Chapter 1: Pre-Proceedings
About the Public Law Outline
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The Public Law Outline (PLO) launched in 2014, is the legal framework social workers use with families when children are experiencing or at risk of experiencing significant harm, and the local authority is considering legal proceedings because all other interventions with the family have not been able to help make family life safer for children. Here is a link to the Department for Education statutory guidance on court orders and pre-proceedings.
Pre-proceedings is a formal process, lasting up to 16 weeks, where social workers assess and support families with the aim to help them make positive change to avoid issuing care proceedings. If that change is not made, the local authority then issues care proceedings. Within these proceedings, the local authority provides all the assessments that have been carried out with the family as evidence to the court that the social work team has worked with the family to try to effect change for the child.
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Care proceedings should last up to 26 weeks in addition to the 16 weeks in pre-proceedings. Most care proceedings should be issued after the local authority has completed pre-proceedings but there will be situations where pre-proceedings are not safe and local authorities make applications without completing that formal process, but these will be less common.
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Decision to start Pre-Proceedings with a family
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When a social worker is very worried about a child, and perhaps the Child Protection Plan has not helped to bring about change, there may be a decision to enter pre-proceedings with a family. Pre-proceedings, which is also referred to as PLO, is the stage before going to court in respect of a child. The aim of pre-proceedings is to either address the concerns about the child without going to court or to assess whether commencing care proceedings is necessary to safeguard the child.
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You can access the most recent government pre-proceedings best practice guidance and Research in Practice’s pre-proceedings’ practice guidance here:
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Government Working Group Best Practice Guidance for pre-proceedings and proceedings: Microsoft Word - March 2021, report (final).docx
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Research in Practice PLO practice guidance:
2789_pre_proceedings_messages_research_policy_-final.pdf
Pre-proceedings and family justice hub | Research in Practice
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The President of the Family Division “Relaunching the PLO”, November 2022: A View from The President’s Chambers: November 2022 - Courts and Tribunals Judiciary
Legal Planning Meeting
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A Legal Planning Meeting (LPM) is a key forum for analysing the evidence and considering the options where there are worries the current plan is not keeping the child safe.
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Preparing for a Legal Planning Meeting
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Discuss concerns with your manager, either in supervision or if necessary, outside of supervision, and get agreement that a Legal Planning Meeting (LPM) is needed.
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Consider if a consultation with another professional, such as CAMHS or an adult mental health worker, is needed before an LPM.
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Ensure that the chronology of the family is up to date with relevant case information (covering the last 2 years of significant events).
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Consider completing a detailed cultural genogram (including extended family).
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Hold or attempt to hold a family group decision making meeting/Family Group Conference (FGC). If not, be clear as to the reasons why this hasn’t been held or attempted.
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Decision making within a Legal Planning Meeting
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The allocated social worker will likely provide an overview of the concerns for the child, the work with the family to date to address the concerns and their assessment of the impact of the concerns on the child. This information will inform discussions about whether the threshold criteria for commencing proceedings is met on the available evidence. There will be discussions about whether further evidence is needed and if so, whether this will be gathered by proposing further assessments with the family.
If threshold is met there are 3 options:
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Continue with the status quo. Just because threshold is met it doesn’t necessarily mean that there should be a decision to escalate. Consideration should be given to what the social work team could be doing differently, how to build on the family strengths and whether more work can be done to mobilise the family network and professional network for support.
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Pre-Proceedings process commenced. This process can also be referred to as the PLO and the meetings are often called PLO meetings. Pre-proceedings and PLO are the same process. If threshold is met and it is safe to do so, a decision may be made to commence with pre-proceedings/PLO with the aim of negating the need to issue care proceedings. During the meeting, there should be agreement about dates for when the Letter before proceedings should go to the family and dates for the PLO meetings. It should also be clarified if approval is needed to propose an external expert to complete assessment, if this is deemed necessary.
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Issue care proceedings. If threshold is met and it is decided that entering pre-proceedings with the family is not appropriate, a decision will be made to issue care proceedings. If this decision is made, there is likely to be discussions during the Legal Planning Meeting about what order will be sought during the care proceedings and what the proposed care plan for the child would be. There should also be discussions about how to create safety for the child while preparations are being made to issue care proceedings and a plan around when the evidence will be written.
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What happens in Pre-Proceedings
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When a decision has been made to start pre-proceedings, there is a lot of work to complete in a short timeframe. The timeframe is short to prevent the child from experiencing significant harm any longer than necessary, since the local authority has said the child is suffering or at risk of suffering significant harm.
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Suggested timeline for pre-proceedings/PLO process: ​​
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Here is a suggested flowchart of what to consider and prepare, as well as timescales, for PLO and PLO review meetings.
