Managing contact in the interests of children in out-of-home care: Challenges and possibilities

1. j Managing contact in the interests of children in out-of-home care: Challenges and possibilities Robin Sen Glasgow School of Social Work robin.sen@strath.ac.uk CAFCASS Conference, February 24th 2010

2. The study

3. Legislative and practice context • Children (Scotland) Act 1995 • S.17 (1) (c) local authority has duty “to promote, on a regular basis, personal relations and direct contact between the child and any person with parental responsibilities” • Children’s Hearing System • Hearings can decide on where child is placed and can impose conditions of contact on a child • Three lay panel members, Reporter • Child, parent(s), relevant persons, SW

4. Placement location and escorts • Shortage of consistent escorts • Shortage of local foster placements • Travelling times • Logistics, more difficult to get same escort all the time • Effects on quality of contact

5. One of my bug bears is it being a different person everyday going to pick a child up, I really can't stand that, I don’t think it is good practice but sometimes it is how we find ourselves particularly when children are first accommodated.(SW Manager) you’ve got children who’ve travelled a long distance have generally become quite sleepy with the motion of a car, are grumpy when they’re waking up and arrive here, are pleased usually to see their parents, but their ability to do a long contact really is impeded because there’s an hour’s journey back.(SW Manager) 5

6. Foster carers’ home as venue • Foster carers’ homes rarely used, contrast to kinship and residential care • Differs to previous research findings and change from previous practice in local authority • Practitioners mostly saw positive possibilities of using as venue • But difficulties also noted

7. I think it would be good for some children to see that Mum and the person who now looks after them can actually get on, that social work are working with their parents, that everybody is working together for the best thing for them (SW) it’s reassuring for [the parents] quite often because not only do they know who’s caring for their child but they can actually get to see this is where they get to sit for their dinner, this is their room, they can be reassured that some of the belongings they’ve passed on are actually there and accessible for the child (SW Manager)

8. Children’s Hearings system and contact • SWs critical of panels’ reluctance to reduce contact. Reporters shared some concerns • However Reporters also raised other issues • Panels lacking confidence to challenge professional recommendations • Shortcomings in some social work assessments of contact

9. panel members sometimes seem to get caught up in the emotions of the mother or the parent (SW) I think one of the biggest problems right now is that panel members tend to look at this from an adult perspective and not from a child’s perspective. (SW Manager)in particular some panel members…will overly empathise with the parents rather than the child (Reporter)

10. Contact by new technology • Little direct practice experience of contact by e-mail and internet • Although awareness that such contact may be happening • Typically framed as risk rather than opportunity

11. if you are getting children on MSN or the chat rooms and you are getting the parents to talk to them you know you are on dangerous ground there. (SW Manager) I would avoid the internet like the plague with looked after and accommodated children, because I think it just leaves us open to all sorts of things….kids and the internet are just a disaster.(Reporter)

12. Concluding remarks • Complexities of managing contact not fully recognised in practice or research • The problem of resources: “we are well aware that resources are scarce and that any reallocation of social work priorities will probably limit care for others.” (Millham et al. 1986, p.239) • Are there positive sum gains around contact?

13. References Cleaver, H. (1998) Contact: the social worker’s experience. Adoption andFostering, 21, 34-40. Cleaver, H. (2000) Fostering Family Contact, London : HMSO. Ferguson, H. (2009) Performing child protection: home visiting, movement and the struggle to reach the abused child. Child and Family Social Work, 14 (4), 471-480. Hill, M. (2002) ‘Partnership reviewed: words of caution, words of encouragement’ In Hill, M. (ed.) Shaping Childcare Practice in Scotland, London : BAAF. Milham, S., Bullock, R., Hosie, K. & Haak, M. (1986) Lost in care Basingstoke: Gower.