Child Care Proceedings Research Articles

Mental health and ACEs for adults in child protection and care proceedings: Audit of psychology service in Southeast England

Limited research has been conducted about the prevalence and impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and mental health difficulties on those with children’s services involvement in the UK. Audit data were taken from 111 cognitive and psychological assessment reports in adults aged 18 to 55 within SWIFT specialist family service in Southeast England between May 2019 and April 2021. Descriptive analyses were conducted to show ACE type and prevalence, gender, and mental health (depression and anxiety levels) using self-report and measures such as the Generalised Anxiety Disorder questionnaire (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Our cohort displayed higher levels of difficulties than the general population, i.e. experiencing multiple ACEs (53.2 per cent). The female participants in our cohort expressed a higher number of ACEs and reported greater symptoms levels of depression than males. Ensuring the provision of trauma-informed therapeutic intervention may aid these individuals with making and sustaining meaningful change and escaping the intergenerational trauma cycle. Future research exploring causation and identifying potential therapeutic provisions with this population is necessary.

Children’s Participation in Care and Protection Decision-Making Matters

Laws and policies in different jurisdictions provide a range of mechanisms that allow children involved in child protection processes and care proceedings to express their views when decisions that affect them are being made. Whether these mechanisms facilitate children’s involvement and whether they result in children’s views being heard and “given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child”, as required by article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is the focus of this article. The law, policy and practice in New South Wales, Australia, are used to provide a contextual illustration of the wider theoretical and practical issues, drawing on international comparisons and research. It is clear there is still some way to go to satisfy the requirements of article 12 in Australia and other jurisdictions. These mechanisms often do not provide the information children need to understand the process, nor do they consistently encourage meaningful participation through trusted advocates who can accurately convey children’s views to those making the decisions. It is generally unclear how children’s views are heard, interpreted, and weighted in decision-making processes. The research findings from a number of countries, however, are clear and consistent that children often feel ‘unheard’ and that they have had few opportunities to say what is important to them. A number of conclusions and practice suggestions are outlined for how the law could better accommodate children’s views.

‘The lion's den’: Social workers' understandings of risk to infants

AbstractRecent research has highlighted the increasing trends in newborn and very young children entering child welfare processes and care proceedings in a number of countries. Furthermore, differential responses to risk within young families across different geographical locations and communities in the same child protection system have been found. Safe care arrangements for newborn babies may include placement with kinship carers or with foster carers not previously known to the family. The distinctive needs of the increasing population of infants in the care system are only beginning to be fully recognized. The short‐ and long‐term impact of contested infant removals on birth mothers has been powerfully highlighted, although the impact on fathers remains under‐reported. There has been limited research evidence available on how decisions about the care arrangements for newborn babies are reached. In this paper, the author draws on data from an ethnographic study of pre‐birth child protection in order to explore how social workers understand and frame risk to infants when assessing families during pregnancy. Data from interviews with practitioners reveal the extent to which their conceptualizations of and anxiety about risks to unborn babies shape plans for the future care of infants.

An intervention for parents with severe personality difficulties whose children have mental health problems: a feasibility RCT.

The children of parents with severe personality difficulties have greater risk of significant mental health problems. Existing care is poorly co-ordinated, with limited effectiveness. A specialised parenting intervention may improve child and parenting outcomes, reduce family morbidity and lower the service costs. To develop a specialised parenting intervention for parents affected by severe personality difficulties who have children with mental health problems and to conduct a feasibility trial. A pragmatic, mixed-methods design to develop and pilot a specialised parenting intervention, Helping Families Programme-Modified, and to conduct a randomised feasibility trial with process evaluation. Initial cost-effectiveness was assessed using UK NHS/Personal Social Services and societal perspectives, generating quality-adjusted life-years. Researchers collecting quantitative data were masked to participant allocation. Two NHS mental health trusts and concomitant children's social care services. Parents who met the following criteria: (1) the primary caregiver of the index child, (2) aged 18-65 years, (3) have severe personality difficulties, (4) proficient in English and (5) capable of providing informed consent. Index children who met the following criteria: (1) aged 3-11 years, (2) living with index parent and (3) have significant emotional/behavioural difficulties. Exclusion criteria were (1) having coexisting psychosis, (2) participating in another parenting intervention, (3) receiving inpatient care, (4) having insufficient language/cognitive abilities, (5) having child developmental disorder, (6) care proceedings and (7) index child not residing with index parent. The Helping Families Programme-Modified - a 16-session intervention using structured, goal-orientated strategies and collaborative therapeutic methods to improve parenting, and child and parent functioning. Usual care - standard care augmented by a single psychoeducational session. Trial feasibility - rates of recruitment, eligibility, allocation, retention, data completion and experience. Intervention acceptability - rates of acceptance, completion, alliance (Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised) and experience. Outcomes - child (assessed via Concerns About My Child, Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory, Child Behaviour Checklist-Internalising Scale), parenting (assessed via the Arnold-O'Leary Parenting Scale, Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale), parent (assessed via the Symptom Checklist-27), and health economics (assessed via the Client Service Receipt Inventory, EuroQol-5 Dimensions). The findings broadly supported trial feasibility using non-diagnostic screening criteria. Parents were mainly referred from one site (75.0%). Site and participant factors delayed recruitment. An estimate of eligible parents was not obtained. Of the 86 parents referred, 60 (69.7%) completed screening and 48 of these (80.0%) were recruited. Participants experienced significant disadvantage and multiple morbidity. The Helping Families Programme-Modified uptake (87.5%) was higher than usual-care uptake (62.5%). Trial retention (66.7%, 95% confidence interval 51.6% to 79.6%) exceeded the a priori rate. Process findings highlighted the impact of random allocation and the negative effects on retention. The Helping Families Programme-Modified was acceptable, with duration of delivery longer than planned, whereas the usual-care condition was less acceptable. At initial follow-up, effects on child and parenting outcomes were detected across both arms, with a potential outcome advantage for the Helping Families Programme-Modified (effect size range 0.0-1.3). For parental quality-adjusted life-years, the Helping Families Programme-Modified dominated usual care, and child quality-adjusted life-years resulted in higher costs and more quality-adjusted life-years. At second follow-up, the Helping Families Programme-Modified was associated with higher costs and more quality-adjusted life-years than usual care. For child quality-adjusted life-years, when controlled for baseline EuroQol-5 Dimensions, three-level version, usual care dominated the Helping Families Programme-Modified. No serious adverse events were reported. The Helping Families Programme-Modified is an acceptable specialised parenting intervention. Trial methods using non-diagnostic criteria were largely supported. For future work, a definitive efficacy trial should consider site selection, recruitment methods, intervention efficiency and revised comparator condition. Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN14573230. This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 24, No. 14. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.

“..that warm feeling that [alcohol] gave me was what I interpreted love would feel like..” Lived experience of excessive alcohol use and care proceedings by mothers in the family justice system in the UK

BackgroundWhen mothers who have been identified as using alcohol excessively appear in child care proceedings seeking to retain care of, or be reunited with, their children, family courts primarily focus on whether those mothers can make lasting changes to their use of alcohol, very often requiring them to achieve abstinence. The aim of this study was to advance the evidence base around how such mothers make sense of their alcohol use, and their position as mothers, in the systems and processes around care proceedings. MethodsQualitative, face-to-face interviews were carried out at various children and families' services locations across the UK. These yielded in-depth accounts, to which Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was applied. ResultsSix mothers were recruited from collaborations with 31 local authorities. Themes relating to alcohol use included relationships in childhood, repeated traumatic events, and the use of alcohol to self-manage these. In response to extreme fear arising from violence in their relationships with older men, alcohol provided the means to function. Escalation of alcohol use in participants' lives was accompanied by greater isolation, alongside shameful feelings about being a “drunk”, which were barriers to help-seeking. Themes relating to motherhood in the context of care proceedings included wanting to change behaviour for themselves and their children, being excluded from their children's lives, and experiencing a continual requirement to prove their parenting and their abstinence from alcohol. Language used by social services, the courts and alcohol treatment services, placed mothers in conflicting positions of being in recovery, but having to present as recovered. ConclusionDespite excessive alcohol misuse in mothers being closely enmeshed with other issues, awareness and understanding of factors such as complex trauma, and how to support mothers with these factors, is limited, and should be considered in terms of improving research and best practice.

Making a target work: Messages from a pilot of the 6‐month time limit on care proceedings in England

AbstractSince 2014, it has been a legal requirement in England and Wales for child care proceedings to be concluded, apart from “exceptional cases,” within 26 weeks. When this was first proposed, there were concerns that it might lead to poorer decision‐making or to delay being squeezed to either side of the court proceedings, before or afterwards. This paper reports on the messages from a pilot programme to hit the 26‐week target that took place in London in 2012–2013. The study compared the progress of the cases from the pilot year with those the year before, 180 cases in total, involving 256 children. The local authorities involved were able to achieve considerable improvements in timeliness, not just in the proceedings, but for the pre‐ and post‐court processes too; and the quality and fairness of decisions did not seem to be impaired, in terms of the plans for the children and subsequent outcomes over a period of 2 years. “Targets” do not generally find a warm welcome in the social work literature, but this paper shows that when collaboratively implemented, with a measure of flexibility and adequate resources, they can be an effective way of helping to achieve positive change.

What social workers talk about when they talk about child care proceedings in the District Court in Ireland

AbstractCourt proceedings are a fundamental and increasingly time‐consuming aspect of social work practice. However, to date, there is a relatively modest body of literature considering the experiences of social workers in instituting child care proceedings and giving evidence in court. This paper draws on data gathered as part of an in‐depth qualitative study of professional experiences of District Court child care proceedings in Ireland and presents findings regarding the experiences of social workers in bringing court applications for child protection orders. It seeks to answer 2 key questions: First, how do child protection and welfare social workers experience the adversarial nature of child care proceedings in the District Court? Second, what are the views of child protection and welfare social workers on the strengths and weaknesses of child care proceedings as a decision‐making model for children and young people? The main findings are that social workers expressed significant reservations about the predominantly adversarial model that currently operates in Irish child care proceedings and about the level of respect that social workers are afforded within the operation of the system.

Representation and participation in child care proceedings: what about the voice of the parents?

In Ireland, the Constitution guarantees very strong rights to parents and the family, and there has been a long and unfortunate history of failures to adequately protect children at risk. As a result, there has been much discussion in recent years about the need to improve legal mechanisms designed to protect the rights of children. By comparison, little attention has been given to establishing whether the theoretically strong rights of parents translate into strongly protected rights in practice. This paper presents new empirical evidence on the manner in which child care proceedings in Ireland balance the rights and interests of children and parents, including the rates at which orders are granted, the frequency of and conditions in which legal representation is provided, and the extent to which parents are able to actively participate in proceedings. A number of systemic issues are identified that restrict the capacity of the system to emphasise parental rights and hear the voice of parents to the extent that would be expected when looking at the legal provisions in isolation.

Child Care Proceedings in Non-Specialist Courts: The Experience in Ireland: Table 1.

University College Cork (UCC Strategic Research Fund, the School of Law Strategic Fund and the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Science)

Adoption decisions in England: Re B (A Child) (Care Proceedings: Appeal) and beyond

In Re B (A Child) (Care Proceedings: Appeal) [2013] UKSC 33 the Supreme Court President emphasised that ‘adoption of a child against her parents’ wishes should only be contemplated as a last resort – when all else fails’ because of adoption’s draconian nature. Re B has been cited dozens of times by the lower courts in the short time since it was decided. The aim of this article is to assess whether the influence of Re B is a matter of substance or mere rhetoric.

Referrers’ views on the quality of psychological reports on adults in childcare proceedings

Referrers’ views on the quality of psychological reports on adults in childcare proceedings

Assessing attachment for family court decision making

Purpose – Attachment has long been considered relevant to child care proceedings. However, compared to other forms of evidence, it has been limited by the lack of consistent methods of assessment, training of experts, and empirical evidence. To reduce these limitations, The International Association for the Study of Attachment (IASA) has developed a Family Attachment Court Protocol for assessment and formulation of attachment issues. The purpose of the Protocol is to act as a guide to good practice and to begin a process of improving the application of attachment to family court proceedings. Design/methodology/approach – The Dynamic-Maturational Model of Attachment and Adaptation (DMM) and its associated assessments were adapted for forensic use. The resulting Family Attachment Court Protocol was trialed in cases before 15 judges in five countries and modified based on feedback. Findings – The judges and most of the professionals working for the court expressed approval of the new Protocol. Research limitations/implications – Implementation of the Protocol will require additional authorised experts. Practical implications – The primary practical implication is that the courts will receive verifiable evidence on attachment can be tested and, thus, validated or disproven. Social implications – If accepted, the IASA Protocol will reduce the idiosyncratic nature of child care proceedings and increase the rigour of professional qualification to address attachment. Originality/value – The IASA Protocol is new and valuable because its theoretical underpinnings in the DMM are based on both clinical and also neurological evidence about protection from danger, and it can replace untestable expert opinion about attachment with evidence-based assessment and transparent formulation of recommendations.

The practical implications of the emerging findings in the neurobiology of maltreatment for looked after and adopted children: recognising the diversity of outcomes

The cutting-edge scientific research that is emerging regarding the neurobiological consequences of early maltreatment and neglect is highly relevant for thinking about the diverse needs of adopted and fostered children. Knowledge about the science has an important role to play in many areas, from child care proceedings to the mental health and educational needs of adopted children and young people. However, the science is complex and it is difficult to provide a succinct but valid summary of the rapidly expanding literature to guide practice. Indeed, there has been some concern from the scientists themselves that the research can be too easily misunderstood. The purpose of this article is to review some of the more recent research on the neurobiological consequences of maltreatment. A narrative is developed that pays due respect to the complexity of the findings, while drawing out practical implications for professionals working with adopted and fostered children. In particular, the notion of differential susceptibility and its consequences for individual differences in response to early negative environments is described. The science also stresses the inter-relatedness of the biological systems affected and, in turn, their dynamic relationships with environments over time. The article reviews the research relating to neuroscience, physiology and genetics in particular, before describing some animal research to integrate the various neurobiological consequences of maltreatment over the course of development, and which reveal implications for interventions.

Overview: Local Government

The Supreme Court decided six cases involving local government issues in the 2011-12 legal year. In Re T (Children),1 the Supreme Court heard a case relating exclusively to costs in child care proceedings. At issue were allegations of sexual abuse made by a local authority against a number of individuals including the children's father and their grandparents. The grandparents were exonerated by the fact-finding judge and sought an award of costs against the local authority to cover the substantial cost of their defence. The SupremeCourt held that despite recent case law from the Court of Appeal to the contrary,2 the principle remained that costs were not awarded against a party in child care cases unless that party's conduct was reprehensible. This principle does not suffer exceptions in cases of separate fact-finding hearings. The local authority is under a duty in respect of the care of children which sometimes demands placing allegations before courts. Where these allegations are reasonably made, even if they later prove unfounded, the local authority should not be liable for costs. In Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council v Hickin,3 a divided Supreme Court considered the operation of theHousing Act 1985with respect to the transmission of secure tenancies held by joint tenants. Mr and Mrs Hickin were joint tenants of a secure tenancy over a property owned by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. However, at the time of her death, Mrs Hickin and her daughter were the sole occupants of the house, as Mr Hickin had been away for 27 years. The majority of the Supreme Court held that the provisions of the Act did not displace Mr Hickin's common law right of survivorship in favour of his daughter, despite his prolonged absence and his daughter's occupation of the property. It did not matter that, by virtue of Mr Hickin's absence, the tenancy would cease to be secure. The issue of whether a local authority could take financial considerations into account when making decisions was addressed in two cases. In The Health

The Scottish children's hearings tribunals system: a better forum for parents with learning disabilities?

