rsm92

It is crucial when working with and helping families that this should be within a multi-disciplinary framework. To clar= ify my position, I am a childhood psychiatrist. Adults with emotional problems = can often be understood in terms of family experience. I am member of a multi-disciplinary team with psychiatric social workers and psychotherapists working with people from Kings locality, not from advantaged area but indigenously deprived grouping.

In Child protection it is important to think ab= out antecedents of abuse. We tend to compartmentalise abuse into categories, sexual, emotional, neglect, important to remember certain characterists within child and family. When= you have a young person who has been abused at some stage later in life there is often an earlier history of neglect - communality of problematical relationships with parents and in particular violence has a damaging effect. You find common things - repetition, always need working on, so it does not happen in their own adult life. It does not necessarily mean they will abus= e, it is just a feature seen often.

Some concerns are noted in working with the who= le family. Clarification of who does what is blurred. Lack of clarity about who lives with who, antipathy between members of fam= ily, abnormalities in heirarchy. A recent referral w= as a 4 yr old boy whose GP asked me to see regarding temper tantrums which caused parents such problems they were splitting up. Obviously crazy but responsbility was placed on the boy.

How much sharing of ideas is there - we do an e= xercise to help parents learn what it is like to talk without adults responding. One exercise involves adults talki= ng 5 minutes without interruption. The partner must show no interest. After 5 minutes going around twist with concern, they understand a little of what <= span class=3DGramE>is it like for a child not listened to.

Another family where parents although livi= ng in UK came from abroad. A boy coming up to l5, was batted between Spain and England with parents difficulty in relationship. Maternal family in spain, then taken back. Se= ttled in England and during that period be began to show number of disturbed behavio= ur patterns; fire setting aggression etc. due to earlier experience of disharm= ony and distrust; parental relationship breaking up. Mother had had a deprived childhood and was negative towards child with degree of harsh physical punishment. When the boy was aged 11, I became involved as consultant to boarding school for emotional and behavioural problems residential which boy was referred to. How much do you try to keep a child in the family?

Perhaps he could get better expereience in school which augmented experiences at home. Individeual work from thera= pist, staff work by myself and social worker seeing mother at home and occasional= ly father. I lost contact after a couple of years then when he was near= ly l5 I was asked to see him at King’s as child psy= ochotherapist. Asked to do family work with him.

I met the mother who by this stage had a new partner and two younger children. Mother, stepfather, l5 month old and 15 year old. Mother said she was fed up with being involved in child’s problems for l5 years, ‘I tried to live my life’ and insisted John should have individual treatment, she should = not be involved in his life. The solution for her was not being involved in process. ‘He is like his father, a bastard who always finds excuses -= he is bad like his father’.

I said I would see John on his own, he was over conciliatory about his family insisting on mother being totally good person with no blemishes. He wanted to change for the better and I found this very sad; whole said in flat unemotional fashion due to given no credibility throughout his life. Treatmen= t of family had no possibility as clearly degree of hostility but that is example illustrating and raising points about how much better is it to keep this ch= ild in his family?

I would like to look at a list of things found = to be effective in abused children - these ideas come from research based in Lambeth based on long periods of care of children and research from New Zealand looking at adults who had been abused during childhood working out which things seemed= to protect them as adults. Notion that if that person grows up and forms partn= er relationship with someone who did not have similar experiences that is very helpful - secondly importance of education making enormous difference to se= lf esteem. Positive caring relationship outside immediate family is very important - caring aunt or un= cle but someone able to stick to that child is very beneficial. Obviously an ad= ult confidante is another important feature.&n= bsp; Not just someone in the professional field. We cannot do much about = full time employment but it does emphasise importance of helping someone to get a vocation.

Lastly, I wanted to look at range of involvemen= t in working with children where they remain in family of origin. Some children = do get removed because for whatever reason it is felt family of origin does not meet their needs without support. Family therapy is about helping families = to make use of their strengths, not about saying you are terrible family but identifying family herarchies, communication pr= oblems etc and helping use strengths to overcome problems. Counselling parents to think about the way they parent and alter that to promote support. A wide variety of agencies which give support promoting famil= ies. Extra support is needed for child protection. I should emphasise that there= are limitations to psychotherapy, which is not a magical pr= operty, the reality is you can help overcome conflict of earlier life but cannot gi= ve parenting. Sharing with young children guilt feelings a= rising from abuse to help overcome them.

All these require that there should be a framew= ork of multidisplinary agency = involvenment as no single person can effectively meet the needs.

Questions -

DB = We work with role reversal - little mums aged 7 or 8 trying to mother their parents. It can be difficult working with real mother getting her to be more adult and little girl can be resentful on losing role.

JD = Young person has put on them inappropriate degree of responsibility - when that carries on burden too much. Taking it away helping parent initially that may cause resentment - after initial period child feels more secure. Asking any= one to give something up will cause resentment.

DB = Sometimes families are not damaging to children but act in different mode<= /span>

JD = We are often accused of being family engineers - there is enormous difference = in ways families function and I work with notion of how can family he helped in manner which works for them because you cannot know the precise details of family background - find solution when identified problem.

The title of my discussion is working with chil= dren and families - a problem solving appraoch. By t= he time I am involved with families somebody has considered difficulties of one sort or another and the courts are involved. My particular approach is set within the court framework of the children’s act guiding everything we do.

The first task applying to social workers as we= ll as others is to define the problem clearly. What are the basic expectations= we have about quality and nature of care of children? We have to examine our o= wn assumptions and be clear about families and their assumptions of the situat= ion. Sometimes the difficulties lie within their own experience of parenting and wrong assumptions they perhaps brought with them. We also bring assumptions= to that assessment which may be inappropriate.

The ‘significant harm’ test which is enshrined within the childrens act is quite a u= seful concept to work with - there is an assumption that if one is to be given an order one must be able to dmeonstrate level of significant harm either in past, present and the assumption is that this wi= ll continue in future without the intervention of an order. That needs discreet assessment of family and child requiring psychological physical and emotion= al assessment of child and family.

It is important we have a clear view of the different perpectives and values of different disciplines which should not detract from each other but provide information and enrichment to the assessment of the situation.

Let us consider culture in the wider sense; each group has different expectations on relationships with parents and what children should be doing. We have to be aware of that when assessing. Most Guardian ad litems tend to be white British, mi= ddle class and we could be seen as imposing our values on other cultures without taking account sufficiently of different views. <= /p>

There are conflicting needs between parents and children which happen in any family, sometimes where there is a problem tho= se needs are so conflicting that parent cannot nurture child sufficiently for there to be a strong bond or attachment. This frequently is result of life experiences of parents themselves. I think some parenting skills are given = to us and if some are missing we can find it later from other sources. This is confirmed by Rutters work on disadvantage and work at Tavistock clin= ic. Findings can be traced back sometimes four generations when specific incide= nt had repercussions down generations. Sometimes needing o= rder or intervention with social services.

The concept of ‘good enough’ parent= ing is useful where childs needs are met sufficiently well by parent to limit intervention. The other aspect= of the good enough parenting is question of rights of parents and children. I = know we have legal representative - talk about that in legal sense. Not talking about parental rights but responsbilities, chan= ge of emphasis within act. I also have difficulty when working with families where sibling v siblings where one sibling’s needs conflict with another. An example is a family where there was an adolescent and a three year old child both who needed placement away from family of origin. The adolescent was st= ill closely tied to the natural mother but wanted contact with his younger sibl= ing - on the other hand there were very strong reasons why the natural mother should not know where child was. There was difficulty in the court process = as to how that problem could be resolved in such a way that adolescent could h= ave contact with young sibling, the sibling could be placed appropriately and t= here would not be conflict brought into new placement by mother turning up on doorstep.

We also assess ability or room for change within parent. Sometimes we under estimate that. We need resources in order to ass= ist change and this I think is most difficult because of funding problems everywhere. It is disheartening to see placement not taking place due to budgetting problems when child and parent could be br= ought on to remain together safely and progress together. This is a short term vi= ew, this is not done because of high cost - you will then have next generation = when you will have to spend money, short term view when bud= egetting decisions made.

The concept of partnership is highlighted in the children’s act - document called working together illustrating need f= or multi disciplinary work. This is important, but in cases where there has be= en an order made such as a care order or superivison order final responsibility lays with social workers. If anything goes wrong they will be ones carrying responsibility for that. Unfortunately we have situation where there is need to blame. I think we see damages to social workers and also children raising level of anxiety. Partnership between soc= ial workers and parents has inequitable balance of power; where there are grave concerns about protection then balance tipped strongly towards social worke= r.

As need for protection of child lessens and as = work progresses one would hope to see balance of power shift to more responsbility to parent for decision making for child= . In my view, court orders should be used to facilitate work between parents and children and local authorities. The purpose and function is to protect and assist children and families; it is a mechanism for assessment and a way of= managing risk.

Risk has to be carefully assessed to know what degree of intervention is appropriate. There is a potential failure is management of risk - the word ‘risk’ itself implies there is potential for failure and we have to accept that there are times when famil= ies and social workers will get it wrong and we will have tragedy. One must avo= id it and manage work so it does not happen but nevertheless intrinsic in work= ing with risk situations we are going to miss something placing child and famil= y at risk and we will not be able tot intervene quickly enough. When these things happen blame flies around and social workers have a tough time. =

I am appointed by the court when an application= for an order is made, usually by the local authority. My task is to go in, asse= ss, look at why anyone asked for order, why is it necessary, what parents views are, assess child, get some understanding of developmental stage, see wheth= er there is inappropriate behaviour in child or parent, understand how this fa= mily functions.

I am always pleased and surprised at the willingness and generosity of families talking to someone who is looking at them for a short while, not contributing but listening who they know is goi= ng to write down what they say to show the Court. I have yet to meet a parent = who has been anything less than generous and helping me in my task. I have alwa= ys been pleased by their assistance. I also have responsibility to ensure that wishes and feelings of children are made plain to the court. Sometimes these can be unexpressed. Children say one thing because they know that is what t= he family wish them to say, but in another way in behaviour or saying something different - it is always difficult getting balance in that part. Children c= an be put under considerable pressure during court process as result of having= to ask older children to express feelings.

Court intervention also is stressful for everyb= ody involved and I sometimes feel I wish there was a better way of doing things= but that is system we have to work with. We try to make it less adversarial but= not alway spossible. It= is going to uncomfortable for families as intrusive however careful we are. Our work is time limited - I come = in when court is asked for an order and when that is made I disappear again. Sometimes I am lucky to hear whispers as to how families are faring which is heartening but it is difficult and interesting work.

My role is to get involved in cases where there= is some court action - situation where child about to come before court and somebody is concerned about the child’s welfare, whether the child is= at risk and in danger of significant harm. I represent one of the family parties - I have worked for local authorities but the bulk of work is now either for parent = or child. there are different roles - in acting for= a young child my job is similar to Diana Austin representing best interests a= nd following guardians instructions.

For an older child it means taking instructions from the child and trying to advocate before court, also for parents. This can be an adversarial role - = which can be criticised but I subscribe to the view that if client wants children back saying social worker is a liar within bounds (I will advise them of likelihood of success) I will take that role for them, using the law as bes= t I can to their advantage. Unpopular concept of what solicitors are about but = I would want it said social workers got it wrong if they did.

I have prepared a handout on the children act w= hich is detailed in sense it is designed for social workers, lawyers and others involved in work - technical side of act. It provides two areas of involvem= ent in sort of cases I see - removal of child by police, interim care or care order; in other words, removing the child from wherever it lives placing it= in foster care or residential care. That is one side of court function. The other side is assisting fami= ly or child where they live, interim supervision orders, family assistance ord= er, prohibitive step orders etc

The law was changed in many ways when children’s act came in. It works well when there is working in partnership and agreement. Like most laws, that is fine if there is need to remove as everybody agrees that is right - no problem. We need a legal fram= ework in which to do that. We don’t need an act to state that but do need l= egal framework. The difficulty comes with conflict in situation when someone says they did not cause injury, did not abuse, the child should be living with me and not in foster care.

My views is that childeren= ’s act in court context is a disaster in the sense that it has removed jurisdiction of court to police and investigate properly making recommendat= ions and orders that it can then continue to police and look after in the future. What they did was to abolish the old wardship procedures which enabled a child to come within protection of the court - w= ho could say what will happen to that child, ordering local authority to fund residential assessments staying for periods of time with local authorities paying that regardless of budgets. That is all gone.

We now have the situation where a court can make certain care orders etc. but in making those orders it cannot make other directions which may be needed. One has to go through legal loopholes - onc= e it decides for example that a care order should be made it has to see if there= is a care plan. The local authority social workers must set out a care plan wh= en working within childrens act - if the court disapproves of care plan so long as it comes within the document there is nothing court can do regarding wish to go to assessment centre or otehr measures. The judge can only make a care order,= not say that the family should be for instance admitted to a centre.

When one considers protection of the child, nob= ody is suggesting social workers do not approach their job with skill wanting t= o do what is right - if there is agreement about that we don’t need consen= t of court, it is those situations where there is disagreement. Social workers do disagree, taking view that child going into care is going to resolve problem etc. The guardian’s role in this is to mediate, but even if guardian takes view that rehabilitation centre is good and assessment of family can benefit child and the court thinks it good idea local authority may not fun= d it so the court can do nothing.

This removal of wardship jurisdiction is a big disaster for child care in real conflict situation occurring in care act proceedings. For example if parents or children should undergo therapy - cannot order that now. Before one could come back to court every six months for review and look at the plan to monitor progress - cann= ot do that now. Court cannot control what is happening to that child if local = authority take particular view.

All this leads to the situation Diana explained. That is the real reason why we have this childrens act, hailed as great step forward but I take view that it is an act designe= d by a tory g= overnment to minimise and prevent local authorities having to spend money in terms of what was preventative work to stop children coming

into care, providing resources and facilities helping to prevent neglect and difficulties at home.

Who hears nowadays of preventative social work?= It must occur but there is no budget to provide preventative work to stop chil= dren ocming into court system on any level at the mo= ment. The way the gov= ernment has achieved a situation whereby local authorities have to look at their budgets year by year;&= nbsp; by saying we won’t let courts interfere by ordering us = to spend money in areas like going to residential centres, we won’t allow courts to monitor situation, so at the end of the day you run services in t= he way we say and if you don’t under the act and a child dies as a resul= t we will have enquiry and blame you anyway in saying you are incompetent. Government throwing all responsibility back onto social services. Good local authority or bad, they have to manage budget yearly so opt out of situation. That is the perniciousness of the act. Whether that is result of government actions may be arguable, my view is that that was intention and they have achieved that.

I was going to give examples - they may clarify what I have been saying. Case referred to Diana Birch for help - new baby, mother suffering from myotonic dystrophy - found it difficult to have a nor= mal life - clearly major problems looking after her young baby. Father obvious skills but was bit of drinker, marriage shaky, he wanted no part in looking after child. Local authority wanted to remove child acknowledging long term financial need. Guardian wanted to involve mother and father in therapeutic work but local authority would not agree. Court had final hearing date due = to start - for variety of reasons local authority realised they would lose the case, and= decided to go for residential assessment. We lost a year during which time valuable work could have been done. Under old system judge would have been convinced that residential assessment would be invaluable yet under new legislation there was nothing that could be done to achieve what everybody thought was right.

I acted for children where mother addicted to c= rack cocaine - could not look after children - mother was then able to rehabilit= ate herself. Local authority, because foster placement broke down, not due to children but problems of foster parents decided to return children to care = of mother, who had become intentionally homeless. Local authority put her into= bed and breakfast, fragile in emotional state with two young children under 7 w= ith enormous pressures. One would want to hope local authority would provide pr= oper accommodation to give best scenario to keep family together. Local housing authority said she made herself homeless intentionally so could not help, social services said this comes under childrens= act and you should be providing accommodation. I wrote saying if you do not do = somehting I will judicially review you and get court = to make comments about this. Before response to my letter House of Lords made decision that if you make yourself intentionally homeless local autholrity should not rehouse you. Classic example of sorting out what everybody saw as difficult situati= on but because authority did not have finances they were not helping that fami= ly. Case is managing to stagger on but is fragile.

That is my critique of chi= ldrens act. There are some remedies - you can judicially review but that is really= not very useful because court only has to decide whether local authrolity has come to reasoned decision, not reasonable. You can make complaint under Secti= on 26 of act and 2 years later it will be dealt with, meantime the family progres= ses or does not. You can ask secretary of state to make default order which you= can do after local authority completed their complaints procedures so 2 years l= ater they will go to secretary of state who a year later may make a default orde= r - what does that do for the child, nothing? You could sue local authority for breach of statutory duty - you could go to court saying they = are not providing services, breaching their duties set out in childrens act but the court of appeal in the case of the London Borough of Lambeth sa= id the act does not incorporate statutory duties, just guidelines. You cannot = sue them or force them.

Coincidentally if you built a house and asked surveyor about what you should do, he would advise complying with that regulation and if later the wall falls down you could sue him for default of statutory duties. If inadequate support provided and family breaks up there= is no statutory duty there. I would have thought that a roof falling down and splitting up a family cannot be compared but that is the situation. So reme= dies are not remedies. The adversarial approach acting for parents going in figh= ting order saying this not right kicking up fuss, choosing right judge and magistrate - get to know judges and make case you want before judge going a= long with you. <= /p>

A Lambeth case involved 6 children placed in ca= re for 9 months with nobody visiting them nobody doing anything about placing children in foster care or going home. I said to judge this is appalling, o= ne child sexually abused in home and riot involving older boy - I want assista= nt director to explain what is happening. He said I am only here for care orde= r or not. He made it then we went back to say same thing - the assistant director came next week and a week later found foster carers. Kicking up fuss workin= g in that situation but it should not work that way in protecting children and families. Judge who did kick up fuss had no power to order anything, assistant director came and said nothing he could do about it - question of choosing right judge.

Other areas solicitors can try is writing lette= rs and getting guardians to put in his or her report why it is wrong couched in terms of her recommendations. No statutory power behind it but no legislati= on to act in best interests of children. To protect child = in best way. We have been looking from the prospective of childeren who are being got at in wrong way by social services - at the same time there are many cases where social services depts are doing good work in difficult circumstances.=

Child abuse and child protection is a serious matter - I was reminded about my grandson - I said to my daughter and her <= span class=3DSpellE>busband, you two go out and I’= ll look after two children, but they decided to play up. It reminded me how difficult it can be parenting young children with limited support; grandad now gets on phone a couple of times per week offering support.

I have worked in local authorities for some time and with voluntary sector; I always held dear listening to childeren and hearing whan they said. When we started to = work with children particularly those who were sexually abused it became clear f= or many years these children had carried the secret and had no way of talking about it. They had seen teachers, police, etc but had no way of using this. Somehow they did not talk - this was the thought behind Childline, now taking around 8,000 calls. Diana setting up Youth Support knows about a= ll the opposition from all kinds of people - they told us this wouldn’t work, but now Childline is taking all these cal= ls. Listening needs people like us to determine and understand the needs of the= childeren and families, working out what they need. W= hen I started working in child protection it was in a preventive way with the National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children - authorities were working under Section 1 of the Children’s Act 1963 and there was great scope to that. Now it is neither one thing or the other - pulls children and families onto roller coaster over which they hav= e no control. This has been illustrated here well in discussions.

Voluntary agencies and others - their work remi= nds me of an incident working with Mary a few years ago. Mary wrote me an accou= nt of an incident of child abuse that I wanted to talk about - we can then best think about what helping agencies there would be around for her now. She wa= s a person isolated in a council flat on the 23rd floor, a partner who came and went living in considerable poverty, with a 9 month old baby and herself l9 years old. This is what she said:-

“I came down about 10am on Saturday morning - Susan the baby had slept downstairs because she was crying until 2am. I picked her up from the cot and sat her in an armchair, and told her she wou= ld be alright while I went into the kitchen I came back in the living room and= she started to cry when I picked her up”. ... Here is a mum beginning to feel rejected by her baby. “I tried to give her some food but she wouldnt take it, and when I turned my head she spat i= t at me. When I tried another spoonful she just refused. I put the bottle in her mouth and = she usually then swallowed the food - this time she pushed the food out the sid= e of mouth. I took the bottle out of her mouth and cleaned her down. She had some milk left in her mouth, and then spat it at me. I tried again but she carri= ed on crying. I tried to undress her to put her on the potty but she kept screaming all the time. ....S= he just wouldnt shut up. I left her on the potty i= n a chair but she carried on crying. I put her in a bath but she wouldn’t stop crying. When I tried to quieten her she cried more. I tried again with= a bottle but she didn’t take it. She had had a bad cold so I picked her= up, and when I lifted her off my shoulder she had been sick all over me. She started to cough, I stood her up against me and she stopped - I put her on a rug and towel, she started to scream again, her arms and legs going up and down. I picked her up and put her down several times, but she wouldn’t stop screaming. I got cleaned up, came back, and she still wouldn’t s= top. I then grabbed her by the throat and banged her head several times on the f= loor in anger - when she didn’t shut up I bit her several times, and I sti= ll don’t know why I did it. I picked her up and nursed her until my fath= er came home from work at 4.45”.

I wonder how many parents have actually almost = been there and can actually experience that - it is probably right to comment th= at young people with children are probably more isolated than we were without = the obvious links for support. What is going on and how preventive would the services be if they were there?

I take the view having worked in child protecti= on for 30 years when there were only books available on child protection, I am= not sure in those initial stages if we created an environment where young paren= ts could without any sense of shame and without a sense of being labelled be a= ble to knock on a social workers door and ask for help. I know there were voluntary agenci= es then, but even local authorities now are often tied up with service agreeme= nts or contracts with authorities which do particular jobs - I knock on the doo= r of the National Childrens Homes and say “ple= ase help me I am in trouble with my parents”, “You cant come here, = we only do sexual abuse work etc.....”&= nbsp; Dr Barnados homes “Sorry you cant = come here” ..... where do parents in this kind of distress go? I am not going to answer that, other t= han to say there are places not obvious to the parents at the end of their teth= er.

There is the health visitor, but we know the he= alth visitor is through the GP. I came back to work for a local authority in West London and wanted to see what it would be like workin= g in frontline child protection again on a consultancy basis; I asked to work and manage their child protection team. I found that 90% of their work was investigation, reactive work, fire engines charging about the place - around 300 miles per week. The tendency to go down the legal path because nearly e= very time the police had to come with us (I am not sure why because that criminalises the whole thing). In this particular aut= hority there had been six child protection enquiries into deaths of children so it= was safer for the social workers for police to go with them - what it didnt do, and I wrote a report as a consultant, was g= ive parents and children space to talk about it, take their time talking to me = as they had done even five years before. On average in this particular team fi= ve enquiries a day were received with two of us to do it.

I am pleased to see young people listening here, because there is so much there for you to complain about and you now know h= ow. Yes, there are child protection registers. I recall research done in the DO= H - I think it was dynamite as it demonstrated that social workers wanted to wo= rk with families listening to the difficulties etc and were prepared to take risks, befriending and if time would visit frequently, send in aid etc. The further you enter this organisation and got to the senior social worker he = or she would think some statutory proceedings were appropriate and once area director was reached you are really going down that way; when the director = of social services (place of safety then called) he saw the child protection procedures as insurance policy against enquiries which might happen, you kn= ow what happens when a director is involved in child death enquiry in his area= , he tends to get early retirement packages.

So what can voluntary agencies do? I think and = I dont have directors permission to say this that we ha= ve to get out of this service thing - I think we have to back and work with volun= tary agencies like Youth Support, the Childrens soci= ety etc. working in communities where our roots are. be available for people to talk to us, this is what people who support and rai= se money for us think we do. People ask how many children= s homes we have, we dont - but what we do have wi= thin the Childrens society we are rejecting notion of working with service level agreements doing what local authorities want, we= are talking to other professionals and setting up services young people want. <= o:p>

As an example of that in a school down the road= from my office in Peckham - because the young people= told their teacher they wanted a centre within the school to talk to us about anything at all, a walk in childline. I think t= hat school has been brave to want it, there are 32 first languages spoken in th= at school and it is amazing the children work through and overcome this. We are saying we are good at helping young people too, so we are going to help tra= in young people to have their ears open and where they want specific help or guidance we will work through them and advocate through the system. The Childrens society is rejecting traditional approaches= and opens up the door for young people to approach them unconditionally on what= ever issue they wish. Another example is a project in North London for children with disabilities but I had better stop now.

DB - Thank you; Getting back to working with families, a lot of the work we do is treatment of abuse whereas most of the statutory agencies diagnose only. With regard to the la= w, sometimes this works against us when we are trying to do healing. When I was teaching a group of young doctors in America during a workshop we were talk= ing about counselling of abused teenagers, specifically runaways - and I was immediately struck by the fact that you can get no further than this becaus= e in the States they have to immediately report it to the Law and all therapy st= ops while legal process carries on. We are getting to a danger point over here whereby law is overtaking and we are not going to be able to work with fami= lies properly.

&= nbsp; - The Children Act 1989 - Important Features in Child Protection -=

Prepared by Nigel Murray

A . DUTY TO INVESTIGATE - S.47

1. General principl= es

Where a local authority:

a) are informed that a child who lives, or= is found, in their area -

= ; i) is the subject of an Em= ergency Portection Order, or

= ; ii) is in p= olice protection; or

b) have reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives, or is found, in their area is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm= ,

the Authority shall make, or cause to be made, such enquiries as th= ey consider necessary to enable them to decide whether they should take any ac= tion to safeguard or promote the child;s welfare.

2. Denial of access

Only remedies available if carer refuses access to child are:-=

a) Emergency Protection Order

b) Child Assessment Or= der

c) Supervision order

d) Care Order

Application for one of these orders must be made if child’s welfare cannot be satisfactorily safeguarded.

3 Inter-depa= rtmental co-operation

Unless unreasonable, Local Authority, Local Education Authority, Housing Authority and Health Authority and specified bodies must assist enquiries of the Local Authority

B. CHILD ASSESSMENT ORDER - S.43

= ; &n= bsp; = ; &n= bsp; = ; &n= bsp; = ; An overlap with the Emergency Protection order?

1. Grounds

Court can order assessment where:-

a) Reasonable cause to suspect child is suffering or likely to suffer signific= ant harm

b) An assessment is required to see if child is suffering or is lik= ely to suffer significant harm and

c) It is unlikely an assessment will be made or be satisfactory wit= hout Court order

2. Options availabl= e to Court

The Court can:- 1. Make Emergency Protection Order instead

= ; &n= bsp; = ; 2. Order maximum 7 day child assessment order

= ; &n= bsp; = ; 3. Keep child away from home

= ; &n= bsp; = ; 4. Direct purpose of assessment

= ; &n= bsp; = ; 5. Order contact between child and “other person”

3. Procedure=

1. Must give notice to parent, holder of parental responsibility, guardian, child, subject of contact order

2. Such parties can apply to vary or discharge order

3. Guadian Ad Lite= m to be appointed under Section 41 if necessary

4. If application fails, no further application for 6 months without leave of Court

C. POLICE PROTECTION - S.46=

S.46 Replaces S.28(2) Children and Young Persons Act 1969(Police = Place of Safet= y)

1. Grounds

a). Constable can take child into police protection if he/she believes same conditions are met as for an Emergency Protection Order (S.45/48)

b). duration is for 72 hour sonly

2.         Procedure=

a). Inform local authority and child.paents.carers

b). Discover, if possible, wishes and feelings of the child

c). Move child as soon as possible to Local Authority accommodation= or child refuge

d). Apply for Emergency Proection Order= if necessary with or without Local Authority consent or knowledge

S.21     b)         = Local Authority msut have accommodation available for children on remand or in Police accommodation.

D         EMERGENCY PROTEC= TION ORDER - S.44

1.         General

a). Replace= s Place of Safety Section 28 Children and Young Persons Act 1969

b). In short term order to enable child = to be kept safe

2.         Grounds

a). Anyone can apply for an Emergency Protection Order which will be granted if the Court believes there is reasonable cause to show that the ch= ild is likely to suffer singificant harm if:-<= /o:p>

      = ;            &n= bsp;     i)   &= nbsp;      he/she is not moved to other accommodation or

      = ;            &n= bsp;     ii)         = he/she is not kept where she/he is

N.B. No need to show harm has already occurred and therefore wider than Place of Safety

b). The Local Authority can in addition apply if it can show it is:=

      = ;      i). Carrying out an investigation under Section 47 wh= ere there is reasonable cause to suspect a child is suffering or likely to suff= er significant harm and

      = ;      ii). Those enquiries are being frustrated by access t= o the child being denied unreasonably and

      = ;      iii). There is reasonable cause to believe that access to the child is urgent

3.         Guidelines for t= he court.

a). S.1. Wlefare of child paramount importance

b). Child should only be removed in order to safeguard his/her welf= are

c). Welfare check list does not apply

4.         Types of emergen= cy protection orders available.

Court can make an order:- &nbs= p;

1. For 8 days maximum extendable once for a further 7 days

2. That child must be produced by carer

3. That whereabouts of child should be disclosed<= /p>
4. That premises can be searched for child and other (preferably na= med or identified child)

5. That police should assist and be able to use reasonable force (replaces Section 40 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933)=

6. Requiring or preventing medical or psychiatric examination. Matu= re child can, in any event, object

7. Requiring or preventing contact between child and carers

5.         Effects of an emergency protection order.
1). Parental responsblity passes to successful applicant but on limited terms

2). Contact shall be maintained between child and carer subject to Court direction

3). Child should be returned if safe to do so

6.         Procedure.<= /o:p>

1). Application to be made according to regulations

2). Application can be with or without notice to child / carer=

3). Guardian Ad Litem can be appointed = to attend

4). Written statements / reports can be shown to Court and hearsay = rule can be ignored

5). No appeal by applicant possible if Emergency Protection Order refused

6). Application by carer or child to discharge Emergency Protection Order can be made 72 hours after Emergency Protection Order made     unless:

a<= /span>). The pe= rson is present at original hearing

b). Emergency Protecti= on Order being renewed (objections could have been heard at renewal hearing in this case)

E.         CARE AND SUPERVI= SION ORDERS   - S.31

1. General Grounds

This is now the only civil legislation available under which care or supervision orders can be made

Two stages:-

1)     &nb= sp;   Stautory Threshold Criteria (S.31)

A Court may only= make a care order or supervsion order if it is satisfi= ed on a purely factual level:-

a<= /span>). that t= he child concerned is suffering, or is likely to suffer significant harm, and

b). that the harm, or likelihood of harm, is attributable to:-

i<= /span>) the care given to the child, or likely to be given to = him if the order were not made, not being what it would be reasonable to expect the parent to give to him; or

ii) the child’s being beyond parental control

2). Consider (once 1 above is met) whether order should be made and= if so what type of order (S.1 (4))

a<= /span>). No ord= er should be made unless the Court is satisfied it will be         better for the child t= o do so

b). Children Act does = not require Local Authority to wait until a child has suffered actual harm=

c). Moral danger, non = school attendance and commission of an offence are no longer grounds in themselves= for making an order. N.B.Local Education Authority can= aply for education supervision order

d). Police cannot make= an application for full care order

e). Guidelines for Cou= rt

i<= /span>) Section= 1 welfare of child is paramount -

ii) Welfare check list applies but only when considering if and what type of order is necessary

iii) Civil standard of= proof applies (S.96) i.e. Case must be proved on the balance of probabilities, hearsay evidence admissible and self incrimination privilege is abolished

2.         Definitions:-      S.31 (9)

a)     &nb= sp;   Harm

Ill treatment or impairment of health or development. In considering of this harm is significant, then Court should comp= are childs health and development to that of similar chil= d

b)     &nb= sp;   Development

Physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural developmen= t

c)     &nb= sp;   Health

Physical and mental health

d)     &nb= sp;   Ill Treatment

Includes sexual abuse as well as non physical ill treatment

Court must consider arrangements for access and seek comment from parties

Court must set timetable for hearing

3.         Orders available= to Court

1). Supervision order        (S.35)

a<= /span>). Superv= isor advises, assists and befriends and must take steps to effect order and when= / if appropriate consider discharge

b). Order last one year unless extended. Maximum 3 years. Expires aged l8

c). Directions as to attendance and participation in activities can be made

d). Psychiatrict and medical examination can be required by Court. child= , if able, must consent. Responsible person can be required to take all steps= to produce a child for examination

e). Psychiatric and me= dical treatment can be required. Child if able must consent

f). Application for discharge can be made by child, parent or supervisor every 6 months

g). Care order cannot = be substituted. Fresh proceedings must be started

2). Education Supervision Order     - S.36 (3)<= /o:p>

a<= /span>). Availa= ble where Court concludes child is not being properly educated

b). Parent who persist= ently fails to comply with directions given commits an offence<= /p>
3). Care Order

a<= /span>). Local Authority cannot change childs religion, give c= onsent to adoption, move child out of the U.K. or chang= e childs name

b). Local Authority has parental responsibility and power to determine extent to which child can me= et parent or previous carer

c). Local Authority mu= st allow reasonable contact between child and his/her parent / carer unless no= tice of termination served and Court adjudicates child, parent or other person (= with leave) can seek contact order from the Court which can be refused        - S.34

4). Interim Care and Supervision Orders       - S.= 38

a<= /span>). Availa= ble pending full hearing

b). First interim may = last for 8 weeks, but there may be subsequent orders which should not last longer than 4 weeks

c). Medical and psychi= atric examination can be ordered or prohibited Child if able must consent

d). Interim Residence = Order can be made when adjourning care proceedings or giving directions      - S.8

e). General       i. Guardians Ad Litem to = be appointed unless Court considers not necessary to do so in order to safeguard child= . Guardians Ad Litem appoint solicitors

            =             i= i. Official Solicitor can still be appointed

      = ;

NEWS   =    NEWS      NEWS      NEWS      NEWS      NEWS      NEWS

Conference on Adolescent Health - 24th October 1996 , Royal College of Physicians St Andrews Place, Regents Park L= ondon - enquiries FAX 0181 659 3309

New York International Conference on Eating Disorders - April 26-28 1996 Details from Preston Zucker Montefiore M= edical Centre 111 East 210th Street Bronx = NY 10467 <= span class=3DSpellE>tel 718 920 2176 FAX 718 920 5289.<= /p>
Youth Support Tenth Annual F= orum Meeting at the Royal Society of Medicine W= ednesday 18th October 1995 <= /span>6-9pm.

Advance Warning - 1= 996 is Youth Support’s tenth anniversary year - Whole day meeting on Adolesc= ent Health at the Royal College of Physicians - October 24th 1996 - keep the day free.

Third European Forum on Adolescent Health - Lisbon<= /st1:City> J= uly 1-2 1996 - Contact Helena Fonseca FAX 351 1 7930315

Youth *<= /span>   1986 / 1996   * Support<= /b>

Do= n’t Forget - The 1995 Forum meeting is the tenth meeting and we hope it will pr= ove to be a special event ..... but 1996 our Youth S= upport Tenth Anniversary year will be marked by a Scientific Conference on Adolesc= ence - social events and fund raising exercises - please let us know if you are interested in helping or participating - Watch this space for developments = - or contact Youth Support House for information ... Coming up .. a ‘Blues Brothers’ event we hope! For information ring Lisa or So= nia 0181 650 6296

The Tenth Anniversary of Youth Support will be marked = by a

Conference on Adolescent Health

to be held at the <= st1:place>Royal = College of Physicians

St Andrews Place, Regent’s Park, London

on T= hursday 24th October 1996

C= onference 9.30am - 5pm

F= ollowed by Keynote Lecture

F= ollowed by Tenth Anniversary Dinner

The conference will highlight advances in Adolescent care over the last ten yea= rs and will deal with a number of important areas of young people’s heal= th. Sections include Teenage pregnancy and sexuality; self harming behaviours a= nd substance abuse; eating disorders; emotional problems; youth and violence.<= o:p>

Our speakers are renowned experts from the field and we hope to include some of= our international colleagues.

Pl= ease write in now to :-

Yo= uth Support Conference Administration Youth Support House,

13 Crescent Road London BR3 2NF   or FAX 0181 659= 3309

if you wish to receive further details or to make advance bookings<= /span>

The Journ= al of Adolescent Health and Welfare

is publishe= d by:- Youth Support Charity No 296080