
The public law outline (PLO) sets out the duties local authorities have when thinking about taking a case to court to ask for a care order to take a child into care of or a supervision order to be made. This is often described as initiating public law care proceedings.
The local authority may decide to invite parents to a Public Law Outline Meeting (PLO) or a pre-proceedings meeting. A PLO meeting tends to be the last opportunity to try to resolve matters by agreement prior to the issue of care proceedings
It is a meeting attended by the Local Authority (Social Worker, Team manager and solicitor) together with the parents to see if an agreement can be reached or negotiated to prevent the matter going to Court
The PLO should last a maximum of 10 weeks except in exceptional circumstances.
It is very important that if you have received a notice of intention to commence care proceedings and invited to a PLO meeting that you attend. A solicitor will be able to attend the meeting with you and provide advice as to the process involved.
If you have received a notice of intention to commence care proceedings you will be entitled to free legal advice under the public law legal help scheme.
If Social Services are involved with your family situation and you have been asked to attend a Pre-Proceedings meeting (PLO meeting), remember you have the right to have a Solicitor present with you for those meetings and you will be entitled to Legal Aid.
We at Berris Law have many years of experience in this field and in particular, Julian Hayes an expert Child Panel solicitor. Please call on 020 3325 7415 for a free consultation.
Tel: 020 3325 7415
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