A new report published by the Nuffield Foundation says that placing children with appropriate family members when parents can’t look after them offers children greater stability than alternatives like adoption and fostering.
The report also says there is an urgent need for research on how best to ensure safe and positive contact with birth parents and a child’s wider family.
The Foundation is calling on the government to reform Special Guardianship, which allows for children to be placed with relatives or individuals with whom the child already has a good relationship.
In their report, the Foundation calls for more research into outcomes for children placed with Special Guardians, and says children and young people’s views must be explored when developing this form of care.
The Foundation also suggests that the sector needs to change the way it works:
“We conclude that special guardianship continues to be an important permanence option ‘for the right child and the right family’. But for this to be so, the system as a whole must operate in a coherent, timely, evidence-informed way and this requires changes in mindset, regulations and protocols.”
The study also revealed that children who are being cared for by Special Guardians have better educational outcomes at key stages 2 and 4 than looked-after children.
The Nuffield Foundation’s report offers a set of recommendations to enable Special Guardianship orders where appropriate, which include the following suggestions:
- Strengthen and resource the pre-proceedings phase of the Public Law Outline to identify and work with family members who might become long-term carers for the child.
- Ensure that prospective special guardians complete preparation and training to an agreed statutory minimum.
- Assessments should not be concluded until sufficient preparation has been completed.
- Develop the skills and knowledge of children’s social workers in family placement as a priority.
- Ensure that the local authority agrees a plan with the prospective special guardian about the assessment process.
- Establish a robust protocol that ensures that the prospective special guardian has – or develops – a significant relationship with the child, including day-to-day care of the child, and that this forms the evidence base for the making of the Order.
- Ensure that prospective special guardians receive full information about the meaning, significance and responsibilities of the relevant legal Order in both the immediate and long term.
- Ensure that the timetable for concluding care proceedings within 26 weeks is complied with or that an evidenced-based timetable for an extension is agreed.
- Ensure that a support plan is based on a comprehensive evidence-based assessment of need.
- Ensure that support services are available locally that comply with the Special Guardianship Support Regulations 2005.
Further reading:
- Nuffield Foundation – Special guardianship: a review of the evidence Summary report
- Special guardianship: a review of the English research studies
- Special guardianship: international research on kinship care
- Special guardianship: practitioner perspectives
- Special Guardianship – Child Law Advice
Researching Reform 
YES ,Kinship care is much much better than adoption and the Children Act 1989 says clearly enough that children who cannot live with parents MUST be placed with relatives or close friends of parents.
So why does this not happen more often?
Simple……. Social workers hell bent on reaching adoption targets ignore kin when possible and if kin insist that they can care for a child they “assess” the kin and fail them on superficial grounds such as “they are too friendly with the mother ” “they are too old at 60!” “they stole apples as teenagers” “they believe the parents are innocent” “they do not appreciate the seriousness of the parent’s deficiencies ” the kin were once in care themselves”
In this way the law is continually circumvented by the “SS”
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❤ Much better option for the child, not only now but in the future.
With adoption, the Judges concern themselves with decisions from now until they reach age 18 in England, Ireland and Wales and age 16 in Scotland when-
Surely its more logical to instead account for decisions to consider the rest of their lives.
There is like a barrier once the child is old enough to contact parents (natural) whereby one minute there is silence, then more rarely they pour their emotions out to their parent all in one go.
Xxxx
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Sgos are amazing, but sometimes a double edged sword. I feel like when an ago is approved they need to be neutral at the minimum. Five years on and there are still open hostilities from time to time. Believe me the children do not miss it either and are learning to manipulate the involved parties. I also feel that international sgos should be considered in the case of international families. If Mum or Dad is foreign then half the potential placements are immediately disregarded. It’s not acceptable. They are part of the kids life too. Rather or not anyone else likes it they should be allowed to put their names forward.
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The main down side of an SGO is that a carer outside the family can override the wishes of the parents in decision making to the point the parents have no say even with shared Parental responsibility.
why does the Govt even bother to have this ridiculous arrangement when there is no 50/50 in deciding whats best for the child.
in many cases it sets up an adversarial arena between the carer and the parents which usually leads to the SG refusing contact on the grounds that its upsetting the children even though its not true.
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