tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/children-in-care-21511/articlesChildren in care – The Conversation2024-02-08T16:28:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2216922024-02-08T16:28:09Z2024-02-08T16:28:09ZHave Conservative councils started placing more children in care each year than Labour councils? New analysis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573757/original/file-20240206-20-u3h0ip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5734%2C3828&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/schoolchildren-crossing-road-on-their-way-1089516491">Studio Peace/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In England, over 80,000 children are now in care, an increase of <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions/2023">nearly one third</a> since 2010. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213423005781?via%3Dihub">We’ve discovered</a> that local party politics is a factor in this. Our analysis shows that, between 2015 and 2021, six or seven more children each year were taken into care in an average sized Conservative council than in an equivalent Labour council.</p>
<p>There have been big inequalities between local authorities in the rise in the numbers of children in care since the start of the Cameron-Clegg, Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2010. In the north-east of England they have increased by over 60%, while in inner London they’re <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-looked-after-children">down almost 20%</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1468017318793479">Previous evidence shows</a> that the key factor is economics. Children in the most deprived 10% of small neighbourhoods are over <a href="https://pure.hud.ac.uk/ws/files/21398145/CWIP_Final_Report.pdf">ten times more likely</a> to be in care than in the least deprived 10%. </p>
<p>But, despite talk about levelling up, child poverty has risen much faster in Labour councils than in Conservative ones. This means that we would expect the number of children being placed into care in Labour councils to rise more quickly. But the actual numbers of children going into care in Labour and Conservative councils each year is more or less the same. </p>
<p>Our research controlled for poverty. We found that if two average-sized local authorities were the same in terms of poverty, income and expenditure, over five years, a Conservative council would take over 30 more children into care than a Labour council. </p>
<h2>What we did</h2>
<p>We investigated whether rates of children in care have been growing or falling across all English local authorities according to their party political leadership. </p>
<p>We then used a statistical model to predict what these trends would be likely to look like were we to imagine that child poverty, average household income, and council spending on services to prevent children being taken into care had stayed the same throughout 2015-2021, rather than growing at different rates across the country. This allowed us to focus in on the specific relationship between care rates and local party political control.</p>
<p>By focusing on differences in these trends, rather than overall numbers, we are able to isolate factors that can explain the recent dramatic increase in numbers of children in care from factors associated with longstanding differences between local authorities. </p>
<p>Once again, we found that <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics">child poverty</a> was by far the most significant factor behind the upward trend. The greater the local increase in child poverty, the steeper the upward trend in children in care. This is, of course, mainly influenced by national policies affecting employment, wages, housing costs, benefit levels and so on. Local councils have little control over those. </p>
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<img alt="Young boy looking out of window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573760/original/file-20240206-18-aw0w5u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Child poverty is the most important factor in the rise in numbers of children being placed in care.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/small-boy-sitting-near-window-thinking-248899603">spixel/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Then we analysed changes to care numbers in more detail. In an average sized local authority, the numbers of children in care increased by around seven or eight per year between 2015 and 2021. Before controlling for child poverty, Labour and Conservative councils’ growing rates of children in care appear virtually indistinguishable. </p>
<p>However, because child poverty rose almost twice as fast in Labour councils than Conservative ones, this masked a real contrast between local authorities led by the two parties. </p>
<p>That means that, in an average size local authority, after five years we would expect over 30 more children in care in a Conservative council than a Labour council, holding trends in poverty, income and expenditure constant. Thirty additional children in care would cost a typical authority £2.5m more per year. That’s money that we think would be better spent keeping families together.</p>
<h2>Looking for explanations</h2>
<p>Three reasons might explain the difference between Labour and Conservative councils. First, Conservative and Labour councils may have different approaches to supporting families and protecting children. There may be a greater emphasis in Conservative councils on removing children at risk rather than providing support to families to prevent or mitigate risks.</p>
<p>This was the view taken by Michael Gove, when he was education secretary with responsibility for children’s services. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-failure-of-child-protection-and-the-need-for-a-fresh-start">In a 2012 speech</a> he argued that children were being left for too long in homes where they were experiencing neglect and abuse. “More children should be taken into care more quickly”, he said.</p>
<p>Second, as a result, Conservative councils may allocate a smaller proportion of their budget to family support services, or may fund different kinds of preventative services. </p>
<p>Third, it may be that Conservative councils allocate proportionately less funding to the most deprived areas within their local authority than Labour councils, resulting in less support for families and children in greatest need.</p>
<p>All these hypotheses require testing.</p>
<p>We aren’t saying that Conservative councillors want more children in care. Most councils are under huge pressures because of the rising costs of both children’s and adult social care services, driving several to bankruptcy. </p>
<p>Research shows that the steep upward trend in the numbers of children in care results mainly from national policies affecting families. It is increasingly clear that reducing child poverty, especially deep and persistent poverty, and insecure housing and low income, is the key to reducing the numbers of children in care.</p>
<p>But local actions matter too. Local councils cannot control national economic trends, but they can poverty-proof local services, make sure that the services focus on areas of greatest need and that services respond directly to family poverty by offering concrete help.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221692/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I receive funding from the Wellcome Trust for my contribution to a separate research programme. I have previously been funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for work on children's services, poverty and inequality.
I am a member of the Labour Party </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Calum Webb receives funding from the British Academy PF21\210024; he has previously been funded by the ESRC and the Nuffield Foundation. He was formerly a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p>We investigated whether rates of children in care have been growing or falling across all English local authorities according to their party political leadership.Paul Bywaters, Professor of Social Work, University of HuddersfieldCalum Webb, Lecturer in Quantitative Social Science, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1776342022-03-03T19:13:33Z2022-03-03T19:13:33ZWe checked the records of 6,000 kids entering care. Only a fraction received recommended health checks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449085/original/file-20220301-21-11j2nvn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C19%2C4197%2C2800&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1495900593237-22dc861b231d?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2670&q=80">Unsplash/Caleb Woods</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than <a href="https://www.education.vic.gov.au/childhood/professionals/health/outofhomecare/Pages/about.aspx">10,000 Victorian children and young people</a> live with a foster or kinship (relative) carer. They enter such care because of court orders aiming to protect them from abuse or neglect. </p>
<p>These children have more physical, developmental and mental health needs than others, which is why they are meant to have a number of health checks when they enter care. </p>
<p>But when we checked the records of more than 6,000 children who were in foster or kinship care for the first time, we found <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0190740921004357?via%3Dihub">just 41 of them</a> had attended all of the recommended health appointments.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-children-in-foster-care-the-coronavirus-pandemic-could-be-extremely-destabilising-135190">For children in foster care, the coronavirus pandemic could be extremely destabilising</a>
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<h2>High needs</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpc.14472">health needs of children in out-of-home care are high</a> across all areas of health. Around half will have behavioural, mental health and developmental problems. Most have some physical health concern, such as asthma, constipation or hearing difficulties. </p>
<p>These high rates are not surprising, given their experiences of abuse, neglect or trauma and increased likelihood of living in adverse socioeconomic circumstances. This is why there are <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/pac_national_standard.pdf">National Standards for out-of-home care</a> which specifically state that health needs need to be assessed and addressed in a timely manner. </p>
<p>There is also a <a href="https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/cyp-oohc-framework">national framework</a>, adopted by Victoria, that spells out the details: an initial health check by 30 days and a thorough check within three months, led by a paediatrician and including hearing, vision and dental checks.</p>
<p>Nine years ago, specialised health care clinics with paediatricians, psychologists and speech pathologists <a href="https://www.health.vic.gov.au/populations/vulnerable-children#children-in-out-of-home-care">were established</a> in some areas of Melbourne for vulnerable children to provide a comprehensive assessment and develop health management plans. Such clinics are now in Gippsland too, but they have not been rolled out to the rest of the state. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://services.dffh.vic.gov.au/victorian-handbook-foster-carers-word">handbook for foster carers</a>, Victorians are told to take a child to a GP, dentist, optometrist and for a hearing test within a month. The comprehensive health check is not mentioned.</p>
<p>We were concerned many children were missing out on these important health visits that could identify health issues and make a plan to address them. So we applied for federal and state de-identified administrative health data for Victorian children in care. This showed us health visits through Medicare (say, for GPs and optometrists) and at Victorian community, mental, dental and hospital outpatient health services. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-the-governments-new-national-plan-to-combat-child-sexual-abuse-go-far-enough-170707">Does the government's new national plan to combat child sexual abuse go far enough?</a>
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<h2>Too little, too late</h2>
<p>We looked at health visits for all children who entered care and stayed at least three months – long enough to see a doctor. We analysed visits within the first year of care to all the recommended health professionals: GPs, paediatricians, dentists, optometrists and audiologists. </p>
<p>We found only one in every 130 children attended all the services within 12 months (far fewer attended all services within three months). It was good to see nine out of ten children saw a GP – but only 37% saw one within the recommended 30 days. </p>
<p>Using Medicare data meant we couldn’t see why a child had gone to the GP – it’s likely some visits were not for a check-up, but were for a specific issue or illness. About one-third of children made it to a paediatrician within a year, but less than 20% saw an optometrist, audiologist or community dentist. Very few attended these services within three months.</p>
<p>Because we looked at data over more than five years, we could see that in areas where a dedicated specialised health clinic was started up to provide health assessments, more children attended paediatricians, audiologists and optometrists. Even before the strains the COVID pandemic has placed on our health system, foster and kinship carers <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0190740919312915">said there were not enough health services</a> and very long waiting lists at those that did exist. </p>
<p>To make sure access to health care does not depend upon a child’s postcode, we need statewide paediatric health services that can provide health assessments and ongoing care. </p>
<p>Those children in foster care had higher odds of attending all health services than those in kinship care. We think this is because kinship carers do not receive as much training, support or financial compensation as foster carers. While it is good Victoria has world-leading rates of kinship care – children in kinship care tend to have <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/384260">better outcomes for behavioural and mental health</a> than children in foster care – it is important all children in care get access to health assessments and the services they need.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449087/original/file-20220301-25-16cpg5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Little girl in health care setting with bandaid or arm" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449087/original/file-20220301-25-16cpg5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449087/original/file-20220301-25-16cpg5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449087/original/file-20220301-25-16cpg5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449087/original/file-20220301-25-16cpg5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449087/original/file-20220301-25-16cpg5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449087/original/file-20220301-25-16cpg5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449087/original/file-20220301-25-16cpg5r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Victorian kids in out-of-home care are supposed to have an initial health check by 30 days and a thorough check within three months.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1576766125535-b04e15fd0273?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2669&q=80">Unsplash/CDC</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reunifying-first-nations-families-the-only-way-to-reduce-the-overrepresentation-of-children-in-out-of-home-care-175513">Reunifying First Nations families: the only way to reduce the overrepresentation of children in out-of-home care</a>
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<h2>Listen to those inside the system</h2>
<p>To improve these rates, and to get in early to meet children’s health needs, we need to address what carers have told us <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0190740919312915">present barriers to health care</a>. They report limited paediatric and mental health services and difficulty navigating the systems. </p>
<p>Bureaucratic delays in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jpc.15157">providing Medicare numbers to carers</a> and getting consent for health care need to be reduced. We could, as in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/promoting-the-health-and-wellbeing-of-looked-after-children--2">United Kingdom</a>, make health assessments a legal requirement of care.</p>
<p>More data is also important. Our research only looked at Victorian children – each state and territory has its own approach to health care for children in care. But there are no publicly available data anywhere in Australia, and therefore no public accountability for some of the children who need it the most. </p>
<p>Because it takes years to get permission, analyse data and publish, we do not yet know the impact of COVID upon this group of children. With reports of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00787-021-01790-x">worsened mental health</a> and longer wait times for services, it is unlikely things have improved.</p>
