Special Guardianship Order

A special guardianship order, introduced by section 14A of the Children Act 1989, is an order appointing one or more individuals aged 18 or over — who must not be a parent of the child — to be a child's special guardian. The court can make the order on the application of an eligible individual, including a guardian of the child, a person named in a child arrangements order as someone the child is to live with, or a local authority foster parent with whom the child has lived for at least a year.

Under section 14C, a special guardian has parental responsibility for the child and, subject to any other court order, is entitled to exercise that parental responsibility to the exclusion of any other person with parental responsibility, apart from another special guardian. This gives the special guardian clear day-to-day decision-making authority while the child's birth parents retain their formal legal status as parents, distinguishing special guardianship from adoption.

According to the Explanatory Notes to the Adoption and Children Act 2002, which inserted the special guardianship provisions into the Children Act 1989, special guardianship orders are intended to meet the needs of children who cannot live with their birth parents, for whom adoption is not appropriate, but who could still benefit from a legally secure placement. Unlike an adoption order, a special guardianship order retains the basic legal link with the birth parents — they remain legally the child's parents, though their ability to exercise parental responsibility is limited, and they retain the right to consent (or not) to the child's adoption.