Objects of concern: caring for children during care proceedings

This article is the second to look at the fifty-nine children who were made subject to care proceedings in one local authority area in the financial year 2004–05. It focuses on what happened to children during the proceedings and considers how well those responsible for their care during this time (the local authority and others involved in the court process) performed in terms of providing the children with parental care during the process. While the local authority in question performed well in relative terms, nevertheless, in respect of the duration of the process and the number of placement moves to which children were subjected, many of the children were subjected to a great deal of bewildering change, complex routines and large numbers of adults going in and out of their lives. The authors suggest that the process will tend to objectify children if it becomes too focused on decision making for the future, at the expense of thinking about their needs in the here and now. We conclude with some suggestions as to possible ways of improving things

What does 'supporting parents' mean? - parents' views

This paper reports on the views of a community sample of 428 parents with primary school-aged children. In a previous study parents had identified that they needed 'support'. This study was designed to try to understand what types of support parents already have and what support they think needs to be available to them. Most parents use informal support of family and friends and have limited awareness of what is available to them in the way of locally based services. They propose services which are already available, like Parentline, but of which they are unaware. There seems to be a need for universal, non-stigmatising services which design their programmes with parents and can refer to more specialised services, e.g. Social Services or Family Centres. These services need to be located in agencies which parents frequent and are comfortable with, such as schools and health settings

Squeezing the toothpaste tube: will tackling court delay result in pre-court delay in its place?

This article is the first to report on a study that tracked all the care proceedings initiated by an English local authority over a one-year period, obtaining factual information and opinions from the social workers involved in the case through the use of guided interviews. The main objective of the researchers was to contribute to understanding of ways in which children are kept waiting in difficult and insecure situations for decisions to be made about their long-term future. This article focuses in particular on the problem of delays that occur prior to a case coming into the court arena. The article offers evidence that current initiatives to reduce court delay may have the unintended result of increasing pre-court delay

Children in Limbo: case where care proceedings have taken two years or more

In spite of section 1(2) of the 1989 Children Act,* the time taken to conclude care proceedings has been getting longer year on year since the Act's implementation. The average length of proceedings in 2001 was about 47 weeks and a significant number of children are having to wait over two years for a court decision. Chris Beckett and Bridget McKeigue looked at a small group of cases where children have waited for over two years. In this article they examine the consequences for the children of this long wait in immediate terms, such as number of placement moves and assessments experienced, and in the long term as a result of reduced options and possible psychological harm. They then consider the possible causes of these long waits, identifying a number of factors but focusing in particular on the long and repetitive assessment process that seems to have typically taken place. </jats:p

Care proceedings under the 1989 Children Act: Rhetoric and Reality

Among the most important changes that it was hoped would flow from the 1989 Children Act were, first, a reduction in delays in care proceedings, since this was recognized to be harmful to children and, second, a shift away from the use of compulsion towards working in partnership. In this article, Bridget McKeigue and Chris Beckett demonstrate that, in both respects, the Act has not only failed to deliver, but has been followed by rapid change in the opposite direction to the one hoped for. However, many commentators, both within and outside of government, continue to speak of the Act as if it had been a success. The article considers a series of characteristic rhetorical manoeuvres, which seem to allow the Act’s failings to be passed over in much of this discourse. They conclude that progress is more likely to be made if the Act’s failure to deliver is frankly confronted