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TRANSCRIPT
The rising number of children in care:
the Cafcass data and perspective
12 October 2017
NCAS Conference 2017
Bournemouth International Centre
Anthony Douglas CBE
Chief Executive, Cafcass
“Change doesn’t start when you’re
removed. You’re already removed.”
Tony’s story
“I became a ‘looked after’ child when I was in primary school. Imagine
moving into the home of people you’ve never met, when you’re that
young. It was upsetting, distressing, and I felt I didn’t belong.
I remember going to a court hearing. Everyone was smartly dressed and
well spoken. I was a child wearing jeans. Everyone was talking about me
and making arrangements for me. Nobody asked my opinion or feelings.
It was years before I moved into what I now consider to be my home. It is
where I still live today, with a foster family who love me. I went to court to
change my surname so I could be ‘adopted’ by my family. In this case,
the judge took an interest in what I thought.
I’m now engaged to my partner and working in a role that supports
children and young people.”
Section 8 of the Children and Social Work
Act 2017: from 31 October
Section 8 makes amendments to the definition of ‘permanence
provisions’ laid out in section 31 of the Children Act 1989, adding
to existing considerations to ensure that courts must also take
into account care plan provisions which set out the child’s
individual needs, current and future, including those arising from
abuse or neglect, and consider how well the long-term plan for
the child will meet those needs. Section 8 will require the courts
to consider:
the impact on the child of any harm they have suffered (or
were likely to suffer);
their current and future needs, including any needs arising
from that impact; and
the way in which the proposed plan for their upbringing will
meet those current and future needs.
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
Care Applications Received 2002-2017
Care demand and duration
31 31 30 30 30 29 29 30 3028 29
31 31
2014-15Q1
2014-15Q2
2014-15Q3
2014-15Q4
2015-16Q1
2015-16Q2
2015-16Q3
2015-16Q4
2016-17Q1
2016-17Q2
2016-17Q3
2016-17Q4
2017-18Q1
National Public Law Care Duration (Calendar Weeks)
25592838 2832 2930 2995 3049
32293519
3670 38013542 3583 3563 3587
2014-15Q1
2014-15Q2
2014-15Q3
2014-15Q4
2015-16Q1
2015-16Q2
2015-16Q3
2015-16Q4
2016-17Q1
2016-17Q2
2016-17Q3
2016-17Q4
2017-18Q1
2017-18Q2
National Public Law Care Demand
Main drivers
Risk aversion, especially in the aftermath of Baby P;
New caselaw to bring more cases into the court arena
e.g, ‘voluntary’ care cases;
Better reviewing, fuelled by the impact of research,
Ofsted inspections and professional/sector
developments;
Dramatic rises in emotional harm and neglect referrals,
leading to more care applications;
Small rises in the child population;
The impact of austerity, meaning help arrives too late for
some children and families.
Recurrent proceedings: short intervals between proceedings
25% issued prior to final
hearing of an earlier set of
proceedings.
A further 35% within one
year of final hearing.
This leaves mothers with
little time to demonstrate
change in circumstances to
the courts.
Intervals are out of sync with
what we know of durable
recovery.
Centre for Children and Family Justice Research, Lancaster University
Child maltreatment and neglect in women’s childhoods
Both case files and interview data
evidence the harm women were
exposed to, in the context of their
parental or other primary caregiver
relationships.
The literature on development
trauma helps us to think about the
negative consequences of this form
of harm.
Count Percent
Neglect 234 66.1
Emotional
Abuse237 66.9
Physical
Abuse183 51.7
Sexual
Abuse188 53.1
Total 354 100.0
Centre for Children and Family Justice Research, Lancaster University
Childhood and adulthood under the gaze of services
Fragments of the life-course are
lived outside of services.
But:
Much of childhood and early
adulthood (at least) is lived
under the gaze of professional
intervention –
How does this influence their
interaction with services?
Care
Court
Court
Aged 10
Aged
18
Aged 21
Centre for Children and Family Justice Research, Lancaster University
What this means for children?
More are being rescued from a miserable existence;
Fewer are drifting – better reviewing;
More are having their futures secured earlier – but by no
means all and some children go ‘in and out of permanence’;
More children are living within their family network;
Outcomes from care are improving slowly;
The impact of their situation on individual children is being
better recognised;
However there is a major sufficiency problem:
The number of placements is not keeping place with the
number of children coming into the care system – a problem
of type, quantity and matching.
