Form C110A UK: Care & Supervision Order Applications

At a glance

• What it does: the single application a local authority (or an "authorised person" such as the NSPCC) uses to ask the family court for a care order, a supervision order, or any other order under Part 4 of the Children Act 1989, and/or an emergency protection order under section 44. It replaced the older Form C110.
• Who can apply: only a local authority or an authorised person within the meaning of section 31(9). Individual family members, including grandparents, cannot use this form.
• The threshold for a care or supervision order: under section 31(2), the child must be suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm attributable to the care given (or likely to be given) or to the child being beyond parental control.
• The lower threshold for interim orders: while the case continues, section 38(2) only requires "reasonable grounds for believing" the section 31(2) circumstances exist — not proof to the final standard.
• Emergency protection orders: last up to 8 days, extendable once by up to 7 more days, and can be made the same day — sometimes without notice to the parents — under sections 44 and 45.
• The 26-week timetable: under section 32, the court aims to dispose of the case within 26 weeks of issue; extensions come in blocks of up to 8 weeks and are not granted routinely.
• Legal aid for parents: a parent, or anyone else with parental responsibility, named as a respondent gets legal aid for a solicitor without a means or standard merits test.
• How to apply: the paper C110A form (posted with 4 copies and the fee) or, for local authorities with an HMCTS account, the online "apply to a court for a family public law order" service.

What this document is

Form C110A is the combined application local authorities — and the very small number of "authorised persons" defined in section 31(9) of the Children Act 1989, in practice the NSPCC — use to ask the family court to make a care order, a supervision order, or any other order under Part 4 of the Act. The same form covers an application for an emergency protection order under section 44, where a child is thought to need urgent removal from, or urgent protection at, their current home. It replaced the older Form C110.

A care order gives the local authority parental responsibility for the child, shared with anyone who already holds it, and lets the authority decide where the child lives — with relatives, in foster care or, in some cases, at home under the authority's oversight. A supervision order is less intrusive: parental responsibility stays with the parents, the child usually stays where they are, and a named supervising officer supports and monitors the family for a fixed period. An emergency protection order is different again — a short, urgent measure, not a decision about the child's long-term future.

The form itself asks the applicant to identify the child, the other parties, the order or orders sought, the grounds relied on, and a plan for the child, and it is filed together with supporting evidence: typically a social work statement, a chronology, a genogram and, for care or supervision applications, a document setting out the threshold the local authority says is crossed. For an overview of the wider set of standardised forms used in family proceedings, see our guide to family law court forms.

The legal threshold: section 31

Before a court can make a care order or a supervision order, it must be satisfied that the "threshold criteria" in section 31(2) of the Children Act 1989 are met: that the child concerned is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm, and that the harm — or the likelihood of it — is attributable either to the care given, or likely to be given, not being what it would be reasonable to expect a parent to give, or to the child being beyond parental control.

Section 31(9) defines "harm" as ill-treatment or the impairment of health or development, including impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another; "development" covers physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development, and "ill-treatment" includes sexual abuse and non-physical forms of ill-treatment. Where the question turns on the child's health or development, section 31(10) requires the court to compare it with what could reasonably be expected of a similar child.

Crossing the threshold does not automatically mean an order is made. It is the gateway the court must pass through before it goes on to decide, separately, what — if any — order actually serves the child's welfare. A local authority can apply for a care order and the court can instead make a supervision order, or vice versa, under section 31(5).

Interim orders while the case continues: section 38

Full care proceedings typically run for months, so the court usually needs to decide something before the final hearing — most often where the child should live in the meantime. Under section 38(2), the court can make an interim care order or interim supervision order without needing full proof of the section 31(2) threshold; it only needs reasonable grounds for believing those circumstances exist. This lower, provisional standard reflects the urgency of protecting a child while the fuller evidence is still being gathered.

An interim order lasts for the period the court specifies, but automatically ends when the underlying application is finally disposed of, or, in certain directions-based proceedings, after a fixed period. Under section 38(6)-(7A), the court can also give directions about medical or psychiatric examination or assessment of the child during this period, though a child old enough to make an informed decision can refuse to take part.

Emergency protection orders: sections 44 and 45

An emergency protection order (EPO) is the most urgent order the family court can make about a child, and it can be sought separately from, or alongside, a care or supervision order application. Section 44(1) sets out three separate routes into an EPO:

1. The general route — the court has reasonable cause to believe the child is likely to suffer significant harm if not removed to accommodation provided by the applicant, or if not kept in the place they are currently being accommodated.
2. The local authority route — the authority is carrying out child protection enquiries under section 47(1)(b), those enquiries are being frustrated by unreasonable refusal of access to the child, and access is needed as a matter of urgency.
3. The authorised person route — an authorised person (such as the NSPCC) has reasonable cause to suspect significant harm, is making its own enquiries, and access to the child is being unreasonably refused and is needed urgently.

Where an EPO is granted, it gives the applicant limited parental responsibility for the child — only so far as needed to safeguard the child's welfare — and authorises removing the child, or preventing their removal from a hospital or other place where they were already being accommodated. It can also direct contact arrangements with parents, or with anyone the child was living with beforehand, and directions about medical or psychiatric examination.

Under section 45, an EPO has effect for a period fixed by the court, not exceeding 8 days, and can be extended once, by up to 7 more days, but only where the court has reasonable cause to believe the child is likely to suffer significant harm if it is not extended. There is no right of appeal against the making of, refusal to make, extension of, or refusal to extend, an EPO. Instead, section 45(8) allows the child, a parent, anyone else with parental responsibility, or a person the child was living with immediately beforehand, to apply for the order to be discharged — unless they had notice of, and attended, the original hearing, or the order has already been extended.

