November 2011 Archives

Scotland has followed England's lead in ploughing more money into short breaks for disabled children. The Scottish Executive has announced £1.3m will be available for organisations to provide short breaks or to fund specialist equipment and training for staff.

A further £558,450 will also be on offer to provide direct funding to families caring for a disabled or seriously ill child to choose their own break, or purchase items such as camping equipment or bicycles.

Announcing the extra money, public health minister Michael Matheson said the funding "is focused on giving families with a disabled child up to the age of 20 the opportunity for a short break, taken either together or separately".

Penny Stafford, of Edinburgh, whose 19-year-old son Adam has additional support needs, said her son was very socially isolated from other children his age because she had found it so difficult to get him access to social and leisure activities.

The £1.3 million funding for organisations will be known as 'Better Breaks' and will be administered through Shared Care Scotland through grants of £10,000 and £50,000. It will close on Feb 1, 2012. The extra £558,450 for direct support for families, known as 'Take a Break', will be managed by the Family Fund through grants of £200 and £500 and will close on Mar 31 next year.

Our main man Graham Allen was interviewed on channel 4 yesterday, discussing a parenting support programme that's kicked off in Birmingham. The programme, originally from the US, is called Families and Schools Together (FAST) and is being funded by Morrison's and Lloyd's bank.

This set-up is exactly what Allen proposed in his two-part report on early intervention in children's services -- no national or local government money is required. It also plays into one of the coalition's pet projects, the development of parenting support. Local authorities are not entirely on board, however, as an investigation by Community Care revealed that they are spending on average just 6% of their early intervention grant on parenting support this year.

It will be interesting to see how FAST develops. It's due to be rolled out in 400 schools across Britain, according to channel 4, and we'll be keeping an eye on it.

Guest Blog by Dr. Siobhan E. Laird

 
Community Care and Reconstruct's survey investigating the intimidation of child protection social workers by parents this month reveals a widespread culture of threat and abuse. 

Half those responding said they worked with 'hostile and intimidating parents every week' while over three quarters 'had received multiple threats'. This indicates the high incidence of such occurrences.

Intimidation and threatening behaviour by parents have already been identified as a major issue in many serious case reviews (SCRs). The deaths of Ainlee Labonte, Peter Connelly, Khyra Ishaq and Ajit Singh were all explicitly linked to the intimidation of social workers by parents or their partners using aggression, threats or complaints to frustrate legitimate safeguarding activities. 

But we should also be concerned by other SCR findings such as the second review into the Peter Connelly case which criticised social workers for adopting Solution Focussed Brief Therapy with the mother based on a strengths approach to parenting. A 2009 overview of SCRs concluded that the recent emphasis on strengths based approaches was arguably discouraging workers from making professional judgements about deficits in parents' behaviour which might be endangering their children.

Educators, like myself, teaching students in universities across the country need to ask ourselves what sort of social workers our degree programmes currently produce and whether we have equipped them for the challenges they face on the frontline.

Historically our profession has prided itself on helping, supporting, empowering, being empathetic, challenging oppression, enhancing autonomy and developing strengths in others. Our training is founded on therapeutic engagement and respect for users' wishes.

But in a context where intimidation has become endemic in child protection work, the disproportionate emphasis on these values, qualities and purposes is producing skills deficits in our students, not skills development.

The Social Work Reform Board has now circulated to universities the requirement that students on qualifying courses should take two placements totalling 170 days, while an additional 30 days must be devoted to skills development.   This is to be delivered through partnership arrangements between employers and universities.  

Such an innovation offers the prospect of revising and improving the skills training we provide at qualifying level.

Several sector leaders such as Graham Badman, Professor Harry Ferguson of Nottingham University and Professor Eileen Munro have all argued the need for more "authoritative social work".

This work must start with an overhaul of qualifying training and a re-evaluation of the theory we teach, the skills we impart and the personal attributes we encourage in our students.

