CYP Now - When care practice outflanks the law

It is 30 years since the Children Act 1989 received Royal Assent and despite the fact it has not subsequently been repealed or even substantially amended, the current "crisis" in the care system suggests that practice has drifted away from two of its key principles: that the state should work in partnership with parents; and that if families can be supported without recourse to the law, they should be.

The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (FJO) has published a thorough, comprehensive and timely review of special guardianship orders (SGOs) which estimates that in addition to the care numbers we regularly see in the news headlines, 21,000 children have been made subject to SGOs since 2010. These orders were originally designed to support permanence for children already living in stable placements, yet despite this, they are now regularly used to resolve complex issues in care proceedings; often without anything remotely resembling a thorough assessment (or matching) of need and capacity being available to the court.

The FJO review makes recommendations about preparing and supporting special guardians and ensuring that children are not placed with people they don't know: essentially recommending putting SGOs on an equal footing with other permanence options when it comes to support. I wouldn't argue with any of that, particularly in light of the evidence of "vulnerability to disruption" of children placed when older, or from particularly stressful homes.

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