Form C110A UK: Care & Supervision Order Applications

What this document is

Form C110A is the combined application form used by a local authority (or an authorised person such as the NSPCC) to ask the family court for a care order, a supervision order, or any other order under Part 4 of the Children Act 1989. It also covers applications for an emergency protection order under section 44 where a child is thought to need urgent removal or protection.

The form replaced the older C110 and pulls several related applications into a single document. When the court grants a care order, parental responsibility is shared with the local authority, and the authority can decide where the child lives and how they are looked after.

A supervision order is less drastic: the child usually stays at home, but a named officer monitors their welfare and gives help and advice to the family. An emergency protection order is short-term, often lasting only a matter of days, and is reserved for situations where immediate action is needed to keep a child safe.

The form itself sets out who the parties are, the orders being sought, the grounds relied on, and the child's circumstances.

How to use this document

1. The local authority builds a case. Before a C110A is issued, social workers will usually have carried out assessments, held child protection meetings and, where appropriate, issued a letter before proceedings. The authority gathers evidence about the child's welfare and records concerns about significant harm, whether actual or likely, in line with the threshold in section 31 of the Children Act 1989.
2. The form is completed and filed. The applicant sets out the orders being sought, details of the child and their family, the grounds for the application, and a plan for the child. Supporting documents, including a social work statement, chronology, genogram and threshold document, are filed alongside the C110A at the family court that covers the area where the child lives.
3. The court issues and lists the case. Once issued, the court allocates the case and sets an early case management hearing, usually within days for urgent applications and within a few weeks otherwise. The case is governed by the Public Law Outline, which aims to conclude care proceedings within 26 weeks wherever possible.
4. Parents and the child are served and represented. Parents with parental responsibility are automatically respondents and are usually entitled to non-means, non-merits tested legal aid for a solicitor. The child is joined as a party and a children's guardian from Cafcass is appointed, who instructs a solicitor on the child's behalf.
5. The court decides on interim and final orders. At the first hearing the court may make interim care or supervision orders, decide where the child lives during proceedings, and set a timetable for assessments and evidence. A final hearing follows, where a judge decides whether the legal threshold is met and, if so, what order best serves the child's welfare.

Common questions