Q and A: Child protection system

The six month old internet adoption twins have been taken into the care of Flintshire social services, in Wales.

The BBC's social affairs editor Niall Dickson explains how the child protection system in the UK operates.

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Do we know why social services became involved in the first place ?

No, it is not clear and they haven't stated their reasons. We know that they have to act on the interests of the children and they have to act if they believe that the children are at risk of significant harm, and so they got hold of an Emergency Protection Order, which will give them custody of the children for eight days.

After that they would have to go back to the court and either get an extension, or an interim care order which would allow them to keep the children for a longer period.

Do they have to make clear to the court, or to anybody else, what the reasons are for taking these children?

Yes, they would have had to convince the magistrate that they had good reason to believe that the children were at risk before the magistrate would agree to do grant the Order.

Likewise when they have to go back to the court, they will have to convince the court of that risk to the children if they want to maintain the children in care.

What were the possible grounds for the social services acting in this case ?

The law is clear enough, that is to say if the children are at risk or physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect - those kinds of factors.

What in precise terms they are concerned about here, of course one doesn't really know.

It is possible that they may have been concerned at the twins being paraded in the media - the fact that they did appear to be involved in a rather unseemly tug-of-love across the Atlantic and that they might be better taken away from this media spotlight until all these legal uncertainties are sorted out.

How will the children be looked after while they are in care?

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that they will remain in temporary foster care. They won't be put into an institution - I think it is very unlikely they will be put into an institution of any kind.

It is much more likely they will remain with a family who are very used to working with young children and they will be in that loving environment until this position is sorted out.

Exactly how can the adoptive parents - the Kilshaws - legally challenge this taking of the children into care?

When the High Court court considers this matter - the judge will want to hear representations from the Kilshaws - and also representations from others who are concerned in the States, not least the natural mother and the Allan family who claim that the children were snatched from them.

Also the English court will also want to have, I imagine, some kind of contact with the legal authorities in America, both in Arkansas and California who are also concerned with what happens to the twins.

Could Flintshire Social Services be in effect legally bound by a decision that might be taken in the US courts?

We are now into deep legal waters. No, I wouldn't have thought so. As I understand it, there is a reciprocal agreement between America and Britain to recognise each other's adoption arrangements , although that is all now changing as the Hague Convention comes in and this whole process is reformed and tightened up.

But that said, if there is a question about the legality of the adoption order, then that would also raise questions about the immigration of the twins because they were brought into this country on the basis that the Kilshaws had legal custody of them.

Obviously the courts here would want to be satisfied that the Kilshaws were the legal parents in American law.

Certainly in this country, the Children Act 1989 is quite clear, that this is not about the rights of adults, it is about the paramount interests of the children. That is what now most people would say should determine the twins' future and I think the courts will be attempting, wherever they are, to use that principle.