The 26-week timetable: the Public Law Outline

Once a C110A application is issued, it is governed by the Public Law Outline, set out in Practice Direction 12A of the Family Procedure Rules 2010. Section 32(1) of the Children Act 1989 requires the court to draw up a timetable aiming to dispose of the application without delay, and in any event within 26 weeks of the day it was issued, and to give directions to keep that timetable on track.

The court can extend the 26-week period under section 32(5), but only where the extension is necessary to enable the court to resolve the proceedings justly — section 32(7) states explicitly that extensions "are not to be granted routinely and are to be seen as requiring specific justification." Each separate extension is limited to a maximum of 8 weeks beyond the later of the current deadline or the day the extension is granted (section 32(8)). At every stage — drawing up the timetable, revising it, or deciding whether to extend it — the court must weigh the impact on the child's welfare against the impact on how fairly the case can be conducted.

If you are a parent named as a respondent

A parent with parental responsibility is automatically made a respondent to a C110A application and will be served with the application and the local authority's evidence. Your child is separately joined as a party, and a children's guardian from Cafcass is appointed to represent the child's interests specifically — the guardian's solicitor acts for your child, not for you or for the local authority.

Legal aid for a solicitor is available to you without a means test or the standard merits (prospects of success) test, because care, supervision and emergency protection proceedings under the Children Act 1989 are treated as a "special Children Act 1989 case" — regulation 5(1)(c) of the Civil Legal Aid (Financial Resources and Payment for Services) Regulations 2013 removes the means test, and regulation 65 of the Civil Legal Aid (Merits Criteria) Regulations 2013 disapplies most of the standard merits criteria. This funding is automatic because of what is at stake, not because you have proved you cannot afford a lawyer. Other relatives who apply to join the proceedings — for example, grandparents wanting to be considered as carers — do not get this automatic funding and are assessed under the ordinary rules.

Because of the 26-week timetable, instructing a solicitor as early as possible matters: assessments, evidence and directions all move on a fixed schedule from the first case management hearing onwards.

How to apply: paper form or the digital service

Local authorities can file Form C110A on paper, posting the completed form together with four copies, supporting documents and the court fee to the relevant family court. Since 2020, HM Courts & Tribunals Service has also been phasing in an online service, "apply to a court for a family public law order," which lets local authorities with a registered account and an HMCTS fee account apply for care orders, interim care orders, supervision orders, interim supervision orders, emergency protection orders and other Part 4 orders electronically. Applications made on the paper form cannot later be transferred into the digital system, so an authority needs to pick one route and stay with it for that application.

A court fee applies to issuing a C110A application by either route; the amount is set centrally and reviewed periodically, so check GOV.UK for the current figure before filing. Parents and children responding to the application do not pay a fee.

What happens after the application is issued

Once issued, the court allocates the case and lists an early case management hearing — often within days for urgent applications, and within a few weeks otherwise. At that first hearing, the court may make interim care or supervision orders under section 38, decide interim arrangements for where the child lives, appoint or confirm the children's guardian, and set the timetable for evidence, assessments and further hearings, all working towards a final hearing within the 26-week window described above.

The final hearing is where a judge decides whether the section 31(2) threshold is met and, if it is, what order — if any — best serves the child's welfare. If, during the course of proceedings, a party breaches a direction or order the court has made, contempt of court proceedings using Form FC600 are a possible, though serious, response.

Common mistakes and things worth checking

• Assuming an emergency protection order automatically leads to a care order. It doesn't — they are separate applications with different legal tests, and an EPO is a short-term, urgent measure, not a decision about a child's long-term future.
• Confusing the threshold stage with the welfare stage. Meeting the section 31(2) threshold does not decide the case; the court still has to decide separately what order, if any, is actually needed.
• Not realising legal aid is automatic. Parents sometimes delay instructing a solicitor because they assume they will need to pass a means test — for a special Children Act 1989 case, they don't.
• Missing the no-appeal rule on emergency protection orders. Section 45(10) rules out an appeal against an EPO decision; a discharge application under section 45(8) may be the available route instead, subject to the conditions described above.
• Underestimating the pace of the 26-week timetable. Directions, assessments and evidence deadlines are set early and enforced — engaging with your solicitor and social worker promptly matters more than it would in a slower-moving case.

What to do next — for a parent named as a respondent

1. Read the application and any threshold document carefully, and note the date of the first hearing.
2. Contact a solicitor immediately. Legal aid is available without a means test for a special Children Act 1989 case, so cost should not be the reason you delay.
3. Ask your solicitor to explain the specific concerns set out in the threshold document and the orders being sought.
4. Make sure you, or your solicitor, attend the first hearing — this is where interim arrangements for your child are typically decided.
5. Keep track of what's asked of you (assessments, contact arrangements) and meet deadlines, since the court's 26-week timetable moves quickly and extensions are not routine.
6. Understand the children's guardian's role. If Cafcass appoints a guardian for your child, their solicitor represents your child's interests, not yours or the local authority's.
7. Tell your solicitor early if you disagree with the local authority's account, so disputed facts can be identified and addressed well before the final hearing.

This guide provides general information about Form C110A and care, supervision and emergency protection order applications under the Children Act 1989 in England and Wales. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for advice tailored to your specific circumstances. The law and procedure described were accurate as at August 2026 and are subject to change — always check GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk for the current position, and check the current version of Form C110A itself before filing.

Last reviewed: August 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: August 2027 or on legislative change.