Cultivating self-assured, assertive workers with the ability to constructively manage aggression, while possessing the coping strategies to deal with its personal impact, has to begin in the first year of training, not the first year of practice. Theories on human aggression, skill development around self-assertiveness and instruction on managing verbal and physical aggression are woefully absent from the curriculum of most qualifying courses.  

At too many universities there continues to be an over-emphasis on therapeutic theories and skills at the expense of equipping students with the competence to combat those aggressive parents who seek to intimidate child protection professionals and obstruct their interventions.

Without reform, we risk denying social work students the very abilities they need for effective frontline practice and the preservation of their own health.

Dr Siobhan Laird is a lecturer at the Centre for Social Work, University of Nottingham.
Contact: telephone, 0115 8466394 and e-mail siobhan.laird@nottingham.ac.uk

(pic credit: study by MCQuinn on Flickr)

 

Some interesting themes cropped up at The Fostering Network's annual conference this year. I was particularly interested in the idea of applying social pedagogy to foster care,

Professor Pat Petrie, from the Institute of Education, told delegates that social pedagogy is "where care and education meet" and requires professionals to use their "heart, hands and head" in order to support the whole child and value their contributions.

Thus, in some ways, it is probably more applicable for foster care than in areas such as residential care or for social workers which is where the focus has been in its introduction in this country.

Petrie went on to point out that social pedagogy was about supporting someone throughout their whole lives and required three P's to operate- professional, personal and private.

In foster care that meant respect for others, attentive listening, and teamwork. Relationships are not just about two people it's about what happens when, for example, everyday activities are shared such as cooking, she claimed.

In residential care I'm not sure we could claim that the social pedagogy pilots have been a success. The Fostering Network is leading on work to explore its impact within foster care and I think it could be more successful in finding a UK version of social pedagogy that could work in our system.

Guest Blog: Language and Communication in Child Protection post-Munro by Yvalia Febrer

Social work has always been in a constant state of flux. So if you don't like change you better get out of the game. And this time the change is going to be big.

If you've enjoyed the comforting lull of watching ICS try to load a new page, and the (false) sense of security of box-ticking and form -filling, you'd better press the ejector button on your desk chair now.

Because although policies, buzz-words and team names change every ten minutes, but have almost zero impact on your actual job, your day-to-day work, especially in child protection, is about to change.

Munro Schmunro? Think again.

For starters, timescales are going out the window. Not that 'timeliness' as Munro puts it, isn't important. Quite the opposite; you might find yourself deciding with your manager that you need to go out and do what would have been called an 'Initial Assessment' within the next two days. But rigid and arbitrary deadlines will be no more. Time spent on assessments, and time spent with children, will be guided by what's needed, what makes sense, and what's going to effect change. This is no small change and it's already been reported that some social workers in the pilot authorities who are trialling this are finding the new world "scary".

But it's the way it should be because now there will also be a lot more time spent doing direct work with children (see the direct work with children toolkit). We've all been told to cancel 'unnecessary' home visits when the inspectors are in- "look busy!"... but what are social workers doing in offices anyway? Most of your day should be spent in the community. Social Work is a 'human process' Munro tells us.

So, in case you've forgotten how to communicate with people and talk to children, here are some pointers.

1: When you walk into a home and say 'we've received a referral about your child's inappropriate behaviour', think about what you're saying. What's a 'referral'? What do we actually mean by 'inappropriate behaviour'? If this is the first impression we give parents-being formal in an off-putting way (or even acerbic and mistaking it for assertive) no wonder people get on the defensive and don't tell us anything.
 

2: Your body language is as important as your spoken language. Did you know that mirroring people's movements increases rapport? And you need 60-70% eye contact in order to build rapport in the first place. So no more looking down at the form you're filling in! Research has also proven that nodding your head when someone's talking to you gets them to tell you up to four times as much- pretty useful in child protection. Being able to interpret body language is also important. Observing adults and analysing their verbal and non-verbal communication is especially useful in a world where parents purposely deceive, lie and manipulate.