<p>If we have a system that removes children from families when we believe they are being harmed or their needs neglected, then we need to make sure we don’t overlook them any further.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177634/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen McLean received funding from the state and federal government and a Learning System Grant (from the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare) for this research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harriet Hiscock receives funding from NHMRC</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharon Goldfeld receives funding from ARC, NHMRC</span></em></p>Children are removed from families and placed in care when we think they are being harmed or their needs neglected. But data shows the vast majority aren’t getting recommended health care.Karen McLean, Paediatrician, Royal Children’s Hospital; Research officer, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteHarriet Hiscock, Principal Fellow, Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteSharon Goldfeld, Director, Center for Community Child Health Royal Children's Hospital; Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne; Theme Director Population Health, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1677562021-09-14T14:07:47Z2021-09-14T14:07:47ZNew laws in England will leave 16-year-olds living alone<p>The English system for accommodating children in care is <a href="https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/childrens-social-care-study">broken</a>. Demand outstrips supply and the uneven spread of children’s homes across the country, especially for children requiring specialist care, forces councils to increasingly rely on private, <a href="https://socialcareinspection.blog.gov.uk/2019/07/08/unregistered-and-unregulated-provision-whats-the-difference/">unregulated</a> accommodation. </p>
<p>This situation is about to get worse. The law around how teenagers in care are housed has changed. On September 9, a piece of legislation, entitled the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021, <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/161/introduction/made">came into force</a>. It states that councils can now place children aged 16 and 17 into unregulated accommodation. Also called independent and semi-independent housing, this is non-care accomodation. The occupants, who are legally still children, only receive support, not care, as they would in foster care or a children’s home.</p>
<p>Typically, this sees young people aged 16-25 sharing communal facilities, while having their own room and bathroom. They are responsible for meeting their own health needs. They have full control of their finances. They are permitted to stay away overnight. And, crucially, there is no direct supervision provided by adults. Any support that is provided by adult workers aims to help them to live independently.</p>
<p>Approximately <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/looked-after-children-in-independent-or-semi-independent-placements+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk">6,000</a> over-16s –- boys and unaccompanied <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-unaccompanied-young-asylum-seekers-turn-18-many-face-an-immigration-cliff-edge-106734">asylum-seeking children</a> in particular – currently live this type of housing. And for some, this is the best choice. It fosters independence. </p>
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<img alt="A graphic showing the number of children living independently or in unregulated accommodation between 2010 and 2019." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420634/original/file-20210912-13-gn8ft3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420634/original/file-20210912-13-gn8ft3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420634/original/file-20210912-13-gn8ft3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420634/original/file-20210912-13-gn8ft3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420634/original/file-20210912-13-gn8ft3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420634/original/file-20210912-13-gn8ft3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420634/original/file-20210912-13-gn8ft3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The number of children in England living independently or in unregulated accommodation has risen substantially since 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/looked-after-children-in-independent-or-semi-independent-placements">SSDA903 / Department for Education</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>In many cases, however, it is unsuitable. A <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09vks65">freedom of information request</a> saw the department for education reveal that, between April 2018 and September 2020, ten children died while living in supported accommodation, of whom half took their own lives.</p>
<p>While the reasons for these deaths will be complex, the children’s rights organisation <a href="https://article39.org.uk/keepcaringforchildrenupto18/">Article 39</a> asks if things may have been different had their housing situation provided them with more care.</p>
<p>This change in legislation is likely to have disastrous consequences. Here are four reasons why.</p>
<h2>It denies teenagers their legal status as children</h2>
<p>Both the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CRC.aspx">UN convention</a> on the rights of the child and the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/contents">Children’s Act</a> in England define a child as a person under the age of 18. </p>
<p>However, in some <a href="https://www.justforkidslaw.org/what-we-do/fighting-progress/monitoring-rights/state-childrens-rights">instances</a> the way the government treats children appears to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1417027">disregard</a> their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/feb/16/watchdog-accuse-uk-ministers-institutional-bias-against-children-anne-longfield">vulnerable status</a>. </p>
<p>When the state becomes the parent, it has a duty to nurture and care so that children reach their full potential. For 16 and 17-year-olds, this new legislation seems counter intuitive. By contrast, children who live with their families leave home, <a href="https://www.becomecharity.org.uk/care-the-facts/about-the-care-system/">on average</a>, at around 23. </p>
<p><a href="https://coramvoice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Care-Leaver-Rapid-Review-24.10.17-final-proof-2.pdf">Research</a> shows that for some, the move to non-care placements is too much, too soon. They feel ill-prepared to move out, both practically and emotionally. Care leavers <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740920322519">have been found</a> to want a safe space to practice their independence, without worrying that they might suffer consequences such as homelessness or failing in education if they make mistakes. </p>
<h2>It undermines their health and wellbeing</h2>
<p>We <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijsw.12317?casa_token=2yF4xKB2bPMAAAAA%3Axe5hevLzJ58W-FoYRwAPiMqm4jKdIhQGvmIwdJx8IOPCx53bMW3zIWspE1RBNL6QyVuhogof0MxmiQ8">know</a> that children in care are more likely to have <a href="https://theconversation.com/revealed-health-prospects-of-children-in-care-look-worse-than-for-anyone-else-83270">long-term health conditions</a>, which last well into <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/jul/children-care-suffer-poor-health-decades">adulthood</a>. Levels of mental health problems are high among these children too. </p>
<p>However, as children in care <a href="https://theconversation.com/care-leavers-trying-to-access-childhood-records-is-distressing-and-dehumanising-124381">transition</a> to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751722220300378?casa_token=ZJG451xc8ZYAAAAA:CUjXUAHrFQffdP43b9m_hwJpRYZeBmIFy4Mb4jPYeAtjhGmltICfXbDNgutgO3cvvuqtgcBHMA">independence</a> – between the ages of 16 and 18 - they have been found to often not engage with the support services that could help them. There is a distinct possibility that by removing the care that is provided at 15, health appointments can be missed and conditions worsen or go untreated. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4924050/">my research</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0308575918823432">other studies</a> have found, key workers in children’s homes go to great lengths to improve children’s wellbeing and bolster their ability to look after themselves. Many fear this good work will be undone if they are abruptly left to fend for themselves. </p>
<h2>It makes them vulnerable to exploitation</h2>
<p>At its worst, non-care accommodation places <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-transitioning-from-care-to-adult-life-are-being-badly-let-down-and-falling-prey-to-criminal-gangs-145939">vulnerable children</a> with other, often older individuals who have a range of complex problems. This has been found to put children at risk of involvement in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/spol.12600">exploitation</a> and organised crime, including county lines drug dealing. It also puts them at greater risk of <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7560/">going missing</a> for long periods. </p>
<p>Young people themselves cite the lack of a place to call home, instability, uncertainty and the sense of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/46/7/2137/2770735?login=true">powerlessness</a> leading – directly or indirectly – to their being exploited. They consider themselves different, and as having to manage without the same kind of care and attention that other children receive.</p>
<h2>It threatens their educational outcomes</h2>
<p>By law, children must continue their <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-in-care-are-falling-behind-in-literacy-and-numeracy-but-the-problem-is-far-bigger-than-that-49427">education</a> or training until the age of 18. However, this new care legislation effectively means the state considers that teenagers taking their GCSEs can fend for themselves. </p>
<p>Generally, children in care do less well in <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/794535/Main_Text_Outcomes_for_CLA_by_LAs_2018.pdf">education</a>. A recent <a href="https://www.togethertrust.org.uk/news/new-research-wheres-care">report</a> by the Together Trust, highlighted that over 3,000 children aged 16 and 17 were out of education, employment or training – thus categorised as <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679535/Characteristics_of_young_people_who_are_long_term_NEET.pdf">NEETs</a> – for all or some of their time in unregulated accommodation. </p>
<p>Conversely, <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304587">research</a> shows that the presence of supportive adults promotes positive educational outcomes, particularly for children who <a href="https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/140/3/e20170503">spend longer</a> in care. This would then most apply to those 16- and 17-year-olds who are transitioning out of the care system.</p>
<p>These children deserve stepping stones to independence, not a cliff edge. The state – their de facto parents – should never leave them without the supervision and support that would ensure they are safeguarded against harm. Would our politicians think this good enough for their own children?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Huddlestone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Teenagers transitioning from long-term care to independent adulthood need to be looked after. Their health, wellbeing, education and their safety are at riskLisa Huddlestone, Research Fellow in Health Sciences, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1270552020-08-17T11:14:54Z2020-08-17T11:14:54ZHush money? How compensation can leave child abuse survivors with mixed feelings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352504/original/file-20200812-24-yj0rum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=214%2C58%2C6300%2C4278&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The process can be stressful and traumatic for survivors.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tired-older-woman-sitting-on-comfortable-1530933881">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earlier this year the ruling body for the Church of England voted in favour of compensating survivors who had been sexually abused by members of the clergy. This means the church could be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/12/church-of-england-may-have-to-payout-millions-to-child-sexual-abuse">forced to pay out</a> £200 million as “redress” to thousands of victims.</p>
<p>This is just one of a number of high-profile cases making payouts for historic abuse <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/25/over-46m-paid-to-survivors-of-abuse-at-lambeth-childrens-homes">over recent years</a>. In the majority of cases, this money – usually referred to as financial redress – comes from the government. Sometimes, churches or voluntary organisations, for example, may be required to contribute to the payout if the abuse occurred at homes run or overseen by them.</p>
<p>But as my <a href="http://digitool.lib.strath.ac.uk/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=33578">recent research</a> highlights, victims and survivors often tend to have mixed views about the idea of financial compensation.</p>
<h2>Recognition of suffering</h2>
<p>My study involved in-depth interviews with victims and survivors of historic abuse in Scotland. The people I interviewed saw both the potential benefits but also the harm that monetary payments could lead to. </p>
<p>Overwhelmingly, victims and survivors felt that compensation was a right. It was viewed as a way of appropriately supporting people adversely affected throughout the course of their lives as a result of the abuse that they had experienced. As well as being a way of offering practical support, financial compensation was also seen as an acknowledgement of what these people had suffered.</p>
<p>Some of the people I spoke with were quite clear that, rather than injecting large financial sums <a href="https://www.childabuseinquiry.scot/about-us/costs/">into other processes</a> such as inquiries, money should go directly to the victims and survivors so that they may practically benefit. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Middle aged man looking upset." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352752/original/file-20200813-22-n7eny8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352752/original/file-20200813-22-n7eny8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352752/original/file-20200813-22-n7eny8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352752/original/file-20200813-22-n7eny8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352752/original/file-20200813-22-n7eny8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352752/original/file-20200813-22-n7eny8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/352752/original/file-20200813-22-n7eny8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many of the people I spoke to felt uncomfortable about the idea of ‘compensation’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/serious-man-thinking-about-something-195505010">spixel/shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But despite these perceived benefits, many were concerned as to what the meaning of the payment would actually be for them. This was particularly the case among a number of people who had experienced sexual abuse. Some saw payments as holding very negative connotations. </p>
<p>One person I spoke with told me how they felt that compensation was the government’s way of saying: “as a child you were a good prostitute and … this is the payment, albeit 40 years delayed. Now can you please go away and not bother us anymore.”</p>
<p>Some people I spoke to also considered payments to be a form of “shut-up money” and questioned whether it was appropriate to place a value or a price on someone’s abuse. Others worried that giving large sums of money to victims and survivors could lead to more harm than good, particularly when some remained vulnerable with drug and alcohol dependencies.</p>
<h2>Impact of compensation</h2>
<p>These mixed views on compensation expressed by victims and survivors are mirrored by research carried out <a href="https://www.transcript-verlag.de/media/pdf/48/a6/36/ts3918_1.pdf">in other countries</a>. Such findings suggest that while financial compensation should be offered, there needs to be more of an understanding of the impact of such payments.</p>
<p>Although these compensation schemes cannot necessarily cater to the specific needs of everyone, it’s still really important for victims and survivors to know from the outset that accessing compensation could be a complex experience. This is why the government and people who work with victims and survivors of abuse need to be clear about the potential for negative outcomes. </p>
<p>At the very least, victims and survivors should know that receiving compensation may not offer them closure. And that they may be left with further upset and in need of extra support.</p>
<p>This is important given victims and survivors have already experienced a <a href="https://www.celcis.org/files/1415/1549/1939/2017_Vol_16_3_Karim_S_Reporting_abuse.pdf">lack of power and control</a> - so it’s only right that any response takes into account how the workings of power may further impact those who suffered while in care.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samina Karim does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While financial compensation should be offered, there needs to be more understanding of the impact of such payments.Samina Karim, Lecturer in Social Work, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1243812019-10-03T07:55:25Z2019-10-03T07:55:25ZCare leavers: ‘Trying to access childhood records is distressing and dehumanising’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295190/original/file-20191002-49383-1b6s1zt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=90%2C80%2C6619%2C4386&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/archive-folder-pile-files-789157507?src=MF9uFBYnOmvK8GSA6Hzuog-1-10">shutterstock/PAKULA PIOTR</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are currently around 75,000 children in care <a href="https://www.becomecharity.org.uk/care-the-facts/about-the-care-system/">in England</a>. These children will grow up seriously disadvantaged by their childhood experiences – <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/535899/Care-Leaver-Strategy.pdf">despite government interventions</a>.</p>
<p>Care leavers, for example, are <a href="https://www.learningandwork.org.uk/our-work/life-and-society/improving-life-chances/care-leavers/">six times more likely</a> to enter the criminal justice system, are <a href="https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/news-and-blogs/our-blog/care-leavers-risk-homelessness-as-rents-continue-to-rise">more likely to be homeless</a> – and often have <a href="https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Care-leavers-transition-to-adulthood.pdf">low levels of emotional well-being</a>.</p>
<p>Children who have grown up in care are also more likely to <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/535899/Care-Leaver-Strategy.pdf">struggle to pass exams</a>, get a job, or to attend further and higher education – <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/757922/Children_looked_after_in_England_2018_Text_revised.pdf">almost 40% of care leavers</a> aged 19 to 21 are not in education, employment or training. </p>
<p>Many people who grow up in care have gaps in their childhood memories, not least unanswered questions such as “Why was I taken into care?” or “Where did I live?” And for many care leavers, accessing their care records can be part of a therapeutic process of coming to terms with the past. </p>
<p>But many care leavers who try to access records held by local authorities and charities often find their files are missing. And when people do receive their records, they have often been heavily redacted, or censored to remove any “third party information” – such as names of parents, siblings, family members and carers.</p>
<h2>The power of the past</h2>
<p>As part of our <a href="https://cpb-eu-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.ucl.ac.uk/dist/1/627/files/2019/07/Care-Leavers-Experiences.pdf">recent research</a>, we worked with people who grew up in care <a href="https://twitter.com/i/status/1162029533022818305">to find out what</a> it was like for them to access their care records. <a href="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/mirra/">The MIRRA project</a>, led by UCL with the <a href="http://www.careleavers.com/">Care Leaver’s Association</a> and the charity <a href="https://www.family-action.org.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-8qO_uz45AIVTPlRCh2Upwu7EAAYASAAEgIUt_D_BwE">Family Action</a>, collected interview and focus group data from more than 80 care leavers, social workers and information managers working for local authorities and charities who look after children. </p>
<p>We found that accessing care records can play a significant role for care leavers – acting as a “paper self” long after they have left care. Care leaver Gina explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There came a point where I wanted to know where I’d been, I wanted to know who’d fostered me, because there was little chunks of my life missing, like where I’d gone to school? Did I have any friends? How long was I there?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Susan, who was in care in the 1970s and 1980s, told us why her records matter:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For the first time in my life, I was free. And it was all because of those records. It was very emotional. It was so important to me … it can put things away so that you can carry on with the rest of your life.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>But our research also shows how the voices of children and young people who lived in care were often entirely missing from records. And this can cause significant distress and upset – as John-george explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the most profound things for me about the file is my lack of voice. It is totally stolen and words are put in your mouth, saying this is how you feel about certain occasions and certain people, and at times there’s conflict with what I believe.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The voices, experiences and feelings of children and young people in care are rarely heard in their records. And they have few family or childhood photographs or stories that might answer their questions. All of which can have a huge impact on their sense of self later in life and the memories they have about their childhood. </p>
<p>Even if they are able to access their records, many care leavers are handed files rendered virtually meaningless by the thick black lines of redaction. Nor is there support or signposting to organisations that can help.</p>
<p>Care leaver Jackie explained how this can be deeply troubling, making people feel powerless, rejected and dehumanised:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s pieces of paper that are just blacked out, and there’s absolutely nothing on them. And then there’s other pieces of paper where there’s just a sentence in there. And I’m looking at it … and all it’s showing me is I’ve been rejected again.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A child’s voice</h2>
<p>Care leavers have often had very difficult experiences as children, and making the transition into independent adult life can be tough. But our research highlights the vital role care records can play in helping care leavers to get a better understanding of their past. </p>
<p>Records can help care leavers to understand why they went into care. They may help them come to terms with what happened and to understand why they could not be looked after at home. But it can be traumatic to read care files. So instead of a culture of record-keeping for compliance, there needs to be a culture of caring record-keeping. Encouraging children in care to write about what they know about their life story can help to add their voice in the records. As can allowing them to keep personal memory objects, such as toys or photographs. </p>
<p>As our research highlights, care records must put the experiences of the child at the heart of the file – from what is written down in the first place, to how records are kept and stored, to how decisions are made about access. All of which can make a big difference to someone at what can be a very vulnerable time in their life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124381/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Shepherd received funding from the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/P008941/1). Additional funds were provided by Research England Higher Education and Innovation Fund via UCL Innovation, and Research Impact funds via UCL OVPR. </span></em></p>Children’s voices are being omitted from their care records, with devastating effect.Elizabeth Shepherd, Professor of Archives and Records Management, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1238962019-10-01T22:11:47Z2019-10-01T22:11:47ZBritish Columbia’s ban on ‘birth alerts:’ A guiding light on the road to reconciliation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294469/original/file-20190926-51463-qwzw7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C197%2C2649%2C1796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The system of 'birth alerts' across Canada perpetuates the removal of children from Indigenous families begun by residential schools. Pictured here: a historical report on residential schools released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Government of British Columbia has <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-ending-birth-alerts-1.5285929">put an end to “birth alerts”</a> — a practice that allows hospital staff to alert child welfare workers that a newborn may be at risk for harm, without informing expectant parents. </p>
<p>This practice, which can lead to traumatic child apprehensions soon after delivery, disproportionately impacts Indigenous women. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296574/original/file-20191010-188819-17iz6s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/ca/topics/focus-truth-and-reconciliation-in-canada-77341">Click here for more articles in our ongoing series about the TRC Calls to Action.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By ending this practice, B.C.’s action marks progress towards delivering on the <a href="http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf">Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action on child welfare</a>, and specifically the first Call to Action — to reduce the number of Indigenous children in care. </p>
<p>To continue making meaningful progress in this era of Truth and Reconciliation, all provinces and territories should promptly follow suit where similar practices exist.</p>
<h2>Cycles of inter-generational trauma</h2>
<p>The practice of birth alerts is harmful for a number of reasons. Driven by fears of having a birth alert issued, it can <a href="https://www.todaysparent.com/family/parenting/when-you-have-to-give-birth-in-secret/">deter at-risk women from accessing prenatal care</a> or, for example, from seeking treatment for a substance use disorder while pregnant. </p>
<p>The practice can also make it difficult for women and their partners to turn their lives around as new birth alerts can be informed by remote events. For example, if a woman had a child apprehended years earlier, she can be flagged as being high-risk in a future pregnancy even if her life has changed considerably. </p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">An APTN News interview explains what a birth alert is, and what it means for families.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the context of Indigenous families, the practice contributes to ongoing cycles of inter-generational trauma as many women for whom birth alerts are issued were themselves apprehended at birth. </p>
<p>The TRC called upon federal, provincial, territorial, and Indigenous governments to commit to reducing the number of Indigenous children in care. This was written into the <a href="http://nctr.ca/reports.php">Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada</a> released in December 2014, and reemphasized in the recent release of the <a href="https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/">Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls</a>.</p>
<p>As a means to achieving this call to action and to ensure an end to discriminatory practices, policies and processes within all provincial jurisdictions that relate to reporting newborns at risk for harm should be thoroughly scrutinized and revised, or drafted where none exists.</p>
<h2>Ending birth alerts is just the beginning</h2>
<p>Though a step in the right direction, ending birth alerts alone will not be enough to create a meaningful shift in child welfare systems across the country that disproportionately impact Indigenous families. </p>
<p>For instance, in the province of Alberta where I work as an obstetric general internist, birth alerts are not practised. Despite this, government statistics show that in 2015-16, <a href="http://www.humanservices.alberta.ca/abuse-bullying/cidata/">12,715 initial assessments were conducted by Child and Family Services</a> on children up to the age of three. </p>
<p>Of these assessments, 30 per cent (3,794) involved Indigenous families, despite their comprising only <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/as-sa/fogs-spg/Facts-PR-Eng.cfm?TOPIC=9&LANG=Eng&GK=PR&GC=48#targetText=Total%20population%20by%20Aboriginal%20identity,Indian%20status%2C%20Alberta%2C%202016%20Census&targetText=In%202016%2C%20there%20were%20258%2C640,M%C3%A9tis%20or%20Inuk%20(Inuit).">6.5 per cent of Alberta’s population</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1068207743713058817"}"></div></p>
<p>This highlights that even in the absence of birth alerts, other discriminatory practices remain in place that require close scrutiny to ensure less Indigenous children end up in care.</p>
<h2>Fostering trusting relationships</h2>
<p>In a recent statement, Katrine Conroy, <a href="https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2019CFD0090-001775#">B.C. Minister of Child and Family Development</a> emphasized that the focus of all child welfare practices should shift from nontransparent “red-flagging” of expectant parents to voluntary engagement and early intervention starting at the outset of pregnancy.</p>
<p>This approach would foster more trusting relationships with service providers and support women and their families in planning for and safely parenting their babies if that is their goal.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294471/original/file-20190926-51429-wkorek.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People take part in the planting of a heart garden during the closing ceremony of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission, at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on June 3, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A shift in culture is coming. This is exemplified by many promising initiatives underway across the country that focus on upstream prevention of child apprehensions at birth. Examples, amongst many, include:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In Calgary, a portfolio program, led by the <a href="https://calgarycac.ca/prevention/">Prenatal Outreach Support Team</a>, was developed through collaboration between community organizations caring for at-risk pregnant women. The portfolio serves as a repository of documents compiled by women and their care providers throughout pregnancy highlighting the work a woman has done to prepare for her parenting role. Examples includes certificates of completion of parenting programs, proof of engagement with substance-use treatment programs and documentation of prenatal appointments. Serving as a form of pregnancy curriculum vitae, the portfolio aims to help women and their care providers advocate for their right to parent upon delivery of a newborn.</p></li>
<li><p>In B.C.’s Cowichan Valley, the <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2018/11/27/Campaign-End-Indigenous-Child-Apprehensions/">Butterfly Plan</a>, created by the Red Willow Womyn’s Society, is a three-step response to child apprehensions that focuses on keeping parent and child together. This approach is being piloted through partnership with the Cowichan branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, operating a transitional housing project that offers wrap-around supports for at-risk parents with young children.</p></li>
<li><p>In Manitoba, the government has launched a two-year pilot project called <a href="https://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?item=44895&posted=2019-01-07">Restoring the Sacred Bond</a>, in partnership with the Southern First Nations Network of Care (SFNNC). It matches doulas with Indigenous mothers at risk of having their baby apprehended, providing them with support for up to one year post-delivery with the goal of reducing the number of Indigenous babies that end up in care in Manitoba. </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>All provinces and territories must follow</h2>
<p>Examples like these fly in the face of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/sask-birth-alerts-1.5289154">comments made by Saskatchewan’s Social Services Minister Paul Merriman</a> in response to B.C.’s action — that his province won’t consider ending birth alerts without a viable alternative in place. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294466/original/file-20190926-51429-1xt5zb0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Justice of Our Stolen Children camp in Regina, Saskatchewan, in July 2018. The camp was set up to protest Indigenous lives lost or affected due to violence, foster care and addiction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Samantha Maciag</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Viable alternatives are available, but pursuing them requires political will. We must continue to apply pressure to these governments to take action.</p>
<p>Following the B.C. government’s clear and public statement to end the discriminatory practice of birth alerts in their province, all provinces and territories should promptly follow suit. </p>
<p>This should be done through a shift in culture from nontransparent, punitive measures, to one focused on prevention and early intervention, fostering trusting and collaborative relationships with at-risk expectant parents. </p>
