New data published by Nuffield Family Justice Observatory has suggested vulnerable women continue to be inadequately supported following care proceedings, resulting in a striking one in four returning to court following proceedings.
Concerningly, this figure remains approximately equal to that seen during previous benchmark studies in 2015, 2017, and 2020, with almost no progress made in the near-decade since the first study.
What’s more, the actual number of mothers in recurrent proceedings has markedly increased since earlier studies, because more families are appearing in care proceedings.
This comes as a disappointment given that, since the first study, a range of intensive, therapeutic preventative services have been developed for women who appear in recurrent care proceedings (and increasingly their male partners), to help them stabilise their lives, address histories of trauma, and engage with physical, sexual, and mental health services.
While the Observatory said evaluations show these services have had a positive impact, they said there are relatively few of them available*, access to them is unevenly spread, some have closed due to insufficient funding or budget cuts, and many have small teams providing support to only a limited number of women and men.
The research also revealed that few babies involved in first repeat proceedings in England will ever return to their parents’ care. Some 38.6% of cases resulted in placement orders, indicating a plan for adoption. Just 12.7% resulted in supervision orders, typically made when children return to their parents’ care.
Furthermore, the risk of mothers returning to court is higher if the first set of proceedings results in a plan for adoption. In these cases, 34% of mothers in England and 31.1% in Wales are likely to return within 10 years.
The study also unveiled that after a first return to court, the risk of another return increases. In England and Wales respectively, 33 per cent and 26.9 per cent of mothers who experience a first repeat appearance are at risk of a second within 10 years.
Those who gave birth at a young age are also likely to return, with the risk increasing from one in four to one in three. A high proportion (41.%) of mothers appearing in recurrent care proceedings with a baby in England and Wales were estimated to be 14-19 years old when they first gave birth.
“This study indicates that vulnerable women – who have experienced the trauma of care proceedings, and in many cases the removal of their children – are still not being adequately supported to make positive changes and rebuild their lives,” said Lisa Harker, director of Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, continuing:
“Despite almost a decade of research into recurrence and associated innovation in services, not enough has changed for these women. They are not even being given a fighting chance of avoiding further proceedings. While ground-breaking support services are available – without which the number of mothers in recurrent proceedings would undoubtedly be higher – they are only meeting a fraction of the need. This situation won’t be helped by austerity measures threatening to limit public services even further.”
Professor Karen Broadhurst from Lancaster University, part of the team that conducted the research, said “much more needs to be done” if mothers in care proceedings are to overcome the hardships that “characterise their lives”.
Broadhurst added she’s “particularly concerned” with the age profile of the young women in care proceedings “given the highly stigmatising and isolating experience which is child removal”. She said:
“The best efforts of practice pioneers are currently compromised by short-term skeletal funding due to a lack of political will to invest properly in the lives of the most vulnerable. I fear the outlook is gloomy, given acute inflationary pressures on families (such as food and energy) and no material uplift in funding for children’s services in the face of increasing need. These twin pressures will be faced most severely in the most deprived communities, which are concentrated in the North.”