3: On the subject of lying, children make is easier for you, parents don't- especially those that have something to hide. Here's a tip: when someone's not telling the truth chemicals called catecholamines are released, making their nose swell, just like Pinocchio. Ok, so you can't see this change with the naked eye, but what you do see is people rubbing or touching their nose when they're lying. If you see this in combination with other 'tells', then that could point to deception.

4: Now that you've mastered the direct work, spent time with children, observed parents actually parenting, and sat back down at your old friend the desk- what do you do now? What you communicate in reports is vital. You won't get away with just writing 'there were toys in the home' any more; you'll need to give an analysis of how the child played with the toys, how (or if) the parent was able to play with them, and what your interpretation of all of this was. And given that you'll have less bureaucracy to contend with, you might actually get time to mull over your observations first before putting pen to paper. Remember, reflection is critical (pun intended).

All in all, we've been exhibiting anti-social behaviour in social work for too long. Social Work is a human process, and we need to get back to this, but let's also use modern technology to our advantage. If world events are reported on YouTube, going viral in seconds, why are we spending five minutes waiting for ICS to save a casenote? You might not get a new database in the next twelve months, but to see how modern technology can help you with protecting children, check out the 'virtually safe' game at www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/rosie.

Yvalia Febrer is a social worker with Richmond's children and families team. She is a co-author of the Tools for Direct Work with Children and will be speaking at the Community Care conference on Safeguarding Vulnerable Adolescents, 1 December, Birmingham 

"I am a social worker and proud of it. I am adopted and proud of it.

Both social work and adoption are iconic and constantly politicised, often mythically. Myths multiply  these days because we are in the era of the heightened significance of everything and the permanence of very little.

One myth is the lost golden age of adoption. Twas never thus. 

When I was adopted via the stigma of illegitimacy, I was a child without special needs. Children now are often in sibling groups with extra needs. The children are different. The legislation is now more progressive and the services are better, like post-adoption support, which was only a campaigner's dream a generation ago.

We are not doing that badly. Permanent placements for children through adoption and, since 2005, special guardianship orders (SGOs), when taken together are up 22% on the numbers in 2003/4. They are two sides of the same coin. Both are permanent options and it is an increase in permanency placements that matters, including residence orders and long-term foster care placements (the outcomes of which are as good as adoption for older children).

There were only 150 inter-country adoptions last year but 20 times that number of domestic adoptions from care, contrary to myth.

There were also 42,000 children are on child protection plans living at home in the community and an estimated 300,000 children are living with relatives on a permanent basis. The fate of these children matters just as much. Once one particular aspect of childcare is spotlighted (such as adoption is currently being), the danger is that less attention is given to other, sometimes much larger groups of children who are just as in need.

Having said that, the research base for adoption outcomes is very positive, especially in early life.

We are also not doing that badly. Whilst at least 2000 children in the UK wait for permanence placements, many times that number wait in vain in countries like France and Spain. In Western Australia, the majority of children in care are of aboriginal origin. Because of the politics of the stolen generation, adoption or another strong permanence option, is often a political impossibility.

The politics of adoption and the vital role social workers play in helping children who need adoption, is now much higher up the political radar. I hope good will come of that. We must take this opportunity to do much better on adoption and through that, to also deepen the public debate to understand the broader needs of children in care and on the edge of care, and the range of services and outcomes they need."

Anthony Douglas is chief executive of the courts advisory body Cafcass and chair of the British Association of Adoption and Fostering (BAAF)

A teenager in Lambeth has become the first young person convicted of rioting this summer to publicly apologise to a victim of the violent disturbances.

The youngster bravely agreed to meet a man whose KFC store was trashed during the riots in Brixton as part of a restorative justice programme organised by Lambeth council's youth offending service and Lambeth Met Borough police.

