Current policy implications

When considering the application of any theoretical framework, practitioners are led by current legislation and linked guidance, such as strategic planning for children’s services, collective responsibilities and the impact of poverty. Links to the relevant Acts are given in the list of references.

The principle of working to ensure that children remain in their parents’ care, or with kinship carers wherever possible, is articulated strongly throughout the findings of the Independent Care Review (2020). The Review listened to over 5,500 experiences. Over half of the voices were children and young people with experience of the ‘care system’, adults who had lived in care, and lots of different types of families. The remaining voices came from professional and voluntary people involved in care. The Care Review emphasises the child’s right to experience continuity of loving relationships and explicitly supports the development of particular elements of resource provision.

Support services for parenting

The Independent Care Review declares a commitment to the provision of a range of support services for parents from the earliest stage of pregnancy. These services may be provided directly by local authorities or in collaboration with voluntary agencies, but the vision is that every attempt should be made to ensure that children grow up with their parents wherever possible. The emphasis on provision of readily available support for parents in the child’s early years echoes the learning from attachment theory and neurobiological research which stresses the benefits of reliable, attuned caregiving at this stage.

This has clear implications for practitioners assessing parenting and working with parents to enhance their childrens’ security in their care. The legislation highlights the National Parenting Strategy which stresses the responsibility on the local authority to offer ‘informed, coordinated support to enable parents to develop their parenting skills, whatever their need, wherever they live, whether they live together or apart.’ (p10).

The Independent Care Review also emphasises the reality that some parents may require long-term support rather than brief interventions or time limited resources (p16).

Therefore, in any assessment of parenting, consideration should be given to the provision of resources to enhance parenting and prevent child removal, wherever this is realisable in the child’s best interests.

Practice points

• How well could parent(s) perform the tasks required of them given the best circumstances?
• What resources would be required for the child to remain safely in parental care?
• Have such resources been offered and with what outcome?
• Might long-term support be needed and how might it be targeted to enhance and ensure the child’s wellbeing and safety in parental care?

Family Group Decision Making services

This approach to early engagement with family members seeks to redress the power imbalance between parents and professionals, giving family members the opportunity to develop their own plans for the child/children which enlist family strengths and resources to ensure child safety and wellbeing.

This approach is being developed in several Scottish local authority areas, whether as a part of their own direct provision, or in partnership with agencies such as Children 1st and Barnardos. It is strongly supported by the Scottish Government, not only explicitly in Part 12 of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, but also in the Independent Care Review.

A key feature is the involvement of an independent coordinator who engages with the child and their family at the earliest possible opportunity, in order to consider the specific concerns about the child’s wellbeing. At a family meeting, guided by the child’s needs, a family plan is then developed. While enabling and facilitating an opportunity for a family meeting does not always prevent the child’s removal from parental care, family resources may well be found to offer care, either for a short time, or for longer placement, for example, in kinship care.

The principles and practice of a Family Group Decision Making approach reflect a strengths-based approach to the engagement of family networks and may avoid the severing of important attachment relationships while still ensuring the child’s wellbeing.

It is an example of restorative practice which respects the rights of families to be consulted and engaged, often avoiding the need for official intervention. It addresses recent criticism of professional approaches which discriminate against parents already experiencing significant adversity and can avoid the fracturing of significant attachments.

Use of a Family Group Decision Making approach is already well established in several local authority areas in Scotland and similar services are being developed country wide. The approach has been already used constructively in a range of different circumstances, for example, when children are ‘on the edge of care’ away from home, at the pre-birth stage when there is acute concern about the acute challenges faced by parents or when there are child protection worries.

Outcomes have recently been researched in Scotland and confirm the importance for families of an approach which values the strengths and resources they have to offer (Mitchell, 2019).

Lifelong Links

Lifelong Links is a service pioneered by Family Rights Group aimed at building positive lifelong support for children living in the care system. Provision involves the closest consultation with young people, their carers and family members, and has been developed in collaboration with local authorities, voluntary organisations and Family Group Decision Making services.

Initially developed in England, the service has been trialled in Scotland and is available to looked after children and young people in foster and residential care. CELCIS is researching outcomes in Scotland and feedback from young people confirms the value they place on re-establishing connections with lost family members and friends, as well as the discovery of new kin.

These links, and the parallel opportunity to explore issues of family identity, have been found to be important to young people. They offer networks of contact and support beyond their care placements which contribute to the development of a coherent story of the past, family culture and history. Young people may be helped to reconnect with significant attachment figures from the past, as well as with lost friendship networks.