by Cathy Ashley
Family group conferences have the potential to keep children out of care. If only access to them were straightforward.
There is mounting research evidence of the benefits of family group conferences (FGCs) in keeping children safely with their families and preventing them going into care unnecessarily. That more families are being offered FGCs must be good news. It is good; but only partly. The charity Family Rights Group, which runs the national Family Group Conference Network, estimates that 50% of English local authorities now have an FGC service - and the number is rising. In Wales 18 of the 22 authorities have one.
However, there are significant regional variations in England. For example, there are far more FGC services in the South East than in Yorkshire and Humberside. Moreover, some projects rely on a single worker and thus only run a few FGCs each year.
Whether or not a family is offered an FGC remains a postcode lottery.
Frequent calls to the Family Rights Group's advice line indicate that some local authorities are taking short cuts in commissioning or running FGC services, at the expense of quality, impact and sustainability.
Poor practices that we encounter include compromising the independence of the co-ordinator, short-cutting the preparation process, skipping private time or failing to offer young people a supporter or advocate to enable their voice to be heard.
The increased demand for the services has coincided with the introduction in April of the new system for managing proceedings in England and Wales, known as the Public Law Outline.
Family members need access to detailed advice before the FGC so they can make informed decisions - it isn't right or reasonable to expect people to be making potentially life-changing decisions, such as taking on the care of a young child, without adequate information on legal options. Yet too often that's exactly what's happening. Moreover, we know that some family plans aren't being supported by agencies. Unsurprisingly, they fail.
Family group conferences are empowering decision-making processes for children and families that are proven to work - but short cuts don't.
Cathy Ashley is chief executive at the Family Rights Group
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