During the "emotionally fuelled" meeting the teenager heard how his actions had affected the man and later apologised for his behaviour. Accepting his apology, KFC store manager Roy, 42, even offered to mentor the young man through one-to-one chats in the future.

Roy said: "What happened that night was really unpleasant - the team were frightened and one of my colleagues was injured. The store was also damaged and tills taken. But meeting one of the young people involved that night has had a positive effect on us all. It's given him a better understanding of the stresses that were caused to victims and the implications.
 
"As the programme progressed I found myself becoming more and more proud of the young person for facing up to his actions. Toward the end he apologised and said he had been foolish and I could tell he was being genuine. We both got a lot out of meeting with one another and we have agreed to meet up again - possibly at KFC Brixton for another chat."
 
Lambeth Council Cabinet Member for Children and Young People's Service, Cllr Pete Robbins, said: "The young people have not been forced to take part in this process - they have volunteered to listen to the impact their actions have had on victims of the disturbances. By doing so have shown a certain degree of courage - they have apologised to their victims and considered the consequences of their actions."

The Department for Education has been keeping oddly quiet about its progress on the implementation of Eileen Munro's recommended reforms of the child protection system in England. And, for once, this kind of behaviour isn't an attempt to cover up the fact that the government is being useless. In fact, the government is being pro-active and making some really interesting progress in this area.

For instance, on 31 October, the DfE published a statement regarding its plans with the Department of Health to integrate health reforms with proposals from Munro's review. It's interesting stuff -- I would say a positive move in the right direction for the sector.

But did the DfE press release it? Did they ring anyone up to tell them about it? No. They took their spiffy little report and buried it deep in the bedlam that is their website (trying to find a document on their site makes me feel like Ellen Page in Inception before she learns to bend buildings with her mind).

Normally, this would make me roll my eyes and move on. But yesterday at the Community Care Children and Families Live conference, Jeanette Pugh, head of safeguarding at the DfE who is overseeing the implementation of the Munro recommendations, gave the keynote address. In it, she said, "I hope there are journalists in the room" and proceeded to make a little speech about the media's role in improving public perception of social work. Pugh said she was aware that bad news made headlines, but that positive practice and reform should be given centre stage as well.

A fair point, a point with which Community Care is entirely on board. But possibly a point Jeanette should be making to her department's press office. How can we report on the positive things if nobody tells us about them?

I can't help but suspect the integration with health reforms story is the tip of the iceberg. Coventry has recently signed up to trial the SCIE model of serious case reviews as part of the pilots around Munro's recommendations. Really? Wow. That's exciting! That's real progress! That's.... something you had to be at ComCare's conference to hear as an aside in Pugh's presentation.

I wonder if part of the problem is the fact that the government is falling behind the timeline released in its response to Munro's review. The joint programme of work with the DH was supposed to be completed by September 2011, according to the government's response. A decision about Munro's proposed early intervention duty was also supposed to be made in September. Both have yet to see the light of day and I just heard Do They Know It's Christmas Time? playing in M&S on my lunch break (a pretty good indication that you've missed autumn).

And yes, people are going to comment on this tardy progress. They may even use it as an excuse to put yet another hilariously bad photo of Michael Gove in a blog post (seriously, the man is comedy gold)-- but better late than never, right guys?

So tell us what's going on. Let's sing it to the sector which, let's be honest, could really use some good news right now. As a great fictional sports agent once said, DfE, help me help you.

photo credit: Rex Features

Just back from a rather frenetic day at Community Care Live Children and Families. But one of the highlights of the day was looking up from my prepared power point at the workshop on hostile and intimidating parents (that I presented with Jim Wild and Prof Brian Littlechild) and seeing it packed to the rafters and people being turned away at the door.

Yet again more evidence of what a significant issue this is. As I raced through the results of our survey everyone looked interested but no-one looked surprised. Quite a few students looked a bit terrified.

Prof. Littlechild then went onto point out that the Community Care/Reconstruct survey is not the only evidence that shows the high levels of threat and abuse social workers are suffering. The British Crime Survey showed that social workers were the most abused profession and they were only just under police when it came to the number of physical assaults.

But the real horror for me came when a social worker approached me afterwards and said she had just come from a court case where the judge involved had made remarks that suggested it was perfectly acceptable for parents to abuse and threaten social workers, as long as the child wasn't hurt.

This is incredible. How on earth do we expect to attract good and intelligent people to this profession when we are basically telling the public and parents they are allowed to abuse, threaten and intimidate those who are only trying to do their job and protect children?

Any intelligent person is likely to walk in the opposite direction and who could blame them?

By Dr Annabel Goodyer

With the move to foster care as the preferred placement for young children in care it is worth noting that there is still concern around a number of areas in fostering such as multiple placement breakdown and poor outcomes in education and start in life.

When researching for my latest book I wondered if this indicated that the way we consider and organise fostering needs revision. I decided to apply a children's rights approach to my evidence. Instead of interviewing social workers and foster carers using a traditional attachment theory perspective, I gathered children's own accounts of their experiences of moving to and living in foster homes.

Many children and young people reported being happy and settled in their foster homes, having lived with the same family for more than a year and feeling they belonged. However others did not trust their foster carers and all had worried that their carers might not look after them 'properly'.

But what was common across all of them was that they wanted as 'normal' a life as possible: not to be stigmatised about being in care, to keep their private life private and to live with families who were similar to them.

The implications of this service-user feedback are far-reaching, indicating a different agenda might be required than the current drive towards the professionalisation of foster carers. While we have moved towards increasing the training and skills of foster carers it is clear that children don't just want to feel "safe" but also "loved". A "normalisation" approach to foster care should be considered - this could include measures as selecting foster carers who might not be considered perfect, for example those lacking child development qualifications or who don't have enough accommodation to offer every child their own room, but who can offer children committed, supportive parenting and a stable childhood within their own community or neighbourhood.

Dr Annabel Goodyer is the principal lecturer in Social Work at London South Bank University. Her book Child-centred Foster Care is published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers

One in every four babies in Britain is at risk of abuse because their home life is violent or their parents have mental health or drug problems, according to research by the NSPCC.

The charity found over 198,000 UK babies (168,000 of whom live in England) could be at risk of harm or neglect because their families have complex, and often unmet, needs.

The biggest risk factor was found to be parental mental health problems, affecting 144,000 babies. More than 93,000 babies live with a parent who has alcohol problems, while 50,000 babies are growing up in homes where a parent has used drugs in the past year.

The new figures were released today as part of an NSPCC campaign, All Babies Count, to highlight the vulnerability of babies and their need for better and earlier support.

Chris Cuthbert, NSPCC head of strategy and development for children under one, said: "Babies under one are particularly vulnerable to the impact of early trauma and neglect - we know half of serious case reviews relate to this age group and two thirds of SCRs into child deaths or abuse involve one or more of these risk factors.

London Labour mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone (pictured) will speak at a rally on 24 November to protest the continuing cuts to frontline child mental health services in Lewisham, South London.

Already this financial year, there has been nearly £500,000 of cuts in Lewisham, with more expected in the next two years.

Livingstone will be one of the speakers at The No Cuts Cabaret in Lewisham between 7.00pm- 9.00pm Thursday, 24 November. In what way is it a "cabaret"? Will Ken break out some soft-shoe? I shudder to think...

Members of Unite and Unison are hosting the event.

photo credit: Amplified2010

The number of children being prescribed powerful antipsychotic drugs has doubled over the past decade, according to an investigation by Channel 4 News.

Anti-psychotics are meant for patients with serious mental conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Channel 4 said, but mental health experts say that they are now being used to control children's behaviour.

Professor Tim Kendall, who has been asked to write the first ever guidance on prescribing anti-psychotics to young people with serious mental illness, told Channel 4: "As far as I am aware there is no evidence that there has been a doubling in the rate of psychosis. So if there is a doubling in the rate of children being given anti-psychotics, that is a worry. My worry is that these drugs are being used for other purposes."

