Linked lives: Gender, family relations and recurrent care proceedings in England

In the wake of a “national care crisis” in England, an increasing number of parents return to the family court as repeat respondents in care proceedings and lose successive children from their care. Despite considerable progress in understanding the trends and patterns of mothers' (re)appearances in care proceedings, knowledge of fathers and of parents' family relationships in recurrent care proceedings remains very limited. Whilst such relationships are fundamentally at stake in care proceedings, they remain largely unexplored. Analyzing population-level administrative data from the family courts in England (2007/08–2017/18, N = 25,457), we have, for the first time, uncovered a five-fold typology of family relations between mothers, fathers and children as they navigated repeated sets of care proceedings. We show that each identified profile is characterized by parents' gender as well as distinctive life-course positions of the parents and children. Our findings show that a substantial number of fathers are ‘visible’ in care proceedings, and that the majority of those that return to court do so with the same partners and children, as part of either a recurrent family or recurrent couple. Mothers' recurrence is characterized by their re-partnering experiences and lone appearances before the court. The results underscore the value of applying a relational approach in social work research and practice, to build a fuller picture of recurrent care proceedings. This research provides new evidence to inform the development of holistic, gender-sensitive and father-inclusive services in the English family justice system

Assessment or referral tool: the unintended consequences of a dual purpose common assessment framework form

The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) was designed to facilitate early intervention through multi-agency working and the active involvement of families. The underlying principle was to move away from a risk-focused, needs-led or service-led culture to assess need and match needs to identified services. It was anticipated that services and assessments would become more evidence-based, and a common language between professionals and agencies would evolve. Taking a social constructionist approach this study explored professionals’ experiences of the use of the Common Assessment Framework form. Forty-one professionals from four different local authorities and a variety of agencies took part in semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed utilizing thematic analysis. Findings suggest the unintended consequences of the use of the CAF were influenced by local authority policy. As the local authorities adopted the policy of utilizing the CAF as a referral mechanism, rather than to assess needs, profes-sionals unintentionally perceived the CAF form as a referral tool, to refer families to existing service provision. Further to this, professionals referred to the CAF form itself, as a ‘means to an end’, implying that this was a step that had to be overcome in order to access services

Planning for children

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:95/09923 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Adoption The future (White Paper) and Placement for adoption consultation document; responses

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q95/09972 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Annual report 1995-96

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:1520.197(1995-96) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Reuniting children and their families The legal framework and some of the main research findings

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q95/09973 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The Children Act 1989 An FRG briefing pack

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q95/09971 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Annual review 1994-1995

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:4520.197(1994-95) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Child sexual abuse After Cleveland - alternative strategies

5.50SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:6597.36(1) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo