Glossary

A meeting that is held every six months to talk about where you are living, your education, contact with your family, hobbies and interests.

This usually means that you’ll live at home. A social worker or sometimes a probation officer will act as your supervisor, they will see you regularly and give you and help and advice that you might need. The order lasts for one year but it can be made longer.

This means that you will live somewhere other than at home. You might go to live with grandparents or some other relative, or a parent. Whoever you go to live with will then be responsible for you as long as the order is in place. They can make decisions about you like which school you should go to.

If the court decides that it would be best for you not to live at home, a care order will be made. This means that Social Care will be able to make decisions about important things in your life like where you live, go to school.

Leicestershire County Council usually make these decisions with your parents and when you are old enough to understand they will make them with you. The County Council must tell you about their plans for you. You should be given the chance to tell them what you would like to happen.

An emergency protection order is made when you are in immediate danger and may have to be taken away from home quickly. This might be because someone has called the police if they are worried that you are being hurt, it could be because you have told someone like a teacher that you are being hurt, or you might already be in a safe place, like a hospital.

Leicestershire County Council or anyone like the police or a neighbour can go to a magistrate and apply for an Emergency Protection Order.

After an order is made by the court it may think about how and who you will be able to keep in touch with such as your parents, brothers and sisters, friends and relatives, this is called contact. Contact can be regular visits, letters, phonecalls, cards or visits that are not that frequent

The law says that if you are aged between 5 and 16 years your parents must make sure you receive an education. If you’re not going to school regularly and not getting any other help with education, the local education authority can ask the court to make an Education Supervision order.

If this order is made the court will ask an education welfare office or social worker to act as a supervisor for you. They will then give you help and advice to try and sort out any problems that you may have had.

This is an order made if social workers are worried about you but don’t think you are in immediate danger. The order means that the court can decide if you need to be seen by a doctor or a specialist to examine you. The order can last no more than a week.

Some children and young people may come to harm by running away from where they live or by being a danger to themselves or others. If this happens they may need to stay for a while in a place that is more secure. This means that it is locked to stop from them hurting themselves or others and from running away.

The Children & Young People's Service can ask the court for a secure accommodation order, before the order is made the court must first find out if you have run away before and might do it again or if you are likely to suffer harm in some way.

You can be put in secure accommodation in an emergency for up to 72 hours without a court order, after that time Leicestershire County Council must go to court.