Child Protection
Our team deals with all aspects of child protection work in relation to hundreds of different children every year. We’re now pioneering new services for clients too.
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As a professional working in child protection, you'll be familiar with the need to act fast to safeguard vulnerable children from harm. As child protection specialists, we understand what you need and expect from your lawyers.
Led by our joint Heads of Group, Helen Osborn and Donna Frost, we'll use our wealth of experience, legal expertise and deep understanding of the child protection landscape to give you options and help you evaluate the route to the best possible outcome.
Meet the team
Areas of expertise
- Adoption
- Wardship
- Child Sexual Exploitation
- Public interest immunity
- Forced Marriage
- Female Genital Mutilation
- Radicalisation
- Care Proceedings
- Pre-Proceedings
Specialisms
- Care proceedings and pre-proceedings: case managing all aspects of care proceedings and pre-proceedings from commencement to conclusion. We advise on all limbs of threshold that feature in pre-proceedings and care proceedings cases including matters where neglect, emotional, physical and sexual abuse or children who are beyond parental control are the prevalent feature
- Advocacy in all Family Courts: we represent our clients at contested hearings, multi-day final hearings, fact finding hearings appeals and out of hours applications. A large portion of our advocacy is dealt with in-house, either by case-holding lawyers or our specialist in-house advocates. We also have strong links with chambers who are recognised as world leaders in child protection law
- Adoption law: we advise agency decision-makers in relation to best interests decisions for children, conduct placement order and adoption order proceedings, assist with post-adoption work and adoption placement disruptions. We also delivering regular training to prospective adopters
- Wardship: We advise and represent our clients within wardship proceedings lodged in the High Court
- Discrete areas of law: we have a wealth of experience in dealing with more discrete areas of law such as child sexual exploitation prevention, forced marriage and female genital mutilation protection order application, fabricated induced illness and parental alienation
- International childcare cases: including adoption matters
- Care provisions: for older children and young adults as well as leaving care provisions for young persons who are leaving the care system
- Deprivation of liberty: for young persons involved in proceedings within the National DOLS Court or under the inherent jurisdiction in care proceedings
- Secure accommodation: we have detailed knowledge of assisting in our client in obtaining secure accommodation orders, which have proved vital in protecting young persons from harm
- Radicalisation: we have pioneering experience in dealing with cases where radicalisation is an issue
- Private law matters: we are happy to advise on the content of section 7 and Section 37 Children Act 1989 reports for the court as well as special guardianship order assessments
Our approach
Greater competence in the legal aspects of your work enables you to spend more time with your clients.
That’s why we believe in a partnership approach and have developed and delivered a major training programme for social workers and other child protection professionals, helping you to understand the court process, improve your ability to draft documentation and give evidence in court.
Our joint Heads of Group co-chair the local Family Justice Board, which fosters close working relationships with all stakeholders working within the family justice system both nationally and locally in Kent.
We provide a telephone helpline for our clients; meaning there is always a friendly and expert lawyer to speak to should you need urgent or immediate legal advice.
We believe that the combination of our expert sector knowledge, public service ethos and heritage, our innate understanding of public-sector service provision and our competitive pricing allows us to seamlessly become an extension to your in-house team’.
Donna Frost
Head of Child Protection (Team 1)
Donna is proud to work with a team of lawyers and support staff who together with our client departments work incredibly hard to achieve the best outcomes for children
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Helen Osborn
Head of Child Protection (Team 2)
Helen is passionate about child protection and under her leadership, the team ensure they provide sound and accurate legal advice in a professional and empathetic way.
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“I am writing in praise of your support. As someone in the firing line of an ultra-aggressive legal team for the first time in my life, this was a traumatic and, at times, upsetting process. You were at my side, dispensing wise and calming counsel throughout. You have been readily available when crises occurred, have been a wonderful listener and, in the end, we reached an outcome that was highly satisfactory for our school and its pupils. I cannot speak highly enough of the way that you handled this case, and I thank you and your firm for the support you gave me. Being a chair of governors, sworn to confidentiality, can be a lonely business! You kept me sane.”
Chair of School Governors
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Private Sector Town Planning & Development Consultancy
“The experience has been really top end. Rather than just offering the options, they have given some real solid advice on the best route. It's a good business 'partnering' approach.”
Kent Fire and Rescue Service
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Kent Fire and Rescue Service
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