Anti-psychotics are known to have side-effects on adults such as weight gain, diabetes and Parkinson's disease-like shaking that does not go away when the individual stops taking the medication. The impact on children is as yet unknown and there is concern about the potential effect on brain development, Channel 4 said.

photo credit: sacks08

Children's charity Barnardo's has today launched a "landmark" new report into the sexual exploitation of children in Northern Ireland, based on research which found one in nine teenagers in the region had been sexually groomed by an adult.

The charity's report highlights the findings of the 2010 Young Life and Times (YLT) survey, an annual survey of 16-year-old care leavers and looked-after children living in Northern Ireland.

In total 786 young people responded to the survey, which this year included questions about sexual exploitation and grooming for the first time.

One in nine had been sexually exploited while one in 15 had been plied with drugs or alcohol before being abused. Almost two-thirds (62%) had not confided in any authority figure about the exploitation they had suffered.

Barnardo's research, entitled Not a World Away, highlights the particular risks posed to young people in care. Lynda Wilson, director of Barnardo's NI, urged agencies to "enact the recommendations contained within this report, without undue delay".

The government is currently working on a national response to child sexual exploitation - following high profile abuse cases and research suggesting the problem is far worse than anticipated - making tonight's C4 Dispatches particularly topical. 

Tazeen Ahmad's investigation into street grooming in Britain will see her meet victims and hear how girls as young as 12 have been targeted, terrorised and brainwashed by gangs of men.

According to Channel 4, in one shocking encounter Ahmad talks to two young men who explain in detail how grooming by gangs is perpetrated, why virgins are more highly prized and how the commerce of this type of brutal sexual exploitation unfolds.

Britain's Sex Gangs, Monday 7 November, 10:30pm, Channel 4.

By Prof. Brigid Featherstone and Prof. Kate Morris

"We were most interested to see the campaign recently featured in Community Care on dealing with hostile and intimidating parents. However, we do have some reservations.

"For over two decades researchers have found that most families and parents want to 'do right' by their children with only a small minority seeking to actively hurt or harm their children.

There is no empirical evidence that this analysis needs to change today Indeed our research, alongside that of many others, indicates that families are a rich source of potential support for their children and relevant and appropriate help is welcomed by them. 

We also know that the overwhelming majority of children grow up in their families, or return to their families. Forming working relationships with family members is therefore key to supporting long term outcomes for children.

Research evidence, including our own, has, however, uncovered how often the members of families (parents and children alike) can feel intimidated by risk-averse child protection procedures. Such procedures have become more and more complex and often actively militate against help-seeking and the development of trusting and respectful relationships. Working with men is a neglected aspect of current practice and is in urgent need of more attention in order to move beyond tendencies towards either neglect or denigration.    

This new campaign speaks to one aspect of a complex reality. There is no doubt social workers face a hostile environment today. They are poorly resourced, lacking in voice and vulnerable to public scrutiny and vilification.  However, so are their service users particularly in the current climate as austerity measures are rolled out impacting on the most vulnerable in our society. 
     
We would ask that any new campaign should build on the work and the research on the practices necessary to engage families. It should also ensure that families' voices are heard. If it works against the necessary dialogue and respect needed between social workers and service users it is likely children will suffer." 

Brigid Featherstone is Professor of Social Care at the Open University. She has extensive experience of researching how social care services work with men. She has also researched the experiences of parents in the child protection system and conducted an extensive research review of children and young people's experiences.

Kate Morris is Associate Professor of Social Work at Nottingham University. She is currently research the experiences of families who use multiple services and have complex needs, and the involvement of families in the reviews of serious cases (sponsored by BASPCAN).

Social workers and family courts will have to complete all care cases in just six months, when a recommendation made by the family justice review is implemented.
 