<p>Only then will we make meaningful progress in achieving calls to action related to keeping Indigenous children with their families in this era of Truth and Reconciliation in our country. </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Malebranche does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To make meaningful progress on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, all provinces and territories should promptly follow B.C. and ban discriminatory ‘birth alerts.’Mary Malebranche, Clinical Lecturer, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1019932018-09-20T12:17:00Z2018-09-20T12:17:00ZA child’s chances of being taken into care depend on where they live in the UK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237171/original/file-20180919-158240-suynuq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/child-boy-mother-playing-educational-toy-546389527?src=WsipL2eUt9N_uH3rhBkhQg-1-3">Santypan/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A child growing up in the UK is much less likely to be doing so in care if they live in Northern Ireland rather than England, Scotland or Wales. That’s the finding of a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1468017318793479">new study</a> from my colleagues and I working on the Child Welfare Inequalities Project, which highlights just how profoundly unequal children’s chances are of being in care or experiencing abuse or neglect. </p>
<p>Our research set out to identify inequalities in children’s chances of being on a child protection plan or register – essentially a confirmed case of abuse or neglect – or of being in care, or what’s called a looked after child. We analysed data for about 36,000 children in contact with child protection services in 55 local authorities or trusts in 2015 and examined the minutiae of what happened in eight of them. The four UK countries of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales create a kind of natural experiment in children’s social care with differing legal systems, structures and political leadership. </p>
<p>Our new paper points to a key factor influencing inequalities in children’s services: the country the child lives in. Children in Northern Ireland, despite the country’s higher level of deprivation, were much less likely to be in foster or residential care than elsewhere in the UK: 50% less likely than in England, 80% less than in Wales and a huge 130% less likely than in Scotland. </p>
<p>In every UK country, each step increase in deprivation was accompanied by a rise in a child’s chances of being in state care or on a protection plan. But inequalities between the four countries were greatest in the most deprived 40% of neighbourhoods in the UK, home to the parents of nearly four fifths of children in care. The proportion of children in residential or foster homes in these deprived areas of England and Wales was more than double that in Northern Ireland. In Scotland it was three times greater. </p>
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<p>These findings build on studies we’ve already <a href="https://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-directories/current-projects/2014/child-welfare-inequality-uk/cwip-project-outputs/">published</a> that have identified three key factors influencing how likely a child is to be a subject of the child protection system. The most significant was the socio-economic circumstances of their parents. Nor is there any immediate evidence that children are less well protected in Northern Ireland: for example, the <a href="https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1067/how-safe-are-our-children-2018.pdf">rates of child homicide</a> or deaths by assault or undetermined intent are the lowest there of the four UK countries.</p>
<p>The second factor was that intervention rates are mostly much higher among white British children than other ethnic categories, not by a few percentage points but multiples in the case of children identified as Asian. </p>
<p>And the third influence was the level of expenditure on children’s services relative to demand. In England, central government funding cuts have affected more deprived local authorities, where demand for services are higher, much more deeply. As a result, in these deprived local authorities, service provision is even more tightly rationed than in better off areas. This means proportionately fewer children end up in care or on protection plans. We call this paradox the “inverse intervention law”: a structural relationship between funding levels and children’s services which is statistically significant.</p>
<h2>Why Northern Ireland might be different</h2>
<p>There is currently no measure for the “correct” or expected rate of how many children should to be in foster or residential care. But the degree of difference we found strongly suggests that all four countries cannot be getting it right. Nor is there any immediate evidence that children are less well protected in Northern Ireland: there aren’t more frequent child care scandals or child deaths. </p>
<p>Our team of researchers is currently working in Northern Ireland to try to explain the lower rates by examining a number of possibilities. One could be that the level of demand for services may be reduced by the existence of strong and relatively stable extended families and communities. Another could be that families and communities in Northern Ireland may be more resistant to official interventions in family life. </p>
<p>These factors may possibly be reinforced by a more extensive range of alternative support systems, many provided by church-based groups. Or it may be that services are responding to families differently. Social workers may have more resources to draw on to help families in practical, material ways, including money to bail out a family in crisis. Families’ socio-economic circumstances may be seen as core business for social work – something that has not usually been the case in England and Scotland. All these hypotheses need testing.</p>
<p>Around <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/section-251-2016-to-2017#section-251-outturn-data">£9 billion is spent</a> on children’s social care each year in England alone and over £4 billion on looked after children. If England had the equivalent rates of looked after children as Northern Ireland, adjusted for the different levels of deprivation, over £1.5 billion could be redirected. </p>
<p>But the challenge presented by Northern Ireland is not just how much is spent, but what it is spent on. It may be that what’s required elsewhere is a re-balancing of services, so that parents are treated as partners in keeping children safe, with the state’s primary task one of support to prevent both abuse and neglect and family separation. </p>
<p>The evidence of profound inequalities in children’s social care is raising fundamental questions about the purpose, practice and funding of the current child protection system and the role of the state in family life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Child Welfare Inequalities Project was funded by the Nuffield Foundation. </span></em></p>Children growing up in Northern Ireland are far less likely to be in foster or residential care than those in England, Scotland or Wales.Paul Bywaters, Professor of Social Work, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/845392018-08-31T12:15:50Z2018-08-31T12:15:50ZBack to school: how can we make the experience better for children in care?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234437/original/file-20180831-195307-1gn4wmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ready to learn.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-elementary-pupil-working-desk-284502008?src=X2VxcN6Q3z4fNinvry3cew-1-27">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s a time of new uniforms, pencil cases and chatter in corridors – children and young people are going back to school for another year. While some will be excited at the new lessons or reuniting with friends, others will be dreading a far less positive and rewarding experience.</p>
<p>There are pervasive gaps in attainment at all levels of education between young people in care and those not in care, and young people in care often leave school with less qualifications. <a href="http://gov.wales/%20topics/educationandskills/schoolshome/deprivation/educational-attainment-%20of-looked-after-children/?lang=en">National attainment data</a> shows that 23% of young people who have experienced care in Wales alone obtain five GCSEs (grade A–C), compared to 60% of the total student population. </p>
<p>Educational disadvantage continues into higher education too, with lower rates of university access and completion. It has been <a href="https://www.wao.gov.uk/publication/educational-attainment-%20looked-after-children-and-young-people">reported</a> that only 2% of young people who have been in care enter higher education – compared to about 50% of the general population in Wales. This impacts on their engagement with the labour market later in life too.</p>
<p>Despite <a href="http://gov.wales/topics/educationandskills/schoolshome/deprivation/educational-attainment-of-looked-after-children/?lang=en">government strategies</a> introduced to improve the experiences of children and young people in care, their school lives can still be punctuated with difficulties. But these should not be attributed to individual pupils in a culture of blame. </p>
<p>In fact – although many participants reported positive experiences with teachers and schools – our <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3283/full">qualitative research</a> has found that in some cases children and young people are permitted and even encouraged not to succeed academically due to their complex and disrupted home circumstances. This was sometimes an unintended consequence of an attempt to support pupils, but being excused from handing in homework or taking part in lessons has long term negative impacts on academic attainment.</p>
<h2>Changing the message</h2>
<p>This doesn’t have to be the case. Drawing on a study commissioned by the <a href="https://gov.wales/statistics-and-research/understanding-educational-experiences-opinions-attainment-achievement-aspirations-looked-after-children-wales/?lang=en">Welsh government</a> and further consultations with young people, <a href="http://sites.cardiff.ac.uk/cascade/">our research team</a> has been working with over 100 children and young people who are or were in care to develop their own <a href="http://www.exchangewales.org/messagestoschools">#messagestoschools</a>. Collaborating with <a href="https://www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/about/about-us/our-work-in-wales">The Fostering Network</a> and <a href="http://www.vfcc.org.uk/">Voices from Care Cymru</a> and with help from the creative industries, we wanted to enable young people in care to voice what they wanted from their teachers, social workers and foster carers to help them succeed in school. We helped them put together an education charter, artwork, film (as below), a music video and accompanying resources to get their messages out there.</p>
<figure>
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/214645169" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Many of the participants told of the problems that came with frequent school moves, placement instability, and lack of access to resources such as computers and books. But we didn’t just focus on academic achievement alone. Another issue that participants <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3283/ful">spoke about</a> was that they are often made to feel different by teaching staff and pupils, or positioned as problematic. Being labelled as different can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy for children in care. The children themselves, as well as teachers, can feel that those in care are not destined for educational success. </p>
<p>Our participants told us that they don’t want to be singled out and made to feel different at school, by being taken out of class for meetings with social workers, or by having meetings in rooms at school where they are visible to other students. They have asked that teachers and other practitioners respect their privacy but this is not always followed. Being taken out of a class makes children and young people in care highly visible, and this can lead to unwanted questions from other pupils, creating negative school experiences, and impacting on educational engagement and achievement. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188663/original/file-20171003-12163-1lgc2z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188663/original/file-20171003-12163-1lgc2z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188663/original/file-20171003-12163-1lgc2z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188663/original/file-20171003-12163-1lgc2z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188663/original/file-20171003-12163-1lgc2z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188663/original/file-20171003-12163-1lgc2z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188663/original/file-20171003-12163-1lgc2z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1071&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Respect my privacy.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The students we spoke to also felt that they were often underestimated because of their care histories. They wanted teachers to have high expectations for them and support them to achieve their aspirations. When discussing positive experiences at school they talked about teachers who believed in them, recognised their potential, and treated them like the rest of the class, expecting them to engage, do their homework and be like everyone else. </p>
<p>This encouragement and support could also be provided by social workers and foster carers. Having someone that believes in your potential is an invaluable resource for young people in care, as one student now in university told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I’d come home crying because my teacher said I’m not going to be able to do it (my foster carer) used to say no you can, you can, she was really supportive … it kind of just put a little bit of more belief in me [and] made me want to do it that little bit more.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Children and young people in care can do well with the right support. They want to have a voice in their education and they don’t want to be defined by their care status. The start of the school year is the perfect time for change, we just need to listen to what they are saying.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dawn Mannay receives funding from the Welsh Government and the Economic and Social Research Council. The research referred to in this article was part of a project commissioned by the Welsh Government.</span></em></p>Children in care simply aren’t getting the support they want when it comes to their educationDawn Mannay, Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences (Psychology), Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/852942018-04-26T08:35:27Z2018-04-26T08:35:27ZMuslim foster child row shows more faith must be put in the care system<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189025/original/file-20171005-9767-3qkhq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Foster carers are becoming scarcer.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">via shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a strongly-worded rebuke, Britain’s press regulator has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43887481">ruled</a> that The Times newspaper “distorted” its coverage of a five-year-old Christian girl who was placed with Muslim foster carers. </p>
<p>The coverage attracted much criticism, for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2017/sep/15/muslim-foster-care-row-press-responsibility">careless reporting</a>, of trading on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/04/newspapers-trade-muslim-baiting-christian-girl-muslim-foster-care">“Muslim baiting”</a> and of portraying a <a href="https://twitter.com/MishalHusainBBC/status/902108616513204224">clash of civilisations</a>. I am more concerned about the effect of such reporting on social workers and foster carers. </p>
<p>Already, Muslim carers are not coming forward in sufficient numbers. The scaremongering of this row could make things worse: it could further discourage Muslims from coming forward to become foster carers. Nobody wants to take on a complex and difficult job only to face accusations of imposing their beliefs on vulnerable children.</p>
<p>This little girl’s story first appeared in late August 2017, when The Times carried a <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/christian-child-forced-into-muslim-foster-care-by-tower-hamlets-council-3gcp6l8cs">front page story</a> about the girl, saying she’d been “forced” to live with Burka-clad, non-English speaking Muslim foster carers. The article said her foster parents insisted she learn Arabic, removed her crucifix necklace and dismissed her faith as “silly”. </p>
<p>Tower Hamlets council stated in response that the girl was from a family that had <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41101558">a non-practising Muslim background</a> and that due to the unavailability of a culturally-matched placement she was placed in the temporary care of a mixed-race family. In early October, during a hearing about the case in east London, it was revealed that the girl – who was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/02/girl-had-warm-relationship-with-muslim-foster-carers-court-told">subsequently</a> placed with her non-practising Muslim grandmother – had a “warm relationship” with her foster carers and that she <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/02/christian-girl-5-misses-muslim-foster-carers-court-hears/">was “missing them”</a>. </p>
<p>Subsequently, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41833590">redacted version</a> of a report by Tower Hamlets council showed that although the girl’s case was complicated, it was nowhere near that reported by The Times. After Tower Hamlets complained, the Independent Press Standards Organisation ruled that the newspaper’s coverage was completely distorted. The Times published the ruling on its front page on April 25. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"988899584603770881"}"></div></p>
<h2>Don’t make foster carers’ jobs any harder</h2>
<p>My fear is about the long-term impact of this type of journalism on the lives and futures of the most vulnerable children in British society. Such scaremongering harms social work professionals, fails foster carers and makes their already difficult jobs much harder. Social workers are already over-burdened by layers of red tape which is fuelled by a desire to “watch their backs”. This distracts from the only purpose of children’s social work: to prioritise the needs of the child above all else. We cannot afford to make their already difficult jobs any harder.</p>
<p>From my ongoing <a href="http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-directories/current-projects/2017/among-the-last-ones-to-leave/">research</a> on the journeys of Muslim children through the British care system, my colleagues and I know that these children wait the longest to be placed in long-term, secure and loving foster placements and often have to be moved many times. </p>
<p>Social workers try to match children with homes that have a similar cultural heritage to their own. But if this isn’t possible – given the <a href="https://www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk/media-release-news/2016/over-9000-more-fostering-households-urgently-needed-during-2016">national shortage of foster carers</a> – they may be placed in homes that have a different heritage. In either case, foster carers are trained to meet children’s needs. They are then supervised by a legion of social workers who ensure that this is done. </p>
<h2>Listen to the child</h2>
<p>All foster carers are expected to meet the cultural and religious needs of the children who are placed with them. In our research, a Christian foster carer looking after two unaccompanied Muslim children who were seeking asylum spoke about buying <em>halal</em> food and seeking advice on religious practices from other Muslims, so that she could meet the needs of “her boys”. A Muslim foster carer looking after a Christian child spoke about celebrating Christmas so that the child’s faith needs were met. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189029/original/file-20171005-14086-j0f7rw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189029/original/file-20171005-14086-j0f7rw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189029/original/file-20171005-14086-j0f7rw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189029/original/file-20171005-14086-j0f7rw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189029/original/file-20171005-14086-j0f7rw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189029/original/file-20171005-14086-j0f7rw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189029/original/file-20171005-14086-j0f7rw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All-inclusive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">via www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Data <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2016-to-2017">shows</a> that 82% of looked-after children in 2016-17 were above the age of five and 62% were over ten. By the age of five and certainly for teenagers, children’s identities have already been shaped by their life experiences and by the social contexts they were bought up in. If religion or a lack of it has been part of their lives, this will shape how they see themselves and want to live their lives. Best social work practice demands that before placing a child with a family and throughout the placement, professionals should hear and acknowledge their opinions on ethnicity, faith and belief.</p>
<p>In another case, a teenage Muslim woman who was taken into care a year ago told me about how her younger brothers were placed in Sikh and Hindu homes while she was placed in a Muslim home. While all three children were cared for, her brothers were lonely and sad on Muslim festivals, whereas she could celebrate with her foster family. The children were also sad to be separated from each other. They raised this with social workers and although she said it took more than a year and threats that they would run away, all three children are now placed together in a Muslim home.</p>
<p>In the care system, nothing is rosy or utopian. It cannot be. Vulnerable children with backgrounds of abuse, violence and, in the case of unaccompanied children seeking asylum, treacherous travel, are taken away from their homes to new homes that promise safety, security and normality. </p>
<p>In looking after these children, social work and foster care should be among the most respected and honoured of professions. Society must scrutinise it but also have more faith in the care system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85294/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor receives funding from Penny Appeal. </span></em></p>Britain’s press reulgator ruled that The Times distorted its coverage of a case about a Christian girl placed with Muslim foster carers.Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, Research Fellow in Faith and Peaceful Relations at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/714442018-01-30T16:27:42Z2018-01-30T16:27:42ZWhat happens to mothers whose children are repeatedly taken into care<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200786/original/file-20180104-26145-9wo56t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It hurts. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/home">from www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If a child is born to a woman who is addicted to drugs, the baby is often taken away from its mother. A new investigation by the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09qn2wh/panorama-addicted-last-chance-mums">BBC’s Panorama programme</a> looked at the struggle some of these women go through to get their babies back. </p>
<p>Helping these mothers is not only the right thing to do, it can help address the record numbers of children going into care. My ongoing research with vulnerable mothers, who’ve had one or more children taken into care, reveals how many are subsequently abandoned by the system. </p>
<p>The number of looked-after children has risen steadily <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/664995/SFR50_2017-Children_looked_after_in_England.pdf">since the early 1990s</a>. The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service reported a 64% increase in the <a href="https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/news/2014/may/national-picture-of-care-applications-in-england-for-2013-14.aspx">rate of care applications made</a> between 2008-9 and 2013-14 – up from 6,488 to 14,599. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/44/7/1735/1718126/A-Marriage-Made-in-Hell-Early-Intervention-Meets">complex reasons behind the sharp rise</a>, though it followed the death in 2007 of “Baby P”, Peter Connelly, after months of abuse, despite numerous visits from authorities. His death placed a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11621391">spotlight on professionals</a> involved in child protection decisions. While local authorities responded with different strategies following the highly publicised case, all saw rises in care applications in subsequent years. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201178/original/file-20180108-83563-pnul5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201178/original/file-20180108-83563-pnul5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201178/original/file-20180108-83563-pnul5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201178/original/file-20180108-83563-pnul5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201178/original/file-20180108-83563-pnul5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201178/original/file-20180108-83563-pnul5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201178/original/file-20180108-83563-pnul5w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A marked increase in looked-after children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/664995/SFR50_2017-Children_looked_after_in_England.pdf">Department for Education</a></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-some-children-are-more-likely-to-go-back-into-care-than-others-70181">Why some children are more likely to go back into care than others</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The most common reason why children are removed from parents into care is neglect. This is often related to the underlying needs of the parents, who may have mental health problems, alcohol or drug disorders, or be in an abusive relationship. When a social worker or other professionals have safeguarding concerns around a pregnant woman, they may carry out a pre-birth assessment. If there is evidence that there is risk of significant harm to the unborn child, they can apply for a care order to remove the child from the mother shortly after birth. But it can vary depending where the mother lives, and different local authorities use different tools and timescales to assess these risks.</p>
<h2>Listening to mothers</h2>
<p>My research is highlighting <a href="http://shura.shu.ac.uk/13945/">how traumatic birth mothers</a> find the removal of their child, which often compounds multiple and complex problems. Women who had multiple pregnancies followed by the removal of each child experience a period of intense intervention from social services followed by a feeling of abandonment once the child is taken into care. </p>
<p>Most of the women I’ve spoken to are deprived in multiple ways. Some have been through the criminal justice system and are powerless to counter the decisions made by professionals involved in the removal of their children. Those mothers with a history of being in care themselves were also more likely to have their children removed. </p>
<p>One 33-year-old woman whose son was removed, and placed with a temporary foster family, just a few hours after birth told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m finding it hard … How am I gonna carry on without my boy? My heart’s broke … I’m not gonna get through it. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>She was able to visit her son in a contact centre three times a week with supervised contact while waiting for a decision on the child’s future from the family court. This was her fifth child, the previous four were no longer in her care. Like other mothers that I spoke to she had experienced abuse as a child. She had also been the victim of severe domestic violence while she was pregnant, and was still in recovery from drug addiction. She told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to be a mum now, I just want to settle down and live my life with [him] … It’s me past, and I know I’ve got a horrendous past, but people can change, but it’s just giving me that chance to show that I’ve changed … I’m just not being given that chance … I’ll never stop being labelled because of my past.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of the first attempts to measure the <a href="http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/articles/2015/research-reveals-family-court-recycles-one-in-three-young-mums/">scale of this issue in England</a> in 2015 found that in a sample of 7,143 women, 16% of birth mothers were caught in a cycle of repeat pregnancies and these women were linked to almost a third of all care applications. Researchers also found that a total of 22,790 children were connected to these mothers, because a birth mother was often linked to more than one child going through the system. </p>
<h2>A shift in child protection</h2>
<p>There are complex reasons behind these statistics. One factor has been the shift from <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09503153.2015.1014337?src=recsys">child welfare to child protection</a> which has changed the nature of social work. Rather than supporting children to remain within their families, the focus is on making parents who do not display acceptable behaviours more responsible, through risk assessments and interventions. </p>
<p>There is higher pressure from larger, more complex caseloads combined with a fear of getting things wrong – understandably so when major publicity accompanies this. As a result, social workers have less time to devote to each case and are more risk averse in their decision making. </p>
<p>A continued focus <a href="https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/dspace-jspui/bitstream/2134/1614/1/lister_children.pdf">on the child</a> rather than on supporting better parenting is not new, but it appears to contradict the efforts of the government’s <a href="http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7585">Troubled Families</a> programme which aims to support parents in those families with multiple problems, rather than having a strict focus on child protection. </p>
<p>Emerging projects are trying to prevent recurrent births and removals into care, but these solutions often focus on <a href="https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/council-news/show/programme-to-support-suffolks-vulnerable-recurrent-mothers-shows-real-success">promoting long-term contraception</a> or <a href="http://www.projectprevention.org/united-kingdom/">sterilisation</a>. Such approaches raise many ethical questions, but also highlight a flaw in how the issue is being approached: it places little value on the life of the mother and her welfare.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article draws on the author's doctoral research and is funded by Sheffield Hallam University's Vice-Chancellor's PhD Studentship. This PhD is linked to the ESRC-funded 'Welfare Conditionality: Sanctions, Support and Behaviour Change' project. </span></em></p>It can be a destructive cycle for mothers whose children are taken into care.Larissa Povey, PhD Candidate, Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/832702017-08-31T08:59:39Z2017-08-31T08:59:39ZRevealed: health prospects of children in care look worse than for anyone else<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184063/original/file-20170830-24267-vp4du9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly one in 100 children are in care</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/child-boy-mother-playing-educational-toy-546389527?src=6c0vVK68MzANR9bjcDbsJQ-1-7">santypan</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the state gets involved in the welfare of children or young people under 18, we call them “looked after”. They might live with foster parents, in a children’s home, with friends or relatives, or even with their own family under a <a href="http://www.chscotland.gov.uk/the-childrens-hearings-system/information-for-young-people/?slideId=1687">compulsory home supervision</a> order. </p>
<p>Nearly 95,000 British youngsters <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/556331/SFR41_2016_Text.pdf">live in</a> such arrangements, which is not far off one in 100. We know that their life chances are not as good as they should be. In the <a href="https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-protection-system/children-in-care/">words of</a> the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children: “As a result of their experiences both before and during care, looked after children are at greater risk than their peers”. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/apr/20/care-system-failures">media</a> and <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0048/00489792.pdf">authorities</a> have tended to focus on how the education system fails this group. Their health has only more recently been identified as a priority, <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0048/00489792.pdf">at least by</a> the Scottish government, though it has been considered impossible to build up a meaningful statistical picture because of the way the different relevant departments collate the data. </p>
<p>We have managed to do this, however. We have focused on dental data of looked after children in Scotland, but the results are likely to be the tip of a very worrying iceberg. They are likely to prompt much wider research into the general health of this group of children, both in Scotland but also across the UK and beyond. </p>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>Our <a href="http://adc.bmj.com/content/early/recent">new paper</a>, just published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood journal, has found that there are stark differences between the dental health of children in care and those who are not. We compared 622,280 children in the general population with 10,924 who are looked after, which is the majority of the <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/03/6791%205660">approximately 15,000</a> in Scotland. The dental treatment needs of children, particularly for urgent work or for extractions under general anaesthetic, are important because they <a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-13-370">could be considered</a> an early marker for poor physical health later in life.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184065/original/file-20170830-29609-evkr0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184065/original/file-20170830-29609-evkr0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184065/original/file-20170830-29609-evkr0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184065/original/file-20170830-29609-evkr0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184065/original/file-20170830-29609-evkr0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184065/original/file-20170830-29609-evkr0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184065/original/file-20170830-29609-evkr0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184065/original/file-20170830-29609-evkr0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Say aaah.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/baby-girl-examines-teeth-dental-mirror-404191657?src=aTvGzrcnBQJv4V-101eQyw-1-10">Evgeniy Kalinovskly</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that children in care have twice as many urgent dental health needs as the general child population. Children in care, including those in foster and residential care, have double the rates of urgent dental treatment, and are half as likely to attend dental services as children in general. Children in care are twice as likely to have a tooth extraction under general anaesthetic. </p>
<p>Our key findings also included:
</p><ul>
<li> 49% of children in care do not attend the dentist regularly, in comparison with 38% of all children; </li>
<li> 67% of five year olds in care have dental needs compared with 36% of all children; </li>
<li> 23% of five year olds in care have urgent dental needs including severe dental decay or dental abscesses, compared with 10% of all children; </li>
<li> 75% of 11 year olds in care have dental needs compared with 58% of all children; </li>
<li> 7% of 11 year olds in care have urgent dental needs compared with 2% of all children; </li>
<li> 9% of children in care have had a tooth extraction under general anaesthetic compared with 5% of all children.</li> </ul><p></p>
<p>These differences coudn’t be explained by the standard measurable socioeconomic factors – children in care have considerably worse dental issues than other children in a <a href="http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/SIMD">similar socioeconomic group</a>. And this is in a context where children in UK’s poorest areas are <a href="http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/inequalities-child-welfare-intervention-rates">ten times more likely</a> to be looked after. </p>
<p>We also identified variations between different categories of looked after children. Children in foster care had the best dental health, while those with the worst are the ones who remain in the family home with children’s panel and social work support. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184067/original/file-20170830-24247-12ax4at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184067/original/file-20170830-24247-12ax4at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/184067/original/file-20170830-24247-12ax4at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184067/original/file-20170830-24247-12ax4at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184067/original/file-20170830-24247-12ax4at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184067/original/file-20170830-24247-12ax4at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184067/original/file-20170830-24247-12ax4at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/184067/original/file-20170830-24247-12ax4at.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Different chances.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/old-see-saw-children-play-sand-539510137?src=M1FJ1aL_jqk5bRj5ckArGA-1-7">JKSippappas</a></span>
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<p>We don’t yet know whether the poor figures for looked after children are the result of the family background that led them into care in the first place or because the state is failing to look after them once they are in the system. Neither could we get any information on pre-school children because of the nature of the data. </p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>We are keen to do follow-up work to better understand the barriers and facilitators into dental services, since the findings also suggest that such services are either failing these children or they are just not using them. But to do this work, and for much other work into the health prospects of looked after children to become possible, it is going to need even further joined-up work between health and social care services to compare data. </p>
<p>Different areas of the UK are merging health and social care to various degrees. If social services and NHS services were to use a single identifier number for clients, it would make it easier to understand what is going on. </p>
<p>For the time being, these findings are a stark reminder to us all of the need to focus our efforts to ensure the most vulnerable children are properly cared for. It looks as though we have a problem: before we can solve it, we are going to need to be able to look at the full picture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex McMahon received funding from National Records Scotland in relation to the study referenced in the article. He is also a member of the Royal Statistical Society. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Conway is a member of the British Dental Association, Chair of the Socialist Health Association in Scotland, and Chair of the board of the Coach House Trust (charity). He has been awarded research grant funding from the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office, National Records Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland. </span></em></p>Landmark dental findings are likely to be the tip of an iceberg.Alex McMahon, Reader, Dental School, University of GlasgowDavid Conway, Professor of Dental Public Health, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/722172017-02-12T19:10:44Z2017-02-12T19:10:44ZThe faulty child welfare system is the real issue behind our youth justice crisis<p>Somewhere along the way, many vulnerable children in state care turn to crime. How this happens and what can be done about it are two of the most important crime-prevention questions facing society. Evidence indicates that, if the care-to-crime pathway is <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-have-so-many-people-in-prison-spent-time-in-care-as-children-66941">not acknowledged and addressed</a>, today’s vulnerable kids will become tomorrow’s criminals.</p>
<p>There have recently been a <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/malmsbury-riot-youth-justice-is-out-of-control-pressure-mounts-on-premier-daniel-andrews-20170125-gtypkd.html">series of riots</a>, escapes and assaults in youth detention centres across the country, most notably in Victoria. Victims of such assaults, as well as commentators, immediately called for <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/woe-is-me-20170126-gtz8se.html">tougher sentencing</a> and harsher treatment of detainees.</p>
<p>Critics have cast a wide net of blame for Victoria’s woes. <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/victorias-youth-justice-crisis-has-been-building-for-decades-20170130-gu1bwa.html">Paul McDonald</a>, the CEO of Anglicare Victoria, the state’s largest provider of out-of-home care services, blamed the changing demographics of young offenders – their age, ethnic origin and circumstance. He said the youth justice system had failed because the state’s justice program had “for too long … been the poor cousin to child protection issues”. </p>
<p>McDonald is a former government official responsible for both Victoria’s juvenile justice and child protection systems. Yet in all his criticism, he has been silent about one fact: children in our juvenile jails were failed by child protection systems like the one he used to run. He is not alone in ignoring this link.</p>
<p>Policymakers are reluctant to acknowledge the care system is producing criminals. This is despite abundant research showing children <a href="http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:38185/SOURCE02?view=true">become involved</a> in crime through the processes of the care environment itself. </p>
<h2>Residential care</h2>
<p>Last year, ABC’s <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/07/25/4504895.htm">Four Corners</a> highlighted the brutality in the Northern Territory’s Don Dale youth detention facility. Footage of Aboriginal boys teargassed, taunted and abused by guards led the prime minister to institute a <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/About/RoyalCommissions/Pages/Royal-Commission-into-the-Detention-of-Children-in-the-Northern-Territory.aspx">royal commission</a> into how the NT treats juvenile offenders.</p>
<p>A few weeks later, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/11/14/4572365.htm">Four Corners</a> focused on the Australian child welfare sector’s failure to protect children placed in state care. One form of care in particular, residential care – where children live with paid workers in small group-based facilities – has been linked to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-19/substantial-changes-for-state-care-system-abuse-cases-report/6707986">sexual exploitation</a> of children by adults, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-08/child-protection-systems-royal-commission-findings/7699900">recruitment into prostitution</a>, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3514803.htm">violence and crime</a>. </p>
<p>State governments have tried to address some of the issues. The Tasmanian government recently <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-02/children-removed-from-safe-pathways-care/8086738">closed one of its residential facilities</a> after allegations of neglect. The NSW government <a href="https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/about_us/media_releases/media_release_archive/nsw-residential-care-gets-multi-million-dollar-overhaul">began an overhaul</a> of its residential care system, while the Victorian government <a href="http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/fixing-victorias-residential-care/">announced the imminent transfer</a> of hundreds of so-called “resi kids” to other, purportedly safer forms of care.</p>
<p>At the same time, agencies such as UnitingCare, whose staff were recently embroiled in the <a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/girl-x-uniting-care-in-new-abuse-case-after-earlier-debacle/news-story/f990efb06a2b9e0b5aa2c8bffd6a147e">alleged sexual assault</a> and death of NSW resi-care teen “Girl X”, announced it <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-19/uniting-church-residential-care-homes-close-nsw-after-review/8130558">would no longer provide</a> residential care services. The agency also <a href="https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2015/11/uniting-a-new-nfp-name-for-advocacy/">launched a “rebrand”</a> of its tarnished image.</p>
<h2>Towards criminality</h2>
<p>Few are talking about how children in residential care and those in juvenile jail are essentially the same people. Yet the evidence is everywhere. </p>
<p>Several of the Don Dale kids had come through the NT’s out-of-home care system. Half of all children in Victoria’s youth detention centres <a href="http://www.dhs.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/890932/Youth-Parole-Board-and-Youth-Residential-Board-Annual-Report-2013-14.pdf">have come from</a> the child protection system. And last week, <a href="http://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/sites/www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/files/vla-care-not-custody-report.pdf">Victoria Legal Aid announced</a> children in residential care were much more likely to be charged with a criminal offence than those who stay with their families. </p>
<p>Studies from the <a href="http://archive.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/Foster_care_bias.pdf">United States</a>, <a href="https://www.rcybc.ca/sites/default/files/documents/pdf/reports_publications/kids_crime_and_care.pdf">Canada</a>, the <a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/downloadableDocs/6781-DfES-CM%20Summary.pdf">United Kingdom</a> and <a href="http://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/sites/www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/files/vla-care-not-custody-report.pdf">Victoria</a> have shown few of these children engaged in criminal behaviour before coming into care. </p>
<p>In other words, we are making criminals. Residential care in particular is criminogenic. Badly trained and poorly supported staff, inadequate matching of children of different ages, experiences and background (offenders and victims of abuse are often placed together), and a readiness to call police to manage children’s behaviour are all <a href="http://howardleague.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Criminal-Care.pdf">factors</a> contributing to <a href="http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/care%20review%20full%20report.pdf">children being turned</a> from child-in-need to child offender.</p>
<p>My <a href="http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:38185/SOURCE02?view=true">research shows</a> that children in care make up less than 1% of the NSW child population but comprise half of all cases before the NSW Children’s Court. I found children in care are arrested earlier, more often and more quickly than other children. </p>
<p>This is important <a href="https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/publication-documents/Reoffending_by_Children_and_Young_People_in_Victoria.pdf">because we know</a> that the earlier a child comes into contact with the justice system, the more deeply he or she is enmeshed, and the more protracted their exposure to crime is likely to be. Yet my research also found an <a href="http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:38185/SOURCE02?view=true">Australian policy vacuum</a> when it comes to recognising the link between out-of-home care and crime.</p>
<h2>We need to make the links</h2>
<p>There is <a href="http://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/sites/www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/files/vla-care-not-custody-report.pdf">compelling evidence</a> children in care are more likely to re-offend than other children, and that prisoners who have grown up in care are more likely to commit multiple offences and <a>return to jail</a>. </p>
<p>Yet there are still no Australian government policies, programs, training or care-specific statistics to help us understand how to respond to children in care who get caught up in the justice system.</p>
<p>For a start, our child welfare agencies do not publish information on the number of children who go to jail while in care. Police don’t include care status on their official forms. Children’s courts don’t record it either. Neither does the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Or the Victorian Sentencing Council. Or the departments that run our jails.</p>
<p>Other countries have adopted a decidedly different approach. While the UK has a far-from-perfect record in responding to the needs of children in care, its government has <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-have-so-many-people-in-prison-spent-time-in-care-as-children-66941">channelled millions of dollars</a> into reducing the disparity between the arrest rates of children in care and other children. Theirs isn’t a complete solution, but at least the UK has made the link and is having the conversation about how to fix it. </p>
<p>Recently, a New Zealand service, established by the government to assist people who had been abused in state care, estimated 40% of the country’s prisoners had been in care. The service blamed <a href="https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Files/Confidential-Listening-and-Assistance/$file/Confidential-Listening-and-Assistance-Service-Final-Report-Some-Memories-Never-Fade.pdf">its child welfare system</a> for creating the criminal gangs that now fill its jails. </p>
<p>Australia’s silence on this issue is costing us. In addition to the devastating impact for the individual children involved, creating criminals through the child welfare system <a href="http://www.justreinvest.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/report.pdf">costs society billions of dollars</a> in the long term. That’s more money for police and courts, more money for youth detention centres and more jails.</p>
<p>Governments, and the agencies they work with, must be transparent and honestly inform the public the child welfare system is creating criminals. Only then can we start to solve the real issues behind our youth justice crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine McFarlane was part of a CSU research team which was awarded a Criminology Research Council grant in 2016. She has been contracted to conduct a review for the NSW Children's Guardian (2017) and was previously the Chief Investigator in a government tender to review juvenile bail (2010).
She was formerly a Chief of Staff in the NSW Government (2011-2015).
