Public Affairs Part I: Social Services

Public Affairs Part I Social Services

Children and Young People’s Responsibility for caring for children whose welfare is deemed to be at potential risk until recently rested with the following authorities: • Council social services departments (county councils in “two-tier” areas or unitary authorities) • Police • NSPCC • NHS trusts • Local education authorities (county/unitary)

The ‘Every Child Matters’ Agenda This patchwork landscape of agencies, however, changed in 2004, following a high-profile public inquiry sparked by the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie – who died of hypothermia, and with 128 separate injuries to her body, in the care of her foster parents in Haringey, south London. Lord Laming led an inquiry into the systemic failings which saw social workers, GPs, the police, and other professionals fail to prevent her death. The outcome was the Children’s Act 2004 – and the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda.

The ‘Every Child Matters’ Agenda Four key themes emerged out of the Every Child Matters green paper which preceded the 2004 act. The need to: • Increase the focus on supporting families and carers – described as ‘the most critical influence on children’s lives’ • Ensure necessary intervention takes place before children reach crisis point and protecting children from falling through the net • Address the underlying problems identified in the report into the death of Victoria Climbié - weak accountability and poor integration • Ensure professionals are valued, rewarded, and trained

The ‘Every Child Matters’ Agenda Following a further green paper – entitled ‘Every Child Matters: The Next Steps’ – the 2004 act was passed, focusing on promoting the following five key aims for children’s wellbeing: • Be healthy • Stay safe • Enjoy and achieve • Make a positive contribution • Achieve economic wellbeing

The Children’s Act 2004 The main changes initiated by the 2004 act were as follows: •

All local authority services relating to children – including schooling – taken out of the hands of existing education and social services departments, and given to discrete children’s services departments

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Children’s trusts formed to better coordinate the care of ‘children in need’. They are multi-disciplinary teams of professionals, including social workers, teachers, and paediatricians

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Change to be overseen nationally by a new children’s commissioner. Professor Al Aynsley-Green, a former national clinical director for children in the Department of Health, was the first commissioner, appointed in March 2005

The Children’s Act 2004 • Local safeguarding children’s boards (LSCBs) formed by each council involved in caring for ‘children in need’. These were bodies, chaired by senior council officers, designed to monitor how, in practice, collaboration between the various agencies was working on the ground in their locality • Each ‘child in need’ under the care, supervision, or oversight of a children’s services department to have a child protection plan drawn up for them individually. These are, in part, a more detailed replacement for the pre-existing child protection registers held by each local authority, and contain details of all those involved in their care or supervision, and any significant issues that may arise • Every relevant local authority (county council, unitary) to publish an overarching children and young people’s plan (CYPP), outlining the shared objectives of all local agencies involved in child welfare

Role of Children’s Services In law, children’s services departments are required to: •

Promote the upbringing of children by their families (where possible)

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A general duty to promote the welfare of children

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Pay regard to the wishes and feelings of the child

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Work in partnership with parents in the best interests of the child

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Provide accommodation if no person has parental responsibility; child is lost or abandoned; or person responsible is unable

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Advise, assist, and befriend children who leave their care – as well as providing financial assistance for accommodation

Orders Relating to Child Protection Courts can make the following types of “order” in the interests of child protection: • Residence order – deciding who a child should live with • Contact order – allowing a child to have visits or contact with a named person • Specific issue order – determining specific questions relating to the care of a child (e.g. choice of school) • Prohibited steps order – forbidding specified actions by a parent in relation to child (e.g. going near child’s home)

Supervision Orders There are two types of orders that can be made relating to the ongoing care of a child under the auspices of the local authority: (a) Care orders: local authority given “parental responsibility” under 1989 act for child under age of 17 – provided parent(s) given “reasonable access” (b) Supervision orders: children placed under “supervision” of authorities, which then have the duty to “advise, assist and befriend” the child. Social workers and/or probation officers are responsible for day-to-day welfare Courts have the power to make either of these orders if they feel that: (a) Children are likely to suffer significant harm by receiving care of a standard below that which would be given by a “reasonable parent” (b) The child is “beyond parental control”

Accommodating Children Local authorities are obliged to help house children in need in the following ways: • In community homes or foster homes • If a child is subject to restrictions on account of behaviour, they can be detained for up to three months under the terms of a secure accommodation order

Fostering versus Adoption Fostering is the process by which children are taken into care by a local authority for a finite period of time – placed either in foster homes, or with foster parents Adoption is a longer-term arrangement, whereby approved adoptive parents are given legal custody of a child over his or her natural parents Wardship is a different process entirely, whereby children are made wards of court temporarily during custody battles between rival parents or guardians

Criteria for Fostering •

Official foster parents must be approved by local authority (county council in two-tier areas, or unitary) following investigation into family lives and medical and criminal backgrounds

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Anyone convicted of causing or permitting bodily harm to a child is barred from fostering

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People who have had orders made against them to remove children from their control are also barred

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Social workers must have regular access to children to ensure their wellbeing. Have power to apply for residence orders removing them from foster care in child’s interests

The Adoption Process There are two different types of adoption process: (a)Single-stage – A placement made with the full cooperation of the child’s natural parents in a court adoption order (e.g. single mother rape victim) (b) Two-stage – When child’s natural parents object to their child being adopted, an adoption agency (used by local authorities to arrange adoption placements) will have to apply for a freeing order to gain custody

Conditions for Adopting • Social worker will meet couple seeking to adopt on at least two occasions • Prospective parents’ backgrounds will be investigated, and they will be asked their reasons for seeking to adopt • Once approved, they will be allowed to look after the child under provisional care arrangements • Formal adoption orders made later by a family proceedings court, sitting in private

Care for Elderly and Disabled Since the early 1990s, the emphasis has been placed on caring for people with mental and physical disabilities in their own homes, rather than in institutionalised care. The Tories initiated the controversial “Care in the Community” drive, closing down many old-style mental homes and hospitals in favour of sheltered housing and care by relatives. Help for the elderly and disabled can include: • • • • • • • •

Home help (washing, dressing, etc) Meals-on-wheels Befriending services Respite care (for carer and/or cared-for) Advocacy (i.e. liaising on clients’ behalf with services) Physical adaptations to homes (e.g. stair-lifts, bed/bath hoists) Day care (including clubs, support groups, activities) Transport to and from some appointments

Carers’ Rights In 1999, then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott unveiled a new National Carers’ Strategy designed to improve the lot of relatives caring for their loved ones at home. Their new package of rights included entitlement to the following: • A carers’ pension, intended to give those of pensionable age a pension worth £50 a week by 2050 • Council tax rebates • Respite care (financed by £140m package) • A new ‘charter of carers’ rights’ • Plans to extend “New Deal” to help carers obtain work outside the home • Support for young carers at school • Help with housing and transport

Treatment of the Mentally Ill • Approved social workers (ASWs) – with the signatures of two GPs/psychiatrists (responsible medical officers/RMOs) have the right to apply to hospital for up to 72 hours’ compulsory observation • Observation orders can then potentially be granted for up to a further 28 days (subject to approval by hospital psychiatrist) • If ASW believes mentally ill person is being ill-treated on private premises, he or she can apply for a warrant to search them • ASWs can also apply for mentally ill people to be admitted to hospital for treatment on a ‘self-referral’/voluntary basis • In some cases, local authorities can apply to take on the role of guardians of people unlikely to respond to hospital treatment

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 •

Adults under mental health supervision given greater powers in law to take decisions about their own future treatment

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New Independent Mental Capacity Advocate Service (IMCAS) for England and another for Wales to come into force in 2007

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New criminal offences of ‘wilful neglect’ and ‘ill treatment’ introduced in relation to the mentally ill. Prosecution under these provisions to be overseen by a new Court of Protection

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Service users to be allowed to nominate ‘substitute decision-makers’ to act on their behalf under a new Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)

The Mental Health Act 2007 Changes introduced in 2007, after several years’ troubled passage: •

Easier for the mentally ill to be ‘forced’ to take medication, through closer supervision in the community, and to be sectioned if need be

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Approved social workers (ASWs) replaced by ‘approved mental health practitioners’. These can include social workers, but also occupational therapists (OTs) and other mental health professionals

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‘Responsible medical officers’ replaced by ‘responsible clinicians’. Unlike under previous system, these do not have to be GPs or psychiatrists, but can be a social worker, OT, or other professional

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Introduction of new ‘appropriate medical treatment test’ to ensure that people are only detained if they can be treated with suitable drugs and/or techniques in hospital, but not out in the community

The Mental Health Act 2007 • New ‘community treatment orders’ introduced, to allow people to be discharged on probation for up to six months – but easily ‘resectioned’ if need be, without starting from scratch

• Introduction of single Mental Health Tribunal system for England, along lines of that already in place in Wales, to oversee a more consistent nationwide regulation system for mental healthcare

• More ‘age-appropriate’ inpatient treatment for adults in different age ranges, and a simplification of definitions of mental conditions • Mental patients given freedom to displace their ‘nearest relatives’ (those with authority in law to take decisions about their treatment on their behalf) if they give ‘reasonable grounds’ for doing so