A Guide to Special Guardianship Orders

Legally reviewed by: Ravi Kaur Mahey Sep 2026 In: Child Care

This article has been written by Cartwright King’s Child Law solicitor, Daniel Maiden.

What is a Special Guardianship Order?

A Special Guardianship Order is an order of the Court appointing one or more individuals to be a child or children’s special guardian.

A special guardian is a person who is legally responsible for a child’s long-term care and upbringing. A special guardian cannot be the child or children’s birth parents.

Special Guardianship Orders were created as an alternative to Child Arrangements Orders and Adoption Orders.

The concept of Special Guardianship Orders is about the exercise of parental responsibility (i.e. decision-making for the children). A Special Guardianship Order gives a non-parent a more permanent legal status than they would have if a Court made a Child Arrangements Order for the child or children to live with them. It is important to remember a Special Guardianship Order does not extinguish the relationship between the child and the birth parents.

Adoption is the most draconian order a Family Court can make. An adoption order severs all legal ties between the child or children and their birth family, however, Adoption Orders are not appropriate in all cases. Examples where Special Guardianship Orders are more appropriate than Adoption Orders include the following;

i. older children in long-term care who might want to retain some legal ties with their birth family and who don’t want to be adopted;
ii. prospective carers from minority ethnic groups who may wish to offer a child a permanent family, but have religious or cultural difficulties with adoption as it is set out in law
iii. kinship care cases where members of the extended family may not want to adopt the child but they need more security and clarity about day-to-day decision making

Special Guardianship Orders are orders intended to meet the long-term needs of for children whom a plan of adoption is not appropriate but where the children cannot return to their birth parents and who would benefit from the long-term stability that is provided by a placement in the extended family. Like adoption, Special Guardianship Orders are intended to provide long-term support to the child and ensure that the child has a stable and loving family until the child reaches majority.

Who can apply?

As stated above, the child or children’s birth parents cannot become special guardians. Additionally, if two people are jointly applying for a Special Guardianship Order, they do not need to be married.

To apply for a Special Guardianship Order, you must follow the very strict criteria;

Must be aged 18 or over;
Must not be the parent of the child or children subject to application for a Special Guardianship Order;
Entitled to make an application for a Special Guardianship Order; or
Have obtained permission from the Court to make an application for a Special Guardianship Order

Entitled to apply?

The following individuals are automatically entitled to apply for a Special Guardianship Order;

any guardian of the child;
any individual who is named in a child arrangements order as a person with whom the child is to live;
a local authority foster parent with whom the child has lived for a period of at least one year immediately preceding the application.
a relative with whom the child has lived for a period of at least one year immediately preceding the application.

If you do not meet any of the above criteria to automatically entitle you to apply for a Special Guardianship Order, then you will need permission from the Court to make your application for a Special Guardianship Order. The Court, when considering whether to grant permission, looks and considers the following factors;

the nature of the proposed application;
the applicant’s connection with the child or children;
any risk there might be of that proposed application disrupting the child’s life to such an extent that they would be harmed by it, and
where a local authority is looking after the child

The court will always have regard for the child or children’s welfare being their paramount consideration as well.

Notice period and the Special Guardianship Report

Before an application for a standalone Special Guardianship Order can be made, the applicant(s) must have given three months’ written notice of the intention to apply for a Special Guardianship Order to the Local Authority in which the child or children are resident. If the child or children are already looked after by a Local Authority, a written notice would need to be given to that Local Authority.

This notice period lasts three months and the Local Authority, upon receipt of this written notice, must prepare a report dealing with the following matters;

The suitability of the applicant to be a special guardian.
This will look at the prospective special guardian’s parenting capacity including their understanding of, and ability to meet the child’s current and likely future needs, particularly, any needs the child may have arising from harm that the child has suffered; (ii) their understanding of, and ability to protect the child from any current or future risk of harm posed by the child’s parents, relatives or any other person the local authority consider relevant, particularly about contact between any such person and the child; (iii) their ability and suitability to bring up the child until the child reaches the age of eighteen;
such matters (if any) as may be prescribed by the Secretary of State.
This will look at and consider any harm the child or children have suffered; and any risk of future harm to the child or children posed by their birth parents. This will also look at and consider the nature of the relationship between the prospective special guardian and the child or children;
any other matter which the local authority considers to be relevant.
This will include information about the child or children who are subject to the application for a Special Guardianship Order, the wider family and the Local Authority who completed the report and what support can be offered to the child;
Set out any Special Guardianship Support Services to the prospective special guardian.
This will look at and include any counselling, advice and information about the service. It can also include, financial support, services to enable therapeutic support for children, and services to help promote contact. The report should also set out any financial support the prospective Special Guardian would receive by being a Special Guardian for the child or children; and
General conclusions.
This will be whether the Local Authority supports the making of a Special Guardianship Order and why.

The Court cannot make a Special Guardianship Order unless it has this report from the Local Authority and the report covers all the areas identified above.

The effect of a special guardianship order

If the Court makes a Special Guardianship Order, the special guardian will acquire parental responsibility for the child or children. The special guardian may exercise the parental responsibility granted by the order to the exclusion of others with Parental Responsibility (i.e. birth parents). This would mean for example if a child lived with her maternal grandmother who had a special guardianship order in her favour, she could, to the exclusion of the child’s birth parents, determine where the child would go to school and what medical treatment she should receive.

The significance of this is that the special guardian will have clear responsibility for all day-to-day decisions about caring for the child.

Whilst a special guardianship order is in force, written consent of everybody with Parental Responsibility or an order of the court would be required to allow the child to be known by a new surname or to allow the child to be taken out of the UK for more than 3 months.

Varying/discharging a Special Guardianship Order

The court may vary or discharge a special guardianship order on the application of the following persons;

the special guardian;
any parent or guardian of the child concerned;
any individual who is named in a child arrangements order as a person with whom the child is to live;
any individual not falling within any of the above three categories who has, or immediately before the making of the special guardianship order had, parental responsibility for the child;
the child himself; or
a local authority designated in a care order concerning the child.

The Court may also vary or discharge the special guardianship order if it considers that the order should be varied or discharged, even though no application has been made.

Not everyone is automatically entitled to apply to vary or discharge a Special Guardianship Order, the following persons must obtain leave of the Court before applying;

the child;
any parent or guardian of his;
any step-parent of his who has acquired, and has not lost, parental responsibility for the child;
any individual falling who immediately before the making of the special guardianship order had, but no longer has, parental responsibility for him.

The court may not grant leave unless it is satisfied that there has been a significant change in circumstances since the making of the special guardianship order.

When the Court is considering an application for leave to apply to vary or discharge a Special Guardianship Order, the following factors must be considered.

It must first consider whether the applicant has shown, using credible evidence, that there has been a significant change of circumstances since the order was made;
If there has not been, the application will fail.
If there has, the court will decide whether leave should be granted, based on a realistic evaluation of the applicant’s prospects of success in the context of the effect on the child’s welfare of the application being heard or not heard;
The prospects of success must be real;
The child’s welfare is an important factor, but it is not the paramount consideration;
The degree of any change in circumstances is likely to be intertwined with the prospects of success, and the greater the prospects of success, the more likely it is that leave will be granted.