Publishing his final report on the state of family justice in England and Wales today, review chair David Norgrove said the new limit would reduce "shocking delays" that are leaving children's lives in limbo. 

On average, care cases currently take 13 months to complete, the review found.

"We need to eliminate the shocking delays in the system," Norgrove said. "This is why we are recommending legislation to ensure that child protection cases must not be allowed to take any more than six months, save in exceptional circumstances."
 
The recommendation, which will require legislative change, has already been endorsed by government. A spokesperson said: "We are already taking forward some of the review's recommendations on speeding up care cases and we intend to introduce time limits of six months as part of a package of reforms to tackle delay."

The spokesperson also revealed that, from January 2012, the government will be publishing court-by-court performance tables "so we can see exactly where improvements need to be targeted".
 
But the target is less likely to please social workers, many of whom had hoped the recommendation - first mooted in the review's interim report - would be scrapped. 

Nushra Mansuri, professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers, previously told Community Care: "It won't help to reduce delay. Most social workers don't have the resources to complete care cases in six months so this could just be setting them up to fail."
 
The report - which follows the most comprehensive review of family justice since the 1989 Children Act - proposes a radical re-design of a system under "huge strain".

A new Family Justice Service should be established, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice and commenced by an interim board, the report recommended. Court social work services would form part of this, subsuming the role currently performed by Cafcass.

As expected, the panel issued its controversial recommendation - first included in the interim report - that judges should have their powers of scrutiny limited to core decisions, such as whether a child should be taken into care, rather than the detail of care plans.

Adoption panels should no longer consider whether a child before the court is suitable for adoption. "We believe the court's detailed scrutiny should be sufficient," the report stated. The use of expert reports and expert witnesses should be also be reduced, it recommended. 

Among its other reforms, the review proposed:
•A single family court to replace the current three tiers of court.
•Charges to local authorities for public law applications should be removed.
•In private law, the use of Parenting Agreements and a new 'child arrangements order' to bring together arrangements for children's care after separation. 
•Increased provision of mediation to prevent private law cases going to court unnecessarily.
 
Norgrove said the recommendations, if implemented, would ensure the beleaguered family justice system becomes much more effective.
 
He added: "Every year 500,000 children and adults are involved in the family justice system. They turn to it at times of great stress and conflict. It must deliver the best possible outcome for all children and families who use it, because its decisions directly affect the lives and futures of all those involved, and have repercussions for society as a whole."
 
The government will respond to the panel's recommendations shortly.

By Jennifer Sarumi

Looking back on the differences between the good and bad foster carers I have had over the years I can confidently say that having a key right at the start of a placement was one of those distinguishing characteristics.

If I was given a key it was usually the start of a healthy relationship. If I was not given a key it kicked the relationship off with resentment.

I have many lucid memories of regularly sitting at a bus stop in the freezing cold, opposite my foster carer's house, waiting for them to come back home from work. The situation was usually made worse when the foster carer's own children did have a key.

I think this is particularly poor practice which is likely to see foster children wandering the streets and developing friendships with "bad crowds" or becoming a nuisance because they have no where to go and nothing to do until they can get inside the house that is meant to be their home.

I understand that foster carers may be wary about giving a key to their home to a child or young person they hardly know. In fact at one time one of my "good" foster placements was getting frequently burgled without force or any sign of a break-in. The evidence all pointed to a foster child that had left the placement with a key still in his possession. Unsurprisingly my foster carer temporarily took my key away from me and I couldn't blame her. Instead I felt let down by those few individuals who give foster children a bad name.

Personally I believe that keys should always be given to foster children as they enter a new placement. It makes them feel welcomed and that this is their home. It represents that they have access to every facility in the house, not just the front door. It becomes a symbol of trust. If a foster child is then proved untrustworthy then it is more than fair that a key is confiscated until that trust can be re-built.

There should also be a compulsory agreement that lays out such rules at the beginning of new placements.

Jennifer Sarumi is a care leaver and a member of Voice