</span></em></p>Few people are talking about how children in residential care and those in juvenile jail are essentially the same people.Katherine McFarlane, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Law & Justice, Charles Sturt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/701812017-01-13T10:36:25Z2017-01-13T10:36:25ZWhy some children are more likely to go back into care than others<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152529/original/image-20170112-25850-qerurg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The care system: too much of a revolving door. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dan4th/2402329882/sizes/l">Dan4th/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Each year, local authorities in England act as corporate parents for the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/556331/SFR41_2016_Text.pdf">100,000 children who are placed in care</a>. One important responsibility a parent has to their child is to provide them with stability. This helps them to feel secure and to develop attachments with caregivers, as well as a sense of identity and belonging. </p>
<p>A lack of stability during childhood can affect normal cognitive and emotional development, and have <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22201156">long-lasting negative consequences</a>. For children in care, achieving <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/children-in-care-to-get-stability-they-crave-q29xqtrkm">stability</a> often focuses on reducing the number of moves between foster carers or changes in social workers. What is less often considered is the process of leaving the care system.</p>
<p>Ideally, a child leaving the care system should move to a long-term, stable environment. But we know that some children become caught in a “revolving door”, with repeated entries and exits in and out of the system throughout their childhood. </p>
<p>To understand which groups of children in England are most likely to re-enter care, my colleagues and I have analysed <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-looked-after-return-2016-to-2017-guide">administrative data from the Department for Education</a>. Overall, we found that <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213416302708">one-third of children re-entered care within five years of leaving it</a>. Our sample looked at 4,076 children who exited care in 2008. By 2013, more than 35% had re-entered it. </p>
<p>There are three factors which influence the likelihood of a child re-entering the care system: how they leave, their characteristics, and how stable the placement was in the first place. </p>
<h2>How a child leaves the system</h2>
<p>Children can leave the care system in England in a number of ways. The main ways are returning to their parents (with or without further supervision from social services) or being placed in a new family setting through adoption, residence or <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/special-guardianship-guidance">special guardianship orders</a>. </p>
<p>Our analysis found that the highest rate of re-entry to care was among children who were returned home to their parents (40% re-entered within five years) while children who exited through special guardianship or residence orders had much lower rates of re-entry. Because <a href="http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/07/12/ije.dyw117.full">it is not possible </a> to identify adoption breakdowns in the Department for Education’s administrative dataset, these children were not included in our analysis.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152537/original/image-20170112-25870-1wgf94d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152537/original/image-20170112-25870-1wgf94d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152537/original/image-20170112-25870-1wgf94d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152537/original/image-20170112-25870-1wgf94d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152537/original/image-20170112-25870-1wgf94d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152537/original/image-20170112-25870-1wgf94d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152537/original/image-20170112-25870-1wgf94d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152537/original/image-20170112-25870-1wgf94d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Note: Data for 4,076 children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Department for Education data.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on these figures, it would appear that residence and special guardianship orders represent a positive strategy for achieving permanent, stable homes for children exiting care. But when comparing rates of re-entry, it is important to remember that not all children are equally likely to exit care in these ways. </p>
<p>Children can only leave care through a residence or special guardianship order if there is a suitable and willing guardian available and the biological parent agrees to relinquish some of their rights. Children who meet these criteria may not be representative of all children in care. For example, there may be fewer people willing to become a special guardian for children with severe behavioural issues or complex health needs. </p>
<h2>Demographic characteristics</h2>
<p>Research on re-entry to care <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740906000363">in the US has shown that black children are more likely than others to re-enter care</a>. But when we analysed the data for England we found that white and mixed ethnicity children had the highest rate of re-entry. More than one third re-entered within five years compared to one quarter of black, Asian or other ethnicity children. </p>
<p>Older children were also more likely to experience the breakdown of an exit from care resulting in their return to the care system. Almost half of adolescents re-entered care within five years compared to one quarter of children aged between one and four. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152536/original/image-20170112-25884-rt6myt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152536/original/image-20170112-25884-rt6myt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152536/original/image-20170112-25884-rt6myt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152536/original/image-20170112-25884-rt6myt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152536/original/image-20170112-25884-rt6myt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152536/original/image-20170112-25884-rt6myt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152536/original/image-20170112-25884-rt6myt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152536/original/image-20170112-25884-rt6myt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Note: Data for 4,076 children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Department for Education data.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stability of care affects the stability of exits</h2>
<p>The dataset we analysed contained some information on the stability of care, including whether a child had left care previously, the number of placement moves and the average length of each placement. As <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740911000193">in other studies</a>, we found that children who had less stable experiences in care had higher rates of re-entry. Children who had a single, stable placement in care were half as likely to re-enter as children who moved carer five or more times.</p>
<p>As a result of unstable placements while in care, children may have difficulty developing and maintaining relationships after they leave the system. For example, a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/030857590402800403">study</a> involving interviews with older fostered and adopted children revealed how feelings of insecurity hindered their ability to develop close and trusting relationships with caregivers. </p>
<p>Another possible explanation is that unstable care may be an indicator for other issues that can also affect the stability of exits. Children who are the most challenging cases when entering care – for example, those who may have behavioural issues or complex health needs – may be more likely to move carers multiple times. </p>
<p>Many children leaving care <a href="http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2012/04/30/70-of-looked-after-children-who-return-home-arent-ready/">need additional support </a> or monitoring, such as ongoing care plans and home visits. To better understand which groups of children in England are most likely to re-enter care, I have developed <a href="https://louisemcgrathlone.com/tool/social-care-calculator.html">a free, online calculator that estimates the likelihood of re-entry</a>. Understanding which groups are most likely to re-enter care could help guide social workers and potentially reduce the risk of “revolving door” care experiences and the associated adverse effects.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70181/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Mc Grath-Lone receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (grant reference number ES/L007517/1) which established the Administrative Data Research Centre for England (ADRC-E). The ADRC-E is led by the University of Southampton and run in collaboration with University College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). </span></em></p>Once a child has left care, their characteristics, the stability of their placement and how they left it influence their chances of re-entering the system.Louise Mc Grath-Lone, PhD candidate, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/516092015-12-09T09:57:54Z2015-12-09T09:57:54ZBy rushing to speed up forced adoptions we are letting children down<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104266/original/image-20151203-29636-1an4l9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cutting all links between a child and its family should be the very last option. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">vlavetal/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is within the power of a judge to sever all legal ties between a child in care and its birth family through an adoption order. Most adoption orders for children in care in England are made without parental consent, and are sometimes referred to as “forced” adoption. With <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34682421">political pressure mounting</a> to speed up the adoption process, we are at risk of rushing through more of these adoptions, despite serious concerns on whether this is the best option for the children involved.</p>
<p>In the year to March 31 2014, 5,050 children in England were adopted from care and over 95% of these were without parental consent. This happens in circumstances where children are deemed to have suffered or are likely to suffer significant harm through neglect or abuse. </p>
<p>The UK is not the only country in Europe with non-consensual adoption. It is possible in most countries, but no other EU state exercises this power to the extent <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/519236/IPOL_STU%282015%29519236_EN.pdf">that England does</a>. In Germany, <a href="http://website-pace.net/documents/10643/1127812/EDOC_Social+services+in+Europe.pdf/dc06054e-2051-49f5-bfbd-31c9c0144a32">250 non-consensual adoptions</a> of children took place in 2010. In contrast the average number of children a year adopted in the Netherlands is 28 and <a href="https://www.government.nl/topics/family-law/contents/adoption">only if</a> the parents don’t object. </p>
<p>These comparisons highlight the different ways countries meet the needs of children in care and the influence of social and political contexts on how policies develop. They also challenge the dominant political narrative in England that contrasts the “loving” adoptive family with the “tragedy” of a child remaining with its birth families or in foster care. While there are many loving adoptive families, the same can be said about parents, relatives and foster carers.</p>
<p>In many other EU countries, it is much easier for families to access support if they need help. <a href="https://www.fostering.net/sites/www.fostering.net/files/resources/england/understanding-permanence-for-lac-janet-boddy.pdf">Great emphasis is placed</a> on helping families to care for children safely at home and maintaining family links if in care. But in “austerity” England, family support services are closing, thresholds are high, and social work is being defined as a narrow child protection service. </p>
<p>This came under scrutiny <a href="http://website-pace.net/documents/10643/1127812/EDOC_Social+services+in+Europe.pdf/dc06054e-2051-49f5-bfbd-31c9c0144a32">in a report</a> from the Council of Europe in January which highlighted the impact of austerity cuts on social services. It specifically criticised England for its child protection focus and the removal of children from women who have been subject to domestic abuse, or who are suffering from depression, particularly in the context of policies promoting non-consensual adoption.</p>
<p>With services increasingly focused on protection rather than support, <a href="http://www.frg.org.uk/images/PDFS/frg-advocacy-service-evaluation-report-2011.pdf">families fear rather than seek professional help</a> when struggling in adverse social circumstances. The promotion of adoption sets up an adversarial dynamic that can seriously undermine social workers’ ability to develop trusting relationships with families needing help, as distrust and suspicion permeate the system. </p>
<h2>Speeding up the adoption process</h2>
<p>Prime minister David Cameron recently called for the adoption process <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34682421">to be accelerated</a> to end the “tragedy” of children waiting to be placed in a “loving home as soon as possible”. Any attempts to speed up the adoption process need to ensure a fair and just process that upholds the rights of children and their parents to family life and a fair trial.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">David Cameron on his plans to speed up adoption.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2014 there were <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/6/contents/enacted">changes introduced to the law</a> governing family courts, which included bringing in a <a href="http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1150529/government-admits-26-week-care-proceedings-target-unlikely-to-be-met">target of 26 weeks</a> for the proceedings to decide whether a child is removed on a long term basis from a parent’s care, including non-consensual adoption. This has proved controversial and indeed one important <a href="http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed127643">judgment</a> stressed that “justice must never be sacrificed upon the altar of speed”. </p>
<p>The prime minister has urged a dramatic increase in the number of children placed with adoptive families before the 26-week target for the end of the care proceedings. Yet we know that currently at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/462910/family-court-statistics.pdf">the end of proceedings</a> many children are placed with parents or relatives. While Cameron’s statement might sound laudable, the reality is far more complex. A premature placement with adoptive parents pre-judges the outcomes of legal proceedings and also risks causing unnecessary distress to all concerned. It diminishes a child’s right to family life and risks the early separation of siblings. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/09/parents-cleared-of-abuse-launch-legal-battle-to-win-custody-of-adopted-baby">recent case</a> of a couple cleared of harming their child, but unable to have the child returned because of the irrevocable nature of an adoption order is a highly unusual but powerful reminder of the lifelong consequences for all. </p>
<p>It is important to note that adoption is far from the risk-free solution that Cameron presents it as. Feelings of loss and grief permeate the lives of many of those affected, including children separated from brothers and sisters. We can do better by our society’s most vulnerable children and their families.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51609/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Gupta has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council for a project on unaccompanied and separated asylum-seeking children. She is a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brid Featherstone has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, Nuffield and Family Rights Group. She is a member of the Labour Party </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>June Thoburn is occasionally instructed as an expert witness in complex adoption cases. She has received research grants from UK Government and grant making bodies (eg Nuffield, SOS Children's Villages, and Leverhulme- but not for the past 10 years. Member of Acadamic Advisory Board of Independent Inquiry into Institutional Child Sex Abuse. Special Adviser to Cafcass Research Committee. Member British Association of Social Workers. She is a member of the Labour Party and Interm chair of the Labour Social Work Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Morris receives funding from the Nuffield Foundation and the Family Rights Group. She is a member of the Labour Party. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue White is a Trustee of Family Rights Group</span></em></p>England has far more forced adoptions than elsewhere in Europe. Is this right?Anna Gupta, Senior Lecturer, Department of Social Work, Royal Holloway University of LondonBrid Featherstone, Professor of social work, University of HuddersfieldJune Thoburn, Emeritus Professor, School of Social Work, University of East AngliaKate Morris, Professor of Social Work, University of SheffieldSue White, Professor of Social Work, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/512902015-12-09T09:56:37Z2015-12-09T09:56:37ZHard Evidence: are more children going into care?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104463/original/image-20151204-4389-1d78mbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who is entering the care system?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">WDG Photo/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are more children going into care than ever before? According to <a href="http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2015/10/01/number-looked-children-30-year-high-government-data-reveals/">recent government</a> data, the number of children in care in England has reached a 30-year high. </p>
<p>The claim is based on the number of children in care on the March 31 in a given year, a figure that has been collected by the Department for Education since 1992. In this context, care includes children in foster care (with relatives, family friends, strangers or potential adopters) as well as group care institutions, such as children’s homes. Teenagers aged 16 or older can also be placed in “independent living” in a flat, B&B or hostel.</p>
<p>According to the Department for Education’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/464756/SFR34_2015_Text.pdf">most recent report</a>, the number of children in care increased from approximately 50,000 in 1993 to 69,540 in 2015, the highest figure since 1985. </p>
<p>Before 1992, data on children in care was collected by the Department of Health. This <a href="http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C11518606">archived data</a>, shown in the graph below, shows that since 1977 the number of children in care has actually decreased by approximately 30%.</p>
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<p>But these numbers do not include all children who were in care during the year, just those in care on a single day – March 31. Nor do they take into account population size, or how it has changed.</p>
<p>An alternative way to look at whether more children are entering care is to describe it as a percentage of all children of a certain age group. Between April 1 2014 and March 31 2015, 99,230 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/464756/SFR34_2015_Text.pdf">children in England entered care</a>. This represents 0.9% of children, or about one in 100.</p>
