• About
    • Privacy Policy
  • GSW
  • Guide To Making A Subject Access Request
  • In Dad’s Shoes
    • An Overview
    • Invitation
    • Media
    • Photos
    • Press Release
    • Soft Launch
    • Speeches
    • Summary
  • Media Coverage
  • Parliamentary Debates
  • Voice of the Child Podcasts

Researching Reform

Researching Reform

Daily Archives: January 31, 2022

New study suggests children living with special guardians could be at greater risk of abuse

31 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by Natasha in Researching Reform

≈ 9 Comments

Research published by NHS researchers in Birmingham has suggested that children who are made the subject of a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) could be at greater risk of abuse than the general population, despite such placements requiring carers to pass social care parenting assessments.

An SGO made in a family court places a child in the care of someone other than their parents, usually but not always a relative or someone the child already knows and has a relationship with. Many children are placed with their grandparents.

The research, published on 2 July, 2021, was carried out “to determine difference in frequency of referral for child protection medical examination (CPME) in children [in Birmingham in 2018] subject to special guardianship order (SGO), subject to child protection plan (CPP) or neither.”

The average age of the children included in the study at the time of the first child protection medical examination was 47 months (almost 4 years of age).

As well as raising concerns about abuse within special guardianship orders, the research also concludes that children subject to child protection plans might not be adequately protected from further abuse. Additionally, it found that children on child protection plans were 28 times more likely to come in to a clinical setting for a child protection medical examination.

The researchers concluded that children subject to special guardianship orders may be at higher risk of physical abuse, although less at risk than those subject to child protection plans.

The research is problematic for several reasons.

The study itself is small, and does not separate out other forms of court order, such as care orders, adoption orders, or foster placements.

It also cites bruises as the main type of non-accidental injury, which is controversial. This is because a growing number of social work academics are concerned that many bruises, particularly those found on pre-mobile children (those less than 6 months old) may be being wrongly classified as non accidental.

Distinguishing between accidental and non accidental bruising in children is particularly hard, and requires specialist knowledge. The research unfortunately does not clarify whether the professionals who diagnosed the bruises had received this training.

The researchers also note that children on a child protection plan are significantly over-represented when it comes to presenting for a child protection medical examination. Interestingly, they attribute this increase in examinations to professionals overseeing these child protection cases, who appear to be doing the referring for these examinations.

The study confirms a substantial data gap when it comes to children subject to SGOs and child protection plans, explaining as it does that the government is not required to record a lot of very significant details.

The conclusion for the study says:

“Our findings suggest that children subject to SGO may be at higher risk of physical abuse, although less at risk than those subject to CPP. At present, children subject to SGO can be invisible to services, with local authorities not required to keep records of these families. Services can only offer enhanced support if they are aware of the need.

Children subject to SGO should be considered as having additional need for support and be offered this routinely by health and social care services. At present, guardians are not entitled to the same level of assessment and support as adoptive parents, particularly if children were not previously in care.

There could be many more children subject to SGO experiencing abuse and neglect who do not require CPME. Further research is needed, detailing the frequency of SGO children presenting to social care with abuse and neglect so that the scale and nature of this problem can be accurately determined.

Only once we have a more nuanced understanding of the issues can we plan better assessments, support and monitoring for these vulnerable children.”

You can access the study here.

Many thanks to Dana for alerting us to this research.

Image by Cheryl Holt

Share this:

  • WhatsApp
  • Pocket
  • Telegram
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 8,452 other subscribers

Contact Researching Reform

Huff Post Contributer

For Litigants in Person

Child Welfare Debates

January 2022
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31  
« Dec   Feb »

Children In The Vine : Stories From The Family Justice System

Categories

  • Adoption
  • All Party Parliamentary Group on Family Law and The Court of Protection
  • Articles
  • Big Data
  • Bills
  • Case Study
  • child abuse
  • child abuse inquiry
  • child welfare
  • Children
  • Children In The Vine
  • Circumcision
  • Civil Partnerships
  • Consultation
  • Conversations With…
  • Corporal Punishment
  • CSA
  • CSE
  • Data Pack
  • Domestic Violence
  • Encyclopaedia on Family and The Law
  • event
  • Family Law
  • Family Law Cases
  • FGM
  • FOI
  • forced adoption
  • Foster Care
  • Fudge of the Week
  • Fultemian Project
  • Huffington Post
  • Human Rights
  • IGM
  • Inquiry
  • Interesting Things
  • Interview
  • Judge of the Week
  • Judges
  • judicial bias
  • Law to lust for
  • legal aid
  • LexisNexis Family Law
  • LIP Service
  • LIPs
  • Marriage
  • McKenzie Friends
  • MGM
  • News
  • Notes
  • petition
  • Picture of the Month
  • Podcast
  • Question It
  • Random Review
  • Real Live Interviews
  • Research
  • Researching Reform
  • social services
  • social work
  • Spotlight
  • Stats
  • Terrorism
  • The Buzz
  • The Times
  • Troubled Families Programme
  • Twitter Conversations
  • Update
  • Voice of the Child
  • Voice of the Child Podcast
  • Westminster Debate
  • Who's Who Cabinet Ministers
  • Your Story

Recommended

  • Blawg Review
  • BlogCatalog
  • DaddyNatal
  • DadsHouse
  • Divorce Survivor
  • Enough Abuse UK
  • Family Law Week
  • Family Lore
  • Flawbord
  • GeekLawyer's Blog
  • Head of Legal
  • Just for Kids Law
  • Kensington Mums
  • Law Diva
  • Legal Aid Barristers
  • Lib Dem Lords
  • Lords of The Blog
  • Overlawyered
  • PAIN
  • Paul Bernal's Blog
  • Public Law Guide
  • Pupillage Blog
  • Real Lawyers Have Blogs
  • Story of Mum
  • Sue Atkins, BBC Parenting Coach
  • The Barrister Blog
  • The Magistrate's Blog
  • The Not So Big Society
  • Tracey McMahon
  • UK Freedom of Information Blog
  • WardBlawg

Archives

  • Follow Following
    • Researching Reform
    • Join 813 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Researching Reform
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: