Children Act 2006

Further to my post on bloody relations , this question was tabled and answered in the House of Commons on Monday.

Children and Adoption Act 2006
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when he plans to implement the provisions relating to parenting in the Children and Adoption Act 2006. [204244]

Kevin Brennan: The provisions of part 1 of the Children and Adoption Act 2006 relating to Family Assistance Orders and risk assessments were implemented in October 2007. The time scale for implementing the remaining provisions in part 1 of the Act is subject to completion of a number of tasks, including preparing for the provision of ‘contact activities’, making necessary changes to the court rules, putting new administrative systems for court staff in place and staff training. The Ministry of Justice published a consultation paper on draft rules on 7 May. The Government will shortly be making a written ministerial statement (WMS), outlining the timetable for implementation of the remaining provisions in part 1 of the Act.


I think this is now the third time in over a year that a written ministerial statement has been promised shortly.

A National Strategy on Neglect & Emotional Abuse

The NSPCC has published its research report on Developing an Effective Response to Neglect & Emotional Harm to Children (downloadable from this page as a pdf file or you can request a copy by email). The report outlines its case for a national strategy to be devised.

Investigating Domestic Abuse

The Association of Chief Police Officers & the National Policing Improvement Agency have published new guidance on Investigating Domestic Abuse (pdf file). The guidance emphasises the link between domestic abuse & child abuse but ACPO will also be publishing revised guidance on Investigating Child Abuse & Safeguarding Children. The guidance is breathtakingly comprehensive and covers disclosure into family proceedings (as well as the fact that the sections on evidence gathering may assist in identifying the sort of documents & materials which could be requested). For the current guidance on police disclosure see the DCA website. More guidance is in development between Cafcass & ACPO on Information sharing in private law cases.

Fees Increase for Care Proceedings

More comment on the fees hike in yesterday's Times from barrister Stephen Cragg of Doughty Street.

Public Law Fees Increase

The Ministry of Justice announces the outcome of consultation on the proposed fee increase for public law proceedings here and they do exactly what is says on the tin. The outcome is that they are going to increase the fees. They have consulted and they are still going to increase the fees. They will publish the responses to consultation in two months time. Any resemblance to Mr Mugabe's decision to delay the announcement of the actual results of the Presidential election in Zimbabwe is entirely coincidental.

Foster care assessment placements

Community Care starts an interesting debate on the anecdotal rise in mother & baby foster placements as an alternative to residential assessments. My experience is that some local authorities have been encouraging this alternative to residential assessments for some time if they have the right pool of professional foster carers to deal with the parents in appropriate cases. It can offer a lot better and less bruising experience to parents than residential but it is never available to couples. It would be fascinating to know what your experience is nationwide on the effect of the public funding changes on the use of residential assessment units? Comments please.

Doctors and the diagnosis of abuse

Another interesting resource on this topic is this article by Dr Newberger from Massachussets & another one she co-wrote with Jane Snyder in which she discusses professional consensus or lack of it on what constitutes evidence of abuse with reference to research which shows that doctors tend to take a less serious view of possible signs of abuse.

On a related subject, the RCPCH has declined to pass a motion of no confidence in the GMC but has said 'the College continues to have grave concerns over the current GMC procedures in child protection.' according to the Press Association .

The Physical Signs of Child Abuse

The Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health has at long last published their revised guidance on the Physical Signs of Child Abuse which you can order here .

Research on the Care System

Community Care carries an article by June Statham summarising and comment on the research below.

Title: The Pursuit of Permanence: a study of the English care system
Authors: Ian Sinclair, Claire Baker, Jenny Lee and Ian Gibbs
Institution: University of York, commissioned by the Department for Children, Schools and Families as part of a research initiative focused on the Quality Protects programme.

ABSTRACT

This study traced the "care careers" of more than 7,000 children looked after by 13 English local authorities. It analysed why children entered and left the care system, the reasons for movement and changes of placement within it, and the outcomes for different groups of children. It concludes with recommendations for how the care system should work and what it should offer.

Click here for the summary of findings from the research (pdf file).

Coleridge J's speech to Resolution

The full text of Mr Justice Coleridge's speech at the Resolution conference is
here (opens a pdf file).

Welcome to the Laws of Love

A new family law blog - Laws of Love (a family law blog dealing with all aspects of relationships (legal and just plain odd) - from Mark Chaloner, a Southampton based family barrister, was launched on the same day as the PLO and made has made a very good start with a piece on contact. I am particularly glad of today's post on Coleridge J's speech to Resolution which tells us more about what the Judge had to say. Saves me a job!

Kinship Assessments

New research reported on Community Care concludes that kinship care is an under-explored option in care cases. Community Care links to a summary of the findings. The full report is to be published soon on the BAAF website .

The summary of findings is set out below. In an astonishing 55% of cases studied there was no indication of any consideration of kinship care. Essentially the research concluded that for children under 5 kinship care was less likely to break down than long-term foster care but more likely than adoption. For children between 5 & 12 kinship care was more susceptible to breakdown than either foster care or adoption but there were a number of factors influencing this including the lack of support for kinship placements and the level of damage sustained by children before they moved to a kinship placement. Financial support was an issue and inconsistent support was offered by local authorities. General support was insufficient and inconsistent. Social work predictions of problems and the potential for disruption were not reliable. Parental contact was not generally found to pose a risk to children though it was problematic in a significant minority of cases. Anticipated contact difficulties were not accurately predicted. Kinship carers also reported a high level of dissatisfaction with social workers (25%) with frequency of change of social worker being the biggest source of complaint.

Finding 1: There is scope for a more systematic exploration of the kinship option for all children prior to proceedings. This could lead to more/earlier placements for
some children.
Finding 2: Kinship care can deliver Quality Protects Objective 1 for many children but it does not work for all.
Finding 3: Better or poorer outcomes are not solely dependent on individual
circumstances.
Finding 4: Pre-placement assessment is important but problematic
Finding 5: The support needs of kinship placements need to be more adequately
addressed
Finding 6: Kinship care facilitates the maintenance of some family links and
contact is usually safe but it is often difficult.

Our conclusions can be simply stated: kinship care can be a positive option for many abused and neglected children but it is not straightforward and requires careful assessment and adequate support. Therefore, if the full potential of kinship
care is to be realised, there must be clear central and local policies, appropriate infrastructures and adequate resourcing. These are not new conclusions and were highlighted by, amongst others, Hunt herself in the Scoping Paper for the
Department of Health in 2001. Since then, some progress has been made and there is now stronger research evidence on some aspects of the subject. It is to be hoped that the inclusion of kinship care in the White Paper Care Matters:
Time for Change (DfES, 2007), brief as it is, may result, at last, in this form of care getting the more concentrated attention it so clearly deserves


The summary report makes a number of specific recommendations which make interesting reading.

The report picks up on a number of social work hostilities / indifference to kinship care which certainly seem to chime with my experience. I have reservations about what I see as the expectation by social services that kinship carers should be able to pass through the same hoops as non-family foster placements and a too ready dismissal of the not so perfect grandparent. Kinship carers are perhaps far more likely to put up with behaviour from a damaged child than non-family foster carers and therefore not to withdraw readily when the going gets tough. It will be interesting to see whether the emphasis in the PLO on Family Group Conferences & kinship assessments pre-proceedings might make a difference.

All In a Day's Work?

As if social workers did not have enough today with the PLO in force from tomorrow here is an extract from the General Social Care Council's Social Work at its best: The roles and tasks of social workers .

Social work roles require a wide range of tasks to be performed. These can
include acting as broker to obtain the support people want through creative
use of all available resources; enhancing parenting and supporting the
physical, intellectual and emotional development of children and young people who need help, in line with the Children’s Plan; helping disadvantaged people of all ages improve their health and wellbeing; arranging good-quality alternative care for children whose parents cannot care for them, and for adults who can no longer manage in their own homes; and aiding people in poverty to improve their financial position, informing them about their entitlements, and supporting them to access training, work opportunities and benefits.





6 impossible things before breakfast?

Cohabitation reform in abeyance

Justice Minister Bridget Prentice has made a
written ministerial statement announcing the government's response to the Law Commission's paper on the financial consequences of relationship breakdown for cohabiting couples.

The statement in full reads as follows:

"The Law Commission published their very thorough and high quality report on 31 July 2007. It makes recommendations to government on certain aspects of the law relating to cohabitants. It considers the financial consequences of cohabiting relationships ending either by separation or death. It follows two years of work by the Law Commission.

The report has been carefully considered and the government has decided it wishes to seek research findings on the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006, which came into effect last year. This Act has provisions which are similar in many respects to those which the Commission recommends.

The Scottish Executive intend to undertake research to discover the cost of such a scheme and its efficacy in resolving the issues faced by cohabitants when their relationships end.

The government propose to await the outcome of this research and extrapolate from it the likely cost to this jurisdiction of bringing into effect the scheme proposed by the Law Commission and the likely benefits it will bring. For the time being, therefore, the government will take no further action.

The decision has been reached because of the need for government to obtain accurate estimates of the financial impact of any new legislation and the likelihood that we can obtain a view of financial impact by drawing on the Scottish experience of similar law reform."

Refreshingly honest, at least. And a breathing space before we all have to understand some new system. Unless, of course, you live in Scotland.

Planning for children?

Ed Balls announces the new Children's Plan with a huge quantity of measures designed to support families through extra child care, greater liaison between schools and parents and help to parents to support their children through education, funding for activities for young people, information for parents about child development and so on. As part of this initiative there is also to be a review of the CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service). This is especially welcome. I don't know whether I have just been unlucky but in my experience this service is a very difficult one to access both because of waiting lists and because of an apparent reluctance to offer a service whenever there is any prospect that someone else might do so.