<h2>One in 30 children will enter care at some point</h2>
<p>My own <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213415003786">recent research</a> using Department for Education data calculated the percentage of children in England born between 1992 and 2011 who entered care at some point during their childhood, rather than a single calendar year. My colleagues and I found that 3.3% of the cohort of children born between 1992 and 1994 spent time in care by the age of 18. So for this cohort, one in 30 entered care at some point in their childhood. </p>
<p>This stark difference from the one in 100 figure is because although children can enter care throughout childhood, the Department for Education figures only count those who are currently in care in a given year. Some of these children will have been in care in previous years and some will be entering care for the first time. Over time the number of children who have ever spent time in care accumulates as some children exit care and others enter.</p>
<p>This analysis shows clearly that the percentage of children entering care is increasing: by age one, 0.5% of children born between 1992 and 1994 entered care, but that had risen to 0.8% of those born between 2009 and 2011. Though the absolute percentage increase appears small, it equates to an extra 2,000 infants entering care.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104430/original/image-20151204-14451-s8j0c5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104430/original/image-20151204-14451-s8j0c5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/104430/original/image-20151204-14451-s8j0c5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104430/original/image-20151204-14451-s8j0c5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104430/original/image-20151204-14451-s8j0c5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104430/original/image-20151204-14451-s8j0c5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104430/original/image-20151204-14451-s8j0c5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/104430/original/image-20151204-14451-s8j0c5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">% of children in England who spent time in care by year of birth: 1992-2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213415003786">Mc Grath-Lone et al., 2015</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Research in other countries, such as the <a href="http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/data_brief_foster_care_trends1.pdf">US</a>, <a href="http://cwrp.ca/sites/default/files/publications/en/AboriginalChildren23E.pdf">Canada</a> and <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/cfca/publications/children-care">Australia</a>, has shown that some ethnic minorities are more likely to enter care. In England, 4.5% of black and 4.2% of mixed ethnicity children born between 2001 and 2003 entered care by age nine, compared to just 1.6% of white or 0.8% of Asian children. Ethnicity is not well recorded in the Department for Education data for children born before 2001, so ethnic variation at older ages cannot yet be described.</p>
<h2>Care is now longer and more stable</h2>
<p>Children in care in England can be placed in a variety of settings. Most are placed in foster care but some are placed in group care settings such as children’s homes or residential units. Over time the use of group care has decreased and the use of foster care has increased: just 0.5% of children born in 2008 were placed in group care at the age of one to four compared to 2.3% of those born in 1992.</p>
<p>The amount of time children spend in care has also changed over time. For infants born in 1992, the average number of weeks in care during the two years following entry was 49, increasing to 70 for those born in 2008 – an increase of more than five months.</p>
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<p>Stability of care has improved for most children with a decrease in the proportion who have more than one placement change in a two-year period. But no changes are evident among infants. Almost one in three experienced multiple placements despite the importance of secure attachments to care givers during this sensitive period of development.</p>
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<p>So the Department of Education data shows that more children in England are entering care now than in the early 1990s. Once in care these children are staying for longer which invariably places social services under pressure, particularly in the current context of economic austerity.</p>
<p>There is growing evidence of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34944973">the positive effects good quality foster care can have</a> on children’s outcomes such as exam attainment. A greater proportion are now placed in a stable family setting; yet children in care <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/outcomes-for-children-looked-after-by-local-authorities">continue to have worse educational and social outcomes than their peers</a>, a failure that the prime minister David Cameron has admitted “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tory-party-conference-2015-david-camerons-speech-in-full-a6684656.html">shames our country</a>”.</p>
<p>We must continuously seek to improve the quality of care that children receive. But it is also important that the underlying societal structures and policies that cause the state to assume the caring role of a parent for a significant and growing proportion of children are also investigated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Mc Grath-Lone receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, grant reference number ES/L007517/1, establishing the Administrative Data Research Centre for England (ADRC-E). The ADRC-E is led by the University of Southampton and run in collaboration with University College London, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed are entirely those of the author. </span></em></p>Examining the data on whether the number of children in care at some point in their childhood has gone up.Louise Mc Grath-Lone, PhD candidate, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/494272015-10-20T19:35:00Z2015-10-20T19:35:00ZChildren in care are falling behind in literacy and numeracy – but the problem is far bigger than that<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98973/original/image-20151020-23267-18vwuqr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young children enter care as a result of neglect or abuse, which has a big impact on their ability to engage in school. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129552937">report</a> out today has found that children in care are less likely to achieve the national minimum standards in literacy and numeracy, with the gap growing substantially over time. </p>
<p>The report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) compared <a href="http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129548810">child protection data</a> and the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (<a href="http://www.nap.edu.au/verve/_resources/naplan_2013_national_report.pdf">NAPLAN</a>) results.</p>
<p>It found that while 81.4% of year 3 students in care met the writing benchmark, this reduces to 43.9% for year 9 students. In year 7, just 70.9% of students in care met the reading benchmark, compared to 94.2% of students nationally.</p>
<p>This is similar for year 5 numeracy, where 71.3% met the benchmark compared to 93.4% nationally.</p>
<p>With approximately 59,000 children living in care in Australia, this is a significant issue. </p>
<h2>Educational challenges facing children in care</h2>
<p>Young children often enter care as a result of neglect or abuse, which has substantial impacts on their well-being, language development and social inclusion.</p>
<p>AIHW spokesperson Justine Boland explains that children in care have:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>complex personal histories and multiple forms of disadvantage, including poverty, maltreatment, family dysfunction and instability in care and schooling.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Students who are placed in care often start off with lower learning outcomes. They tend to have fewer opportunities to engage in learning outside school, such as reading with an adult, for example. </p>
<p>They continue to experience lower levels of academic engagement as they get older and are increasingly disadvantaged. </p>
<p>The effects are cumulative, particularly when combined with existing factors of equity and access, social disadvantage, disability, Indigeneity and geo-location. Moving to different homes on a regular basis and irregular school attendance are also factors.</p>
<p><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2006.00446.x/full">Research shows</a> the whole process of going into care, from before they have entered a care home to life during care, has a significant impact on a child’s ability to attend and perform well in school. </p>
<p>These have a compounding effect, leading to high rates of disengagement and school dropout in later years.</p>
<h2>Will increasing literacy and numeracy scores help?</h2>
<p>There is no doubt that improving <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-would-a-more-literate-world-look-like-18420">literacy</a> is central to not just increased educational attainment, but also better life opportunities and social inclusion.</p>
<p>However, we also need a much more sophisticated understanding of educational disadvantage. </p>
<p>I have written <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-poor-kids-continue-to-do-poorly-in-the-education-game-23500">previously</a> about the importance of school funding that addresses unequal access to educational opportunities. We know that there are clear links between factors of disadvantage and educational <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/education-funding-is-a-matter-of-equity-20140915-10h2zn.html">equity</a>.</p>
<p>Reports such as this one from AIHW provide an important starting point for a conversation about equity and access in education. </p>
<h2>Target funding at the disadvantaged</h2>
<p>It also fits with the general arguments around why we need the <a href="http://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/review-of-funding-for-schooling-final-report-dec-2011.pdf">Gonski funding package</a> as it was originally intended. The goal was to target disadvantage to ensure that:</p>
<ul>
<li>differences in educational outcomes are not the result of differences in wealth, income, power or possessions;</li>
<li>all students have access to a high standard of education regardless of their background or circumstances.</li>
</ul>
<p>We need to be having difficult conversations about how we are going to provide a more equitable education for Australia’s most disadvantaged children, including those in care.</p>
<p>As well as improving educational attainment, we need to address a whole range of factors. These include improving school participation and engagement, reducing levels of suspension and expulsion, increasing retention and year 12 completion rates, and providing alternative pathways from school to work and further study. We also need to address a range of social, cultural, economic and emotional factors outside the school grounds.</p>
<h2>We need support from all sides</h2>
<p>It is <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2006.00430.x/full">important</a> that children have a sense of security, stability, continuity and social support both at home and at school. </p>
<p>Providing young people with strategies for developing <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13632750701315631">resilience</a> is also key. </p>
<p>Consistency and <a href="http://www.childrenyoungpeopleandfamilies.org.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/82284/AddressingHighRatesofSchoolSuspension.pdf">stability</a> in school attendance and participation as well as in care arrangements are critically important for increasing the capacity for young children in care to engage fully in education.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, these are not issues with an easy policy fix or a simple curriculum intervention waiting at hand. It takes a long time and co-ordinated effort –involving governments, non-government organisations, schools and education systems, courts and child protection authorities, foster and community care providers, families and communities more broadly – to make the difference that is needed.</p>
<p>When you consider that nearly nine in every 1,000 children (0-17 years) are living in state-ordered care, it is a very real problem for many young Australians. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/child_protection_framework.pdf">National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children</a> demonstrates a commitment from Australian governments to ensure that children live in safe and supportive families and communities. However, much more needs to be done.</p>
<p>Providing a meaningful education for children in care has benefits not only for future employment prospects, but also for health, participation in society and belonging to communities. Increasing NAPLAN scores is not enough.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Riddle does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A new report finds children in care are less likely to achieve the national minimum standards in literacy and numeracy – with the gap growing as they get older.Stewart Riddle, Senior Lecturer, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/490652015-10-14T05:29:13Z2015-10-14T05:29:13ZRising numbers of children are brought up by grandparents or other relatives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98215/original/image-20151013-31138-12kmjtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A familiar shoulder to lean on, despite hardship.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Grandparents via Monkey Business Images via ww.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When children are unable to live with their parents, often someone in the family such as a grandparent, sibling, uncle or aunt steps in to fill the void. Our <a href="https://fluff.bris.ac.uk/fluff/u1/ficmc/tNNMOPX7_nYRh8MQTVlyQwTpd/">new research</a> shows there has been a 7% increase in children in England being brought up by a relative in what’s called “kinship care” over the past ten years and that black children were more likely than white children to be living with a relative other than their parents. </p>
<p>There is no formula or fixed pattern that leads to a situation where a child grows up in kinship care, but <a href="http://www.buttleuk.org/data/files/Research_Documents/Ch_10__11_of_The_Poor_Relations.pdf">previous research</a> has found that circumstances such as the death of a parent, mothers being given a custodial prison sentence, long-term parental sickness, or drug misuse were all reasons that kinship care became necessary. Some children are also unable to live with their parents due to abuse or neglect.</p>
<h2>A relative home</h2>
<p>In our study we analysed anonymised research data from the latest 2011 census and found that 152,910 children were growing up in the care of relatives in England. Putting that number in context, the number of children in kinship care has grown by 7% over the past decade, far exceeding the 2% overall increase of the number of children in the population. </p>
<p>Our ongoing study found that in households without a parent present, it was grandparents who most often stepped in to care for a child – 51% of these children were looked after by grandparents in 2011, compared to 44% in 2001. Older siblings were the next most common carers, looking after 23% of children, although this decreased from 38% in 2001. The remaining children were being brought up by another relative such as an aunt, an uncle or a cousin. </p>
<p>Of the children growing up in kinship care, 32% were of minority ethnic origin, compared to 21% of all children growing up with parents across the population. Looking at the minority ethnic group more in detail, it was apparent that one in every 37 black children in the whole census population (including black Caribbean, black African and other black ethnicities) were growing up in the care of relatives, compared with one in every 83 white children.</p>
<p>Children in kinship care were also twice as likely to have a long-term health problem or disability compared with those children living with parents. A large number, 40%, of these children were also living in the poorest areas of England and were living in households affected by some kind of deprivation – in housing, employment, education, health or disability. One in every 25 children in kinship care were living in the most deprived households in the country, compared with one in every 159 children living with their parents.</p>
<h2>Don’t ignore these children and their carers</h2>
<p>The change in family structures from the traditional mother-father set-up needs to be understood and properly addressed. The group of vulnerable children that grow up in kinship care are largely ignored in family policies, where the presumption is that children are brought up by parents. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98216/original/image-20151013-31141-5b3uzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/98216/original/image-20151013-31141-5b3uzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98216/original/image-20151013-31141-5b3uzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98216/original/image-20151013-31141-5b3uzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98216/original/image-20151013-31141-5b3uzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98216/original/image-20151013-31141-5b3uzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/98216/original/image-20151013-31141-5b3uzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not all families are like this.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Family in the house via Satellite/www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2010, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government did <a href="https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Family%20and%20Friends%20Care.pdf">issue statutory guidance</a> stating that all local authorities in England should publish policies on kinship carers and children. The intentions were good, but five months after the stipulated deadline, only 55% of local authorities had published a family and friends policy. Of those who published policies, <a href="http://www.frg.org.uk/involving-families/family-and-friends-carers-e-publications-and-studies/understanding-family-and-friends-care-studies">only 13% had</a> actually based their policies on the profile and needs of the local kinship children and their carers. Different settings require different measures and so a non-specific approach would inevitably fall short.</p>
<p>The landscape is even more blurred by the number of kinship families that are not known about by the local authorities. The largest number of kinship placements are <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2206.2012.00879.x/abstract">arranged privately</a> between families and as there is no legal obligation made on close relatives to notify the authorities of such child care arrangements. These kinship families are under the radar and may remain largely unaware of the discretionary specialist support and services that may be available to them from the local authorities. </p>
<p>Family set-ups are changing and the government’s policies need to address this properly. Our results indicate a pressing need for urgent support and services to be provided to these children and their kinship families.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49065/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dinithi Wijedasa received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council for this research on kinship care (ESRC grant ES/K008587/1)</span></em></p>Children growing up with other relatives are more likely to be from an ethnic minority.Dinithi Wijedasa, Research Associate, Hadley Centre for Adoption and Foster Care Studies, School for Policy Studies, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.