Complexity in the lives of looked after children and their families in Scotland: 2003 to 2016

Woods, Ruth; Henderson, Gillian; Kurlus, Indiya; Proudfoot, Pauline; Hobbs, Nick; Lamb, Donald

Abstract

This research sought to answer the question: Has child protection in Scotland become more complex over time, and if so, how? To do this we examined changes in complexity in: 1) Society. 2) The Children’s Hearings System and associated legislation and practice. 3) The lives of looked after children aged under three years and their families. To do this we developed a method to measure changes in complexity in the lives of looked children, and used it to assess complexity in the first three years of the lives of children born in 2003 compared to those born in 2013. Results: Changing complexity in looked after children’s lives: Increases: a) Extent of family fragmentation - separation of children from their parents and siblings. This was directly linked to changes in child protection practice resulting in more children aged under three years being removed from their parents’ care. b) Residence with child who is not a sibling. c) Number of changes in Compulsory Supervision Orders (CSOs). Contributory factors were increases in numbers of children with permanence plans, supervised contact with parents and earlier age of being taken into care. d) Number of problems faced by parents, especially criminality. But, the frequencies of many individual parental problems were high over time suggesting a stable population of high risk parents with multiple serious problems. Each of the following parental problems were present in over 50% of the families studied: victim of abuse; perpetrator of abuse; abused drugs; committed an offence; mental illness; inappropriate relationships; difficult childhood; unemployed; and/or was in a volatile relationship. e) Presence of legal representatives in Hearings and number of relevant persons - both are directly linked to changes in legislation. f) Over the past two decades in Scotland in general (i.e. not specifically amongst families of looked after children), complexity resulting from ethnic diversity and drug and alcohol abuse have increased. Decreases: a)SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) at birth – the first residence of children born in 2003 had lower SIMD than those born in 2013. This change reflects the increase over time in the number of children who went directly from hospital after birth into foster care, since foster carers tended to live in more affluent areas than did birth parents. b) Number of changes of co-residents experienced by child. This again was linked to the increased practice of placing children with foster carers from birth. No changes: a) Sibling group size b)Rates of parental separation c) Rates of problems in extended family d) Rates of problems for family in community e) Number of places of residence f) Number of concurrent residences g) Number of changes of key worker h) Number of child problems i) Number of organisations working with family. We found that inter-agency complexity has, in general, not increased over the time. We also found that many of these types of complexity have remained consistently high (e.g. over 40% of families had problems in their community and extended family, over 70% of parents separated in the first three years of their child’s life, and a fifth of children were premature or had low birth weights). Frequencies of complex Children’s Hearings-related events from 2003-04 to 2015-16: Increase of 19% - Child Protection Orders; increase of 87% - Pre-Hearing Panels/ Business meetings; increase of 115% - Appeals; increase of 137% - Interim Compulsory Supervision Orders/ Warrants; increase of 191% - Non Disclosure Orders; decrease of 0.2% - Hearing held; decrease of 2% - children with CSOs; decrease of 8% - applications for proof concluded. In addition, there was an 88% increase in the number of pieces of legislation related to the Hearings System between 1998 and 2017. Conclusion: This research has provided evidence to answer conclusively that: Yes - child protection in Scotland has become more complex over time. There are multiple factors that affect the care and protection of children which have become more complex, in particular the extent of problems faced by parents. Legislation and practice changes to protect looked after children have also added complexity to the lives of vulnerable families both directly through their involvement in legal processes and indirectly through increased family fragmentation through interventions to take children into care. This increased complexity in child protection has implications for all those working within the Hearings System, especially for the training of Children’s Panel Members and professionals, and in their decision making to protect vulnerable children. Importantly, it has implications for those families who find themselves involved in an increasingly complex legal system.

Citation

WOOD, R., HENDERSON, G., KURLUS, I., PROUDFOOT, P., HOBBS, N. and LAMB, D. 2018. Complexity in the lives of looked after children and their families in Scotland: 2003 to 2016. Research report. Stirling: SCRA [online]. Available from: https://www.scra.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Complexity-in-the-lives-of-looked-after-children-and-their-families.pdf

• Report Type: Research Report
• Online Publication Date: Mar 7, 2018
• Publication Date: Mar 31, 2018
• Deposit Date: Feb 22, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 8, 2022
• Publisher: Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA)
• Series Title: Research report
• Keywords: Child protection; Scotland; Changing complexity; Family fragmentation; Compulsory supervision orders (CSOs); Parental problems
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1328364
• Publisher URL: http://www.scra.gov.uk/resources_articles_category/research/
• Related Public URLs: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/1615551