Solicitors instruct social workers in the Family Court every week, and the process there has been polished by twenty years of practice directions and case management. Immigration instructions are different. There is no Part 25 gatekeeping in most appeals, no standard letter of instruction in common use, and no habit of expert case management. That freedom is useful, but it also produces the reports tribunals criticise. Here is how to get it right.
When a social work report actually helps
Three situations, mainly. First, when the case turns on care: who provides it, how much of it, and whether anyone else realistically could. Second, when the case turns on a child: best interests under section 55, or the individual impact of deportation on this particular child. Third, when the family's account needs independent testing before a judge hears it, because an account that has been examined by a professional and survived carries weight that an untested statement does not. If your case does not fit one of those, save your client the fee.
What to send
Everything. The Home Office bundle, the witness statements, and, critically, any family court material that exists. Tribunals have given social work reports little weight precisely because the expert had not read the family proceedings. If there are papers you cannot release, say so in the instruction so the report can record what was and was not available.
What to ask for
Put the legal test in the letter. If the question is whether deportation would be unduly harsh on the children, say so, and the report can be structured around the scenarios the tribunal has to consider. Vague instructions produce vague reports.
What a good report looks like
Twenty pages or fewer, because the Practice Direction says so and because discipline is a feature, not a limitation. A methodology section that says who was seen, where, for how long, and with what records. Analysis that distinguishes what the family says, what the records show, and what the expert observed. A range of opinion where the evidence supports more than one view. And declarations that mean something, from an expert whose duty is to the tribunal and who has been cross-examined often enough to take that duty seriously.
Timescales and money
A properly done report takes eight weeks from the papers. Budget £1,750, with travel on top; be suspicious of much cheaper, because the difference is usually the testing. Agree the fee fixed, at instruction, and expect to pay a proportion up front. That is normal in this market and it protects both sides.