UK Study Confirms Poor Health For Care Experienced People, Reinforces Emerging Research

21 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by Natasha in Researching Reform, social services

A new study has found that adults who experience care as children are more likely to suffer ill health in adulthood, forming part of a growing body of research highlighting the flaws in children’s social care.

The research, which was produced by UCL and King’s College London universities and led by Professor Amanda Sacker, found that children who grow up in children’s homes had a 40% chance of suffering with poor health ten years after leaving care, with that figure jumping to 85% thirty years after leaving care.

The researchers also noted that children who grew up in every type of care setting fared worse in terms of their health than their counterparts who stayed with a relative.

The study shows that children growing up in any type of care setting have more health problems 10, 20 and 30 years after leaving care than peers who stay with family.

By contrast, children growing up with their parents only have a 13% chance of reporting bad health after 10 years, which rises to 21% later on in their lifetimes.

Men and women who spent their childhood with other relatives, experienced poor health 21% to 43% over the same 30-year period.

In 2018, a study also led by Professor Sacker, found that children in care were twice as likely to die earlier than those living with their birth parents.

Although the two pieces of research have different titles, it is not clear whether the 2018 findings and the current published research originate from two separate studies or are part of a broader research project.

Both pieces of research use data gathered from 350,000 people, spanning roughly the same time periods.

The studies conclude that children placed in care are more likely to report worse health decades later than children who grow up in a parental household.

Research published in June found that children in care in Southern Australia were 52% more likely to be hospitalised by their mid-teens than those children who had no contact with the care system.

Increased hospitalisation rates for children in care continued on into adulthood, with most people being admitted for mental illness, drug abuse and physical injury during childhood and beyond.

Useful links:

Children in Care 52% More Likely to Be Hospitalised Than Those Who Have No Contact With Care System

14 Tuesday Jul 2020

Posted by Natasha in child abuse, Researching Reform, social services

≈ 1 Comment

Children in care in Southern Australia are 52% more likely to be hospitalised by their mid-teens than those children who have had no contact with the care system, new research has found.

Elevated hospitalisation rates for children in care continued on into adulthood, with most being admitted for mental illness, drug abuse and physical injury during childhood and beyond.

The research, produced by the University of South Australia and published in the Child Abuse and Neglect journal, is the first ever study to examine the impact of child abuse and neglect from data about 608,540 South Australian born children since 1986.

Lead author for the study, Dr Emmanuel Gnanamanickam said the research highlighted the lack of proper support given to children within the care system.

The research identifies several alarming trends:

Children who had at some time been placed in Out of Home Care (OOHC) had an average of 7.7 hospital admissions by the time they reached 16.5 years, about four times the mean of 2.0 for children who had never had contact with Child Protection Services (CPS)
People aged between 15 and 32 years, who had contact with CPS in their childhood, had 2 to 4 times more hospitalisations than those with no contact.
Children with substantiated child abuse or neglect and had entered OOHC, were shown to be at highest risk.

In a press release on the university’s website, Gnanamanickam said, “Rates of hospitalisation for children who are placed in out of home care, because these cases are the most serious, are highest, and further research is required to unpack how the elements of abuse and neglect interact with removal from family, to ensure the negative outcomes for these children can be mitigated as far as possible.”

Our experience at Researching Reform suggests that the reasons behind this elevated risk are because of poor care these children receive inside the child protection system, inappropriate and dangerous out of home placements, and in many cases re-traumatisation caused by the permanent removal of children from their birth parents, causing long-term damage.

Given the universal nature of the impact of removal and poor protection mechanisms for children in place across other parts of the world, including the UK, this research should sound an alarm bell for the children’s social care sector in England and Wales.

Face to Face Contact For Children and Birth Parents Allowed Under Lockdown Regulations

29 Friday May 2020

Posted by Natasha in child welfare, Researching Reform, social services, social work

≈ 2 Comments

The government has confirmed that face to face contact with birth parents for children in care is allowed, and should be enabled whenever it is in the best interests of a child.