​​​​​​​The primary focus of pre-proceedings is to avoid going to court. The local authority needs to show the family that they are committed to avoiding court, but also needs to be clear about what they expect from the family, and the social work team, to ensure this can happen. It is important to be clear with families what the risks in their parenting are and outline what needs to be seen from them that will mean avoiding court.
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For example, if the parents struggle to take the children to school and medical appointments, the social worker will need to see that there is full attendance. If the parents misuse drugs, the social worker will need to see commitment to being abstinent or significant change in their use. The social worker will need to know that any changes the family make are likely to be long lasting, and therefore would want the family to attend services and the local authority would provide support to them.
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Letter before proceedings
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The social worker will need to write a Letter before proceedings, which their Legal team should approve. The letter should then be shared, with a list of solicitors included, to each parent/person with Parental Responsibility (PR) and it is important to explain the process to them. This letter is very important, because it allows the parent to access legal aid, which means that they do not need to pay for a solicitor. They need to take the letter to a solicitor and the letter allows the solicitor to apply for legal aid on their behalf.
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How to write a Letter before proceedings
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Write relationally
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Keep it short
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Set out what the worry is using language that is plain and simple and say what support has been tried to help make that worry better, and why it remains a worry. For example:
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“I am worried that you have hit the children. Sophie has told me that you hit her between November 2023 and January 2024 and that she is scared of you sometimes. At the child protection medical on 23/1/24 the doctor said the marks seen on Sophie could have been there because someone hit her. A family support worker was trying to work with you to help you manage boundaries and parenting, to help you stop hitting Sophie, and that hasn’t helped you change how you parent Sophie.”
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Do not use words that could be misunderstood or are too formal. Changing the words you use to describe the behaviour to make it clear and it becomes more relational. For example:
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Changing “you were a perpetrator of domestic abuse” to “Max said that you have pushed him, hit him, and stopped him from leaving the room”. And change “you emotionally abuse the children” to “When you tell Max that you don’t love him anymore and that he can go into care, this upsets him, and he cries. When he cries, you then laugh at him for doing that.”
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Here are some documents to support your preparation for pre-proceedings:
Appendix E3, pg 126 ‘Principles for Letter before proceedings’: Microsoft Word - March 2021, report (final).docx
Parents’ perspective on a letter before proceedings: parents_perspective_letter.pdf
Appendix E3, pg 119 ‘Sample pre-proceedings assessment agreement template’: Microsoft Word - March 2021, report (final).docx
Family Group Conferences
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It’s important that a family group decision making meeting, usually in the format of a Family Group Conference, is held at the beginning of the pre-proceedings process, if one has not already happened. This is because if alternative care for the children needs to be considered, it helps to know the family network well and then the local authority can assess anyone put forward. The parents may need support from the social worker to understand this process and to help them and the family to think about who could look after the children. The parents will need to put people forward at the first PLO meeting to ensure there is enough time to assess everyone within the 16-week period. Additionally, should the care plan be to remove the children the aim is for the children to be cared for by people they already know and feel connected with rather than a stranger foster carer. It is for this reason a full cultural genogram (cf_pt_using-genograms-in-practice_final.pdf) is helpful to complete prior to the LPM. You can find more information on how to prepare for a family group decision making meeting here.
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Your local authority should have a clear process in place for the completion of any necessary viability and kinship assessment.
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The initial Pre-Proceedings meeting
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All Pre-Proceedings (also known as PLO) meetings should be chaired by a manager.
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All PLO meetings will be in person unless there is a significant reason the parent is unable to attend in person (perhaps they have additional needs that make it easier for them to attend remotely).
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In the meeting, the social worker will likely be asked to provide an overview of the case and why the pre-proceedings process is happening.
Who attends?
The parents or people with Parental Responsibility, their solicitor(s), the allocated social worker, team manager, local authority’s solicitor, any interpreter or advocate the parents needs.
What is the purpose of the meeting?
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To ensure that the parents have understood the letter and the reason for the meeting.
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To ascertain the parents’ understanding of the concerns held by the local authority ab3out their children.
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To review the proposed plan to see if there are points that the parents agree will provide the most immediate change/safety for their children.
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To describe what support the local authority will provide to the parents while they focus on the immediate change work.
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To discuss and agree any additional assessments and the timetable for this work. If you, as the allocated social worker, are completing the parenting assessment, you should provide a parenting assessment proposal and timetable for this as well.
It is important to have the timetable of the assessments that are being proposed and make dates for the review and exit PLO meeting. It can be helpful to also have drafted a Letter of Instruction (LOI) ahead of the initial PLO meeting if additional assessments by external assessors are being proposed. A Letter of Instruction is a document sent by a solicitor to an assessor, outlining the circumstances of the care proceedings and questions they need to address in their assessment. Presenting all this information at the initial PLO meeting helps the family understand what will happen and how long this process will take.
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This chapter is based on work completed by colleagues in Camden Children’s Services.
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