Local and regional variation
What matters most is how the main drivers for rising
(or falling) numbers of children in care intersect
locally.
This is best understood through a local appreciative
enquiry between partner agencies.
Local and regional variation is widening.
Here are some Cafcass datasets designed to
support this process and to support service and
practice improvement.
Lack of correlation between proxy
indicatorsDemand
growth
S31 Application Duration
(Wks)Last Ofsted Inspection
S31 Apps. per 10,000
children
2016-17 vs
2015-162014-15 2015-16 2016-17 Date Result 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
-42% 32 28 33 02-Jun-14 Improvement 9.1 13.6 23.3
-4% 22 30 33 04-Mar-13 Adequate 5.6 5.6 7.9
33% 30 29 31 23-Jan-17 Adequate 8.8 10.9 14.1
21% 41 37 42 12-Sep-16 Inadequate 7.1 10.5 8.6
22% 38 26 27 23-Jan-12 Good 14.5 12.5 19.8
21% 38 28 28 02-Jul-14 Improvement 22.4 28.2 39.0
14% 31 30 30 14-Jan-14 Improvement 11.7 12.6 11.5
-33% 32 31 28 30-Apr-14 Improvement 13.8 14.5 17.6
0% 31 38 32 31-Oct-11 Good 8.1 5.9 12.7
31% 26 31 29 18-Feb-14 Improvement 8.8 8.5 8.5
4% 32 30 29 14-Apr-15 Improvement 13.7 15.8 19.5
0% 28 28 26 30-Sep-14 Improvement 13.5 12.0 12.7
-17% 31 30 34 03-Jun-14 Inadequate 5.2 4.6 9.8
26% 29 28 27 22-Feb-16 Improvement 10.6 10.3 10.7
25% 38 27 27 13-Jan-15 Improvement 6.3 8.1 7.8
35% 25 27 27 03-Jun-14 Good 8.9 8.1 9.1
-5% 30 26 32 20-Feb-12 Good 8.3 11.9 9.4
32% 25 28 27 06-Jul-15 Improvement 6.5 8.2 9.6
-4% 26 27 25 24-Nov-15 Good 11.8 15.8 13.5
-100% 17 21 22 28-Jul-16 Good 12.4 0.0 11.6
-6% 40 31 39 22-Feb-16 Good 11.2 12.1 11.2
-9% 31 36 33 28-Jan-14 Inadequate 18.0 16.5 17.2
28% 21 24 27 03-Mar-15 Inadequate 11.2 11.3 12.1
50% 25 26 26 23-Jun-15 Inadequate 13.2 16.4 16.8
16% 24 26 25 03-Dec-12 Good 13.2 14.1 15.3
Merseyside: ‘they do things differently there’
Nine local authorities - but
the same issues in
Manchester, Stoke, Kirklees
…
Higher number of children
returning home on care
orders (up to 15-20% of the
care population) – compared
to other areas with only 5% of
children on Care Orders
placed with parents.
Local Variation by Local Authority Area
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Legal output recorded for the children on s31 applications closed in Q1 2017-18* (by Local Authorty Area)
% Children returned to parents % Children removed from parents with family % Children permanently removed from parents
Local Variation by Cafcass Service Area (Cafcass Duration – Public Law Care)
Q12015/16
Q1 2016/17
Q12017/18
*Data from Cafcass Electronic Case Recording System
Outputs of care proceedings: national data
Output variation by local authority
Local
authority 1
Local
authority 2
Examples of successful edge of care and in-court
programmes
C2 reduction programme in Birmingham
Foster to adopt e.g., Cambridgeshire
Adoption Support Fund programmes
e.g., Stockport, Cheshire East,
Salford, Manchester and Trafford; and Kent
Family Drug and Alcohol Courts e.g.,
Milton Keynes, Lincolnshire
Preventing recurrent care proceedings e.g.,
Pause
Edge of care family support programmes
(most la’s)
Settlement conferences (Cheshire
and Merseyside)
The new Legal Aid Agency portal (150
users a minute)
Key issues
1. Many successful programmes are
dependent on short-term Government
funding.
2. No successful programme has been rolled
out to more than 20 local areas (out of
152 in England).
The rising number of children in care:
the Cafcass data and perspective
12 October 2017
NCAS Conference 2017
Bournemouth International Centre
Anthony Douglas CBE
Chief Executive, Cafcass