The reminder comes as social workers continue to operate a “business as usual” policy, working to normal business hours and remaining fully operational during the pandemic.

The updated guidance also confirms that children who fall ill during the lockdown can return home to their birth parents if that is what the child wishes, and must continue to receive any therapies or support offered while at home.

The update, which came out yesterday, places a much heavier emphasis on social services to ensure that children in care who have orders allowing them to see their birth families are supported, and not prevented from having that contact in full unless there are tangible grounds for varying contact.

The guidance also makes it clear that children’s teams must review any decisions to alter contact orders during the lockdown regularly, and ensure children understand that variations in contact are only temporary.

This is what the revised rules say:

“Face to face contact is still permitted, taking account of the social distancing guidelines, and children should be supported to manage this.”

The document adds:

“We expect that contact between children in care and their birth relatives will continue. It is essential for children and families to remain in touch at this difficult time, and for many children, the consequences of not seeing relatives would be traumatising.

Contact arrangements should therefore be assessed on a case by case basis taking into account a range of factors, including the government’s social distancing guidance and the needs of the child.

Where it may not be possible, or appropriate, for the usual face-to-face contact to happen at this time, keeping in touch will, for the most part, need to take place virtually.

Where face-to-face contact is not possible, we would encourage social workers and other professionals to reassure children that this position is temporary and will be reviewed as soon as it is possible to do so.”

You can access the document here.

Research Highlights Dangerous Levels of Trauma In Care Proceedings Involving Newborns

12 Thursday Dec 2019

Posted by Natasha in Family Law Cases, Research, Researching Reform, social services

≈ 5 Comments

Research conducted by the Nuffield Foundation has confirmed that removing children at birth in child protection cases causes families acute and ongoing distress.

The Foundation’s Family Justice Observatory will now develop guidelines to help steer newborns away from care proceedings.

The news comes after the Foundation published reports which showed unprecedented numbers of newborns in England and Wales being taken at birth and placed into care.

While the finding is not groundbreaking – bodies of research have already confirmed that separating mothers and their children leads to a spike in maternal suicides – it is an important first step in showing the government what needs to change in child protection, and why.

Researching Reform was encouraged to see that the Observatory had taken on some of our recommendations in this area, including recording families’ voices and experiences in newborn removal cases, as well as fathers’ experiences, and the need to develop best practice in this area.

The research combines a literature review and a review of case law, and offers five key messages:

Short time frames for assessments before the birth prevent parents from being able to make any necessary changes and improvements, placing them in an impossible position
Trust, honesty and openness are vital for ensuring that families don’t feel stigmatised and judged, and enabling truly supportive relationships between families and child welfare professionals
Separating a child from his or her mother, father and extended family members is deeply traumatic and should be done only in the most urgent of cases and in the most supportive and sophisticated way possible
Child protection professionals need much better training in this area
A lack of understanding from a family perspective needs to be addressed through research and establishing best practice guidelines

Number of Newborns Going Through Care Proceedings in Wales Doubles

16 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by Natasha in child welfare, forced adoption, Researching Reform, social services

≈ 8 Comments

A groundbreaking study has revealed that the number of newborns going through care proceedings in Wales has doubled in just three years.

The report, which was produced by the Nuffield Foundation and the Centre for Child and Family Justice Research is the second such report in a series of investigations carried out by the organisations, which hope to shed light on how to support families to care safely for their babies, rather than remove children from their birth parents.

The first report, Born into Care: Infants and newborns in care proceedings in England, which was published this time last year, looked at the number of newborns being taken into care in England, and discovered that the rate of care applications for newborns had more than doubled in a decade.

Information about the project’s aims was published last year on the Nuffield Foundation’s website and offered the following important details about its first report, and the project:

“The report argues that the new findings indicate far more attention needs to be paid to court intervention at birth.

At present, the report says, national statutory practice guidance ‘makes scant reference’ to either pre-birth assessment or removals at birth.

The Council of Europe and judges in England have described the separation of mothers and babies within hours or days of an infant’s birth, as a very severe form of intervention in family life fraught with ethical, legal and procedural challenges.

Given the frequency with which local authorities are issuing care proceedings at birth, the study recommends a greater policy and practice focus on newborns within the family justice system.”

The second report also offers some interesting data on what’s been going on in Wales, and highlights some significant gaps in the information recorded on newborns going through care proceedings, particularly in relation to Cafcass data around placements. (The one organisation that should be required to keep a meticulous set of data on the children they see).

While the authors noticed a drop in the number of applications for adoption orders, they also recorded a spike in the number of babies going through care proceedings in England and an even more pronounced increase in Wales, from 2011 to 2018. The reasons for this increase remain unclear.

The report also noted that while Welsh authorities ramped up their use of care orders (in 2012, care orders were made in 29% of newborn cases – by 2018 this figure rose to 67%), English child protection staff had begun to use other orders like Special Guardianship.

Further key findings from the report:

Volume of cases and changes over time
• Between 2011 and 2018, 3,266 infants were subject to care proceedings. Infants comprised 30% of the overall population of children involved in s.31 care proceedings in Wales during this period.

Over time, a greater proportion of care proceedings concerning infants have been issued for newborns in Wales, although the trend is not linear. In 2011, 40% of all infants coming before the courts in s.31 proceedings did so in the first two weeks after birth. This proportion remained roughly stable until 2015, and then started to rise, reaching 52% in 2018. Cases of newborns in the family justice system comprised a substantial proportion of all care proceedings issued for infants in Wales.

In 2011, for every 10,000 live births in Wales, 43 newborns became the subject of care proceedings within two weeks of birth. The incidence rate remained fairly static at around 40 cases per 10,000 live births until 2015, then increased rapidly, and had more than doubled to 83 cases per 10,000 live births in 2018.

Overall, the picture of a high and increasing proportion of infant cases issued close to birth is similar for Wales and England. However, the incidence rate (number of cases per 10,000 live births) is higher in Wales than England.

Variation by court area
• There were differences in the rates of care proceedings issued for newborns across the three Welsh Designated Family Judge (DFJ) areas. Based on an overall rate (for the period from 2011 to 2018), the Swansea and South West Wales DFJ area recorded the highest incidence rate, of 64 cases of care proceedings concerning newborns per 10,000 live births in the general population. Cardiff and South East Wales DFJ area and North Wales DFJ area had lower overall rates, at 47 per 10,000, and 45 per 10,000 respectively.

All three DFJ areas saw an overall increase in incidence rates over the period (2011 to 2018), although the trends varied, and incidence rates between the three DFJ areas appear to converge in the more recent years.

Between 2015 and 2016, all three DFJ areas recorded a marked increase in newborn cases, which warrants further investigation.

Local authority level variation
• A minority of local authorities departed significantly from the national incidence rate of 52 newborn cases per 10,000 live births. However, the rate range for outliers was marked between 32 and 100 newborn cases per 10,000 live births.

In the North Wales DFJ area and Cardiff and South East Wales DFJ area, there was very little deviation in local authority rates from the area average.

However, in Swansea and South West Wales DFJ area, there were a number of low and high outlier local authorities, falling outside the expected boundaries of the area average incidence rate of newborns entering care proceedings.

Case characteristics
“Subsequent infants” • Between 2016 and 2018, 49% of newborns were “subsequent infants”; that is their mothers had already appeared in care proceedings concerning an older sibling.

• Based on a 5-year observational window, 51% of newborns were linked to mothers who had not previously appeared in care proceedings.

Urgent ICO hearings and non-standard case management hearings
• Newborns are more likely to be subject to urgent ICO hearings and non-standard case management hearings than older infants, and other age groups of children.

A non-standard CMH or an urgent ICO hearing was recorded for 61% of newborns between 2015 and 2018, compared to 37% of older infants and 36% of all children aged 12 months and above. 52% of the newborns had an urgent hearing within 7 days of the issue of the care application during this period.

Case duration
• Between 2012 and 2018, 52% of infant cases completed within 26 weeks.
• There has been a general trend towards shorter care proceedings for all infants. In 2012, only 12% of cases concerning infants completed within 26 weeks (the statutory framework introduced in 2014), whereas in 2017 this percentage had risen to 70%, declining slightly to 63% in 2018.

The report goes on to make a series of recommendations, which include a review of cases involving care proceedings issued for newborns, what is driving a change in the type of legal orders being used, and further research to help improve child protection services.

It’s very much worth a read if you have 30 digestive biscuits and a full box of tea bags.

Useful Links:

The reports are also available in Welsh (see press release for links).

Councils Using Alternative Orders to Remove Children from Parents After Judicial Push Back on Care Applications

14 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by Natasha in Researching Reform, social services, social work

≈ 34 Comments

Councils are increasingly turning to other types of court orders to remove children in child protection proceedings after senior judges warned social workers that care applications should only be used as a method of last resort.

The development was revealed by new Cafcass chief Jacky Tiotto, during an interview with Children and Young People Now (CYP Now) magazine.

According to Tiotto, there has been a marked increase in requests for orders for deprivation of liberty, secure accommodation and emergency protection during child protection proceedings.

The finding raises serious concerns about whether social services are making false allegations around service users’ mental health in order to remove children from parents.

Emergency protection orders are only to be used in the most serious circumstances and give councils the right to remove children from their parents if there are concerns around child abuse. These orders can also limit a birth parent’s responsibilities towards their child.

Secure accommodation orders allow councils to place children in residential placement units where they can be stopped from leaving, and have been criticised by judges and other legal professionals because of the way in which they impact human rights like freedom of movement. These orders are usually only used in cases where there appears to be a risk of gang violence, child sexual exploitation and child trafficking.

Deprivation of liberty orders have also gained international media attention because of the way these orders impact children’s human rights under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and are closely linked to secure accommodation orders.

Care applications however, dropped more than 5% from last year.

The drop has been attributed to a shift in social work practice, which now requires social workers to look at care applications and adoptions as the last port of call, rather than the first option in child protection proceedings.

Several senior judges have published judgments relating to child protections cases in order to raise awareness around the need to keep children with their parents wherever possible. The judgements were also made public to confirm the law and policy in this area, which makes it clear that removing children from parents must only happen if all other avenues have failed and only if that removal is genuinely in the best interest of the child in the case.

Despite the warnings, child protection professionals, perhaps desperate to keep their jobs as budget cuts continue to squeeze councils, now appear to be looking to other orders to secure removals.

Tiotto told CYP Now that Cafcass would be working to find out the reasons for the unusual rise in the different types of orders:

“What’s been understood from that drop in care applications is that the public law system is less busy – but it isn’t.

“Behaviour is changing in terms of what [orders] people are going into court for and we need to understand why that is.

“We will be prioritising work to understand that.

“I think in enough authorities people are looking for different solutions for children that may not be public care.

“I’d be surprised if that’s not what we find when we look at the data.”

There is clearly a conflict of interest in a social work organisation taking on this task, and we would like to see an independent body reviewing the data.

Whatever research is conducted though, the investigators will need to look at:

The life of these cases and whether these orders ultimately lead to children being permanently removed from their parents at a later stage,
The cases involved and the kind of evidence gathering that’s taken place,
Which courts these cases are being heard in, paying attention to Court of Protection applications (a Court which remains largely closed off from the public) and;
The internal management issues facing each local authority engaged in placing submissions for these orders.

Child Protection Sector Harms Children’s Mental Health.

12 Thursday Sep 2019

Posted by Natasha in child welfare, Researching Reform, social services, social work

≈ 7 Comments

A report by the Children’s Commissioner on children’s experiences inside the care system highlights the appalling way in which children are being treated, and evidences the serious emotional harm the sector is causing these children.

The report, which is 14 pages long and features 22 children and young adults aged between 9 and 21, offers extracts from interviews in which children and young adults describe how the care system treated them and how that treatment made them feel.

While there are a few good experiences shared by children (most of which stem from support given by individuals outside of the care system), the report makes for a read which is both embarrassing and deeply troubling.

The most concerning revelation comes from several children in care who explain that the lack of proper care inside the system directly damaged their mental health, highlighting once again that the child protection system is causing tangible harm to the children it is supposed to be looking after.

One example given was that a change in social worker caused children to have to relive past traumatic events, because they had to talk about their past again.

An exceptionally high turnover in social workers around the country means that children are often having to relive painful past experiences – including the act of separation itself – multiple times.

Despite the volumes of research available on how to look after children, and the very obvious knowledge gaps inside the child protections system – which existed long before austerity – children are also still being left to languish on their own, separated from their siblings and moved sometimes hundreds of miles away from anything familiar to them.

The same tired themes of stability and mental health feature in this document, themes which have been clearly labelled and identified a thousand times over, in child welfare campaigns, scientific data and pioneering social work.

This report is not insightful, or trail blazing, but it is worth sharing the quotes from the children who took part in these interviews, because every one of their voices matter.

You can access all of the quotes published, here.

Below are a selection of quotes which we think broadly capture the key sentiments of the children interviewed. Please read all of them, if you can:

“[Social services] don’t do enough to guarantee the emotional wellbeing of that child, and the psychological wellbeing, it can have a big impact on kids because there’s all that stability gone. … It can have a lot of psychological damage on a kid, and you get the kids acting out, you get kids being rebellious, going off and doing drugs, and they turn down paths, and get involved with the wrong people, and I feel like, a lot of the time, that can be prevented. If they just put more measures in place to make sure kids really understand why this is happening, it’s not their fault, and I just feel like a lot more should be offered, like counselling definitely.” (Female, Care leaver)

“My behaviour got a bit uncontrollable [when moved placement to another town]. It’s because I still wasn’t given the help I want, I needed… Like I needed therapeutic help and I didn’t get it. And then when I moved to [new town following another placement move], I finally got it … It [therapy] made me get rid of all my anger … I haven’t kicked off as often as I used to.” (Female, 13)

“I probably cried myself to sleep each night, the first week.” (Male, 17)

“I was worried a lot at the time. Because it was unknown to where we would be going, how it would be like.” (Female, 16)

My social worker, I ask her so many times, what’s going to happen in my future, I’m really scared. I want to know what’s going to happen in my future and she’s just, she can’t be arsed to talk about it.” (Female, 15)

“But the more you move to different places and then the more you just get used to it … It’s just [breathes out], it’s just tiring … I don’t know how to explain it, you do literally feel tired, you hear it and it’s just like [breathes out] go back to bed.” (Female, 15)

“I think it [moving placements] just had an impact on … how I act, how I controlled my emotions. If I felt angry now, I’d just hold it in but then I would just lash out.” (Female,16)

“I was going through a lot of instability at the time… and I was making decisions that I probably wouldn’t rationally make normally, like running away from school and things like that. Yeah, they well and truly were [due to the instability], and it I guess it was a coping mechanism.” (Male, 17)

“Well they just said that he’s getting adopted to North England. That’s all I’m now allowed to know. … When she told me that he was gone, I just broke down… It was hard, I would cry every single day at school. I’d get taken out of lessons because I just couldn’t cope with it.” (Female, 18)

“I was out of school for three weeks rather than two, because the woman we was given to help me find a new school didn’t really do her job properly… I understand that she’s busy with loads of other people, but she left me and my mum on a voice message for a whole week, then a second week. We gave her a call and we actually got through to her and said, OK, we said to her, oh what’s happening, why haven’t you found a school yet, haven’t you found a school yet or are you just ignoring us, and she said, well I haven’t found a school yet, let me, just give me time. And she left us for another week.” (Male, 16)

“I didn’t meet my new social worker for quite a while, and then I met her a couple of times, and then I got another one. And it’s just like, well I only saw you three times and you’re already leaving, am I that bad? And it just makes you feel like you’re worthless, you’re not valued, and you’ve done something wrong all the time. It also makes you feel like you’re not important to them, and they don’t want to be with you, they don’t want to work with you, they’re just doing it because they have to. So it just makes a real downer on the young person, it makes them feel like, have very low self-esteem and low confidence in themselves.” (Female, 17)

Carer Claiming to be a Social Worker calls Tweeter a “Sick F*ck”

07 Wednesday Aug 2019

Posted by Natasha in Researching Reform, social services, social work

≈ 8 Comments

A man, or woman, on social media who claimed to be a social worker called a tweeter a “sick fuck” after a heated exchange over an incident in which a six year old boy was pushed off a balcony at the Tate Modern by a 17 year old boy. The teenager blamed social services for his actions.

Carer Raavi Gupta (Raavi can be a man or a woman’s name) also said that he/she did not have the necessary qualifications to practice as a social worker but had been acting in the capacity of a social worker for over a decade.

Gupta engaged with the tweeter after he posted an article about the incident, initially telling the tweeter to stop blaming social services for the crime.

Social media users were quick to join the conversation around whether or not social services had been partly responsible for the teenager’s violent behaviour.

One tweeter said, “He can blame whoever he likes but we all know he is to blame. However if he was a dangerous schizophrenic or mentally ill he should not have been on a trip to the Tate. Safety of majority comes first. Eye witnesses report his behaviour was odd for some time.”

Another tweeter added, “Apparently he was with ‘carers’. Your point re his odd behaviour is important, as you would have thought that ‘professional’ eagle eyed security staff would have noted that and questioned it…. Regardless of witnesses, nobody really knows the historical content….”

The exchange between Gupta and other tweeters became more aggressive after one social media user accused Gupta of having treated vulnerable families poorly and incorrectly suggested that social services were not experiencing budget cuts:

“Your victims are out there recording everything, you are quite right to be extremely concerned, I wasn’t aware of any cuts? The last I heard there was more money being pumped in.”

Gupta replied, “My victims? I’ve spent my life helping people you sick fuck.”

The unprofessional outburst was noticed by several tweeters.

Gupta went on to call another man “a racist right-wing nut job,” after a tweeter said social workers were dangerous people.

During the outburst, Mr Gupta admitted that he/she did not have the appropriate qualifications to act as a social worker. Gupta also tweeted that he/she was making decisions “way above my pay grade” and then told social media users that if they were “vaguely decent” they should campaign for more investment into social services.

Another tweeter went on to the social work register to try to find Raavi Gupta but was unable to see the name on the list, further implying that he/she was not a qualified social worker. Raavi Gupta may not be the carer’s real name.

Researching Reform reached out to Raavi to ask which council they worked for. We did not receive a reply.

Under current law and policy, people can practice as social workers without registering with Social Work England, the regulatory body which oversees social work practice, as long as they use informal titles which are not protected.

This loophole allows unqualified individuals to care for some of the most vulnerable people in England, and makes it extremely difficult to identify and prevent potentially life-threatening conduct.

Many thanks to Eugene for alerting us to this development.

Children Linked To Social Services Achieve Two Grades Lower at GCSE

20 Thursday Jun 2019

Posted by Natasha in Researching Reform, social services

≈ 9 Comments

A new government review suggests that children who have been in contact with a social worker at any time since the age of nine achieve on average two grades lower than their peers in each GCSE subject taken.

The review data puts the number of children in England who have been in contact with social services at 1.6 million.

In a press release issued by the Department for Education on 17th June, Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary said:

“Overall if you’ve needed contact with a social worker at any time since year 5, on average you are going to score 20 grades lower across eight GCSEs… We need to improve the visibility of this group, both in schools and in the system as a whole.”

He went on to say:

“We also need to improve our knowledge of what works to support and help these children. We must not lower our expectations for them – for these children it is more important that they can do their very best to make the most of their talents when they’re at school.”

The press release suggests that the link to social services and the lower grades at GCSE for children in care is directly correlated to the assumption that every one of these children are falling behind because they have experienced poverty, abuse and neglect.

The government also makes another clumsy assumption: that those children who have not had contact with social services are all being cared for adequately, and so their grades are not slipping.

If that were the case, there would not be an ongoing number of children being taken into care.

While the report or the data do not appear to have been made public (unless we’ve missed it, so please do let us know), the Education Secretary’s speech which he made at think tank Reform on 17th June, offers some more information.

The reasons for children who have experienced social services falling behind at school are far more complex than the government realises, and the child welfare system has played a significant part in adding further layers of disadvantage by providing third rate care for these children.

The government review offers several other insights including data that suggests that the average classroom has three children who have needed support from social services at some point in the last six years. The review also suggests that disadvantaged children do better in cities than villages.

The report coincides with the government’s announcement that it will put new measures in place to support disadvantaged children in schools. The package includes:

Improving the admissions process so vulnerable children can access a school place as quickly as possible
Mental health training for teachers and social workers
Better information sharing between councils and schools
Tackling causes of domestic abuse, drug and alcohol misuse, mental health, serious violence, and exploitation
Tackling off-rolling, absence and exclusions
Implementing Timpson Review recommendations

The Department for Education also said in its press release that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers had narrowed by at least 9.5% since 2011, but does not give a reason for that reduction.

A statement in the release by Sir Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation suggests that the reduction may be down to the Pupil Premium, a grant given by the government to schools in England to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged children.

As you might imagine, the Local Government Association has seized on the report, seeing it as an opportunity to push for more funding for its councils.

Until the government understands the extent of the issues and improves the workforce tasked with looking after these children, no measures put into place will make much of a difference.

Many thanks to Keith for alerting us to this development.

Supreme Court Restores Children’s Right To Sue Councils Who Fail To Protect Them

07 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by Natasha in child abuse, Researching Reform, social services

≈ 7 Comments

The Supreme Court has overturned a ruling in the Court of Appeal which prevented children who had been abused from suing alerted local authorities who did nothing to protect them.

This is a very welcome development.

The previous judgment in the Court of Appeal had effectively blocked claims by survivors who were known to be suffering but did not find themselves in full time state care, or subject to a care order of any kind. The ruling affected a significant number of cases and left victims feeling traumatised and sidelined.

The latest decision in the Supreme Court now means that children can sue for negligence where a local authority failed to protect them from harm.

Some quotes from members of the legal team and researchers who worked to help represent the claimants in the case have been published in an article by the Independent.

Peter Garsden, a partner at Simpson Millar, who acted on behalf of children’s charities Article 39 and The Care Leavers’ Association: “This is a groundbreaking decision that has served to clarify the law as far as the duty of care that social workers have towards young people and children who are not necessarily in a care institution, but are known to be at risk.

“This decision affects some of the most vulnerable members of our society and we are delighted that those affected will continue to have access to the justice that they deserve in instances where they are let down by those they have put their faith in.”

Carolyne Willow, director at Article 39: “We are particularly concerned about the continuing scandals of mistreatment in child prisons and local authorities’ failures to take robust, protective action.”

David Graham, national Director of The Care Leavers Association: “We hope the courts will now quickly deal with the backlog of cases from adults who were failed as children.”

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales said they would look at the ruling and “carefully assess any implications for local authorities.”