Bristol research paints bleak picture of reunification of neglected children with parents
More than half neglected or abused within two years of return to parents
A research project, conducted by by Professor Elaine Farmer and Eleanor Lutman of Bristol University on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families, has followed up over a five year period a cohort of neglected children who had been looked after and then reunified with a parent.
The research in seven local authorities focused on 138 neglected children who were returned to their parents during a one-year period. All the children had been followed up for two years and this study followed them up for another three years by means of reviews of the case files and interviews with social workers, team managers and leaving care workers. The research aimed to examine the case management, interventions and outcomes of a consecutive sample of neglected children from the point of first referral to children’s social care services.
By the five year follow-up, 65% of the returns home of the children in the study had ended. In addition, at the two year follow-up, 59% of the children had been abused or neglected after reunification and during the next three years, half of the children (48%) whose cases were open were abused or neglected.
In two fifths of cases children who were the subject of child protection plans were not adequately safeguarded. In addition, the plans made during care proceedings did not work out in three fifths of cases, often when children were returned to parents because of an over-optimistic view of the possibility of parental change by guardians and expert assessors, in the face of long histories suggesting the contrary.
The study found that outcomes for younger children were much better than for older children. The cut-off age was six at the time of reunification, after which action to safeguard children and plan for their future reduced. The researchers concluded that practice with older children and adolescents needs to be more proactive.
There were major variations too between the authorities as to how proactively cases were managed, leading to better outcomes in some authorities than others.
The study can be downloaded from the DCSF website.
- Keywords:
- children in care