“Special guardianship” is intended to offer a new option for courts seeking to make a permanent plan for a child.  It has been introduced to meet the needs of children for whom none of the previously available options (primarily adoption, long-term fostering or a residence order) is entirely suitable. It is intended to combine the advantages of a continued legal relationship with the birth family with the security of a long-term placement.  One important aspect of special guardianship is that there are restrictions on its discharge or revocation.  A special guardianship order is revocable, and so can never be as ‘secure’ as an adoption; but the legislation is plainly geared towards the child’s long-term future and it is anticipated that the occasions when such an order is discharged will be rare. 

In summary, the effect of a special guardianship order is to:

• Secure the child’s long-term placement;
• Give the special guardian parental responsibility;
• Maintain the child’s links with his or her parent(s); BUT
• Enable the special guardian to control on a day-to-day basis the parents’ exercise of their parental responsibility

Those who may apply for special guardianship include wider family members and foster carers. Parents are specifically excluded.

• The effect of a special guardianship order:
• Gives the special guardian parental responsibility for the child;
• Subject to any other orders in force tinder the Children Act, enables the special guardian to exercise parental responsibility to the exclusion of any other person with parental responsibility (other than another special guardian);
• Does not permit the special guardian to do anything which requires the consent of all those with parental responsibility: for example, consent to an adoption or placement for adoption, a change of name or a permanent removal from the jurisdiction.

A key feature of a special guardianship order, and that which is likely to make it most attractive to prospective carets in cases where there is a background of parental neglect or abuse, is that the special guardian may exercise parental responsibility to the exclusion of the child’s parent(s).

However recent decisions of the Court of Appeal would seem to limit these special guardianship orders to situations were the court is considering adoption and then feels there are circumstances why adoption is not the appropriate option in a particular case.