A growing number of young people are coming before the family court – not only do we need to find out why, but we also need to ask how equipped the family justice system is to support these young people, who usually come into care proceedings with a unique set of vulnerabilities, often brought about by long-term instability and the risk of harm from outside the home.
Nuffield Family Justice Observatory has recently published a report that shows the number of 10-to 17-year-olds subject to care proceedings rose by 95 per cent between 2011/12 and 2019/20 (from 3,081 to 6,013).
Increases in the oldest children coming into the system were particularly acute; the number of 15-year-olds grew by almost 150 per cent, and 16-year-olds by 285 per cent – a significant shift in the age range of children coming before the family court. A decade ago, adolescents represented 18 per cent of all children in care proceedings in England; by 2019/20, this had risen to 27 per cent.
Two further reports we’ve published delve deeper into why 10- to 17-year-olds enter care proceedings. One examined individual cases in four local authorities in England and Wales, and the other looked at cases from the East London Family Court.
They both show a very similar picture of children experiencing long-term neglect and trauma, and living in households where parents had significant vulnerabilities, such as long-term substance misuse, mental health issues and domestic abuse, combined with the impact of poverty on everyday life. Risks from outside the home, including criminal or sexual exploitation, were present in a number of cases, most commonly where harm from within the home was already a concern.
For example, all the children in the local authority study had experienced some degree of emotional harm. The reasons for proceedings included neglect (78 per cent of families), domestic abuse (49 per cent), physical harm (43 per cent) and sexual abuse (10 per cent). In terms of parenting capacity, substance misuse and cumulative trauma were present for almost half the families (45 per cent and 43 per cent respectively), and poor parental mental health was a factor for over a third of families (35 per cent). External risks, mainly criminal or sexual exploitation, were present for a quarter of children.
Meeting the needs of older children and young people is a huge challenge for a system which, until now, has been focused on younger children, and on intrafamilial risks from within the home, rather than the extrafamilial risks that older children can be vulnerable to. What is striking from conversations we’ve had with judges, social workers, youth workers and other professionals is that there is an almost universal sense that the options currently open to them are too restricted and don’t fully meet the needs of young people – leading to a sense of frustration that their contribution is too limited.
While young people’s problems are complex, in many ways, their needs are straightforward. There is a need for sustained trauma-informed practice; to have a network of people (including family) to rely on through difficult times; and to have a voice over what is happening to them and the decisions being made about them. There is a need for more effective and earlier support for parents and children, and better coordination across the family and youth justice systems.
With others, Nuffield Family Justice Observatory is working to explore what is working well, what needs to change, and what is needed for that change to happen.
For more information on the research, which was carried out with the Family Justice Data Partnership (a team based at Lancaster University and Swansea University) and Research in Practice, please visit nuffieldfjo.org.uk
Lisa Harker is director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory
