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→What happens if a protection concern is found?
===What happens if a protection concern is found?===
If the social worker investigating the report is sufficiently concerned about the child's living conditions, a risk of harm, or the reported parent's unwillingness to cooperate with MCFD, then they may take further actions such as:
* supervise the parent’s care of the child with various terms and conditions that one or both parents must follow,* begin court proceedings, or * remove the child temporarily or permanently from the parent’s care and place the child temporarily or permanently with relatives, a foster family, or a group home.
If the MCFD has taken a child out of the parent's care, they must commence a child protection action in court and seek a court order approving the removal. They need to serve the parent with court documents. All child protection proceedings are held in the BC Provincial Court and follow special rules called the ''[https://canlii.ca/t/85tk Provincial Court (Child, Family and Community Service Act) Rules]''.
* It is critical to get legal advice about your legal rights in relation to MCFD as early in the process as possible, and this becomes more important as the investigation goes on.
* If your child is removed, the ''[https://www.clicklaw.bc.ca/resource/1245 Child Protection and Removal]'' script from People's Law School's Dial-a-Law website talks about parents' legal rights and explains steps you can take.