Parents with learning disabilities are over-represented in child care proceedings and are more likely to lose their children to state care. Evidence from Anglophone countries suggests that the adversarial forum of the court disadvantages these parents and limits their direct participation in the process. This exploratory study examines whether the Scottish children's hearings tribunal system could promote greater responsiveness to parental needs and support fuller direct participation in decisions about the welfare of their child. Views were not unanimous but on balance, potential for the parental voice to be heard was found and the support of lay advocates was key. The findings point to deficits in legal representation, underscoring the importance of structured time and skill in communicating with people with learning difficulties as a pre-requisite for the effectiveness of legal representation provisions for parents.

Birth parents’ perceptions of professional practice in child care and adoption proceedings: implications for practice

This paper explores non-relinquishing birth parents’ experiences of contested child care and adoption proceedings. It highlights the perceptions and voices of birth parents which are rarely prioritized in dominant discourses of professional practice in this area. The paper reviews previous related research and also discusses a small-scale empirical study which elicited the perspectives of three birth parents whose children had been made subject to care proceedings and placed for adoption in England. Drawing on previous research and this study, the paper makes range of practice recommendations for sensitive professional practice with birth parents during contested child care and adoption proceedings.

Referrers’ views on the quality of psychological reports on adults in childcare proceedings

Referrers’ views on the quality of psychological reports on adults in childcare proceedings

Revisiting children ‘home on trial’ in the context of current concerns about the costs and effectiveness of the looked‐after children system: findings from an exploratory study

ABSTRACTStatute and practice relating to s.31 part IV of The Children Act 1989 allow children subject to care orders to be placed at home with their parent(s). It is not uncommon for the courts to accept a plan for children to return home at the final hearing of care proceedings at which full care orders are granted. In such instances, children retain looked‐after status but, in terms of their day‐to‐day care, are looked after by parent(s). Whilst there are a small number of studies conducted in the 1990s relating to children ‘home on trial’, there is a much more limited recent literature. It is important to revisit this population of children, given current concerns about the burgeoning costs of child care proceedings and the looked‐after children system (LAC). This paper reports on a small‐scale exploratory study in one north‐west local authority area. Consisting of a file study and interviews with parents and professionals, the study examines the factors that contributed to initial removal of children to public care, the impact of the LAC system for children ‘home on trial’, stability of placements at home, as well as issues to do with the discharge of care orders. Particular attention is drawn to lone father headed households, a social group over‐represented in our sample. The study aims to inform further multi‐location studies.

Special Parenting and the Combined Skills Model

Background The Child and Special Parenting Service provides flexible assessment, long‐term domiciliary support and home‐based teaching to intellectually disabled parents. It provides key coordination between the Learning Disability Service and the Children's Service with focussed parenting assessments, where issues of child care and protection proceedings arise.Method Semi‐structured interviews and questionnaires were designed to evaluate user satisfaction for both recipients of the service and professionals referring to the service.Results A high level of consumer satisfaction was found and assessment reports were highly rated. The service is seen to help prevent family breakdown, to meet user needs and to be supportive and non‐threatening by the parents.Conclusions The combined skills model proposes a small, specialized service that acts as a linchpin for complex cases that require skills from both child and learning disability workers. The Child and Special Parenting Service receives an increasing demand for assessment. It is highly valued by the users and works strongly from an inter‐agency standpoint, coordinating complex packages of domiciliary assessment and support, and is a good practice model.

Working with Children, * Tom Billington, * London, Sage, 2006, pp. viii + 182, ISBN 13 978 1 4129 0870 2, 19.99 (pbk)

This book is aimed at students or trainees, and qualified practitioners in the children’s workforce, such as teachers, social workers and clinical and educational psychologists, especially at a time of organizational change following the Every Child Matters report and subsequent legislative and policy developments. Its author, Tom Billington, is a former educational psychologist in a local authority who now works in childcare proceedings. He poses what he terms ‘question themes’. There are five of these: how do we speak of children; how do we speak with children; how do we write of children; how do we listen to children; and how do we listen to ourselves (when working with children)? A number of other ‘recurring themes’ are also used to gain answers to these questions and these are historical accounts, children’s voices, the nature of communication between adults and children and issues of power underpinned by ‘a belief that too many children suffer disadvantage unnecessarily in our society’ (p. 7).