Children’s Rights: Preventing the Use of State Care and Preventing Care Proceedings

Abstract

General rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/about/ebr-terms 1 Children's rights: Preventing the use of state care and preventing care proceedings Judith Masson AbstractFreeman was concerned about the large numbers of children in state care and proposed a right for children not to be care. This chapter examines the contemporary, legal and policy context for services to prevent the need for care and the operation of the 'pre-proceedings process' intended to divert families from care proceedings. Whilst there are provisions in the Children Act 1989 for family support, few people have rights to any services. The services available are severely limited and increasingly provided coercively. The state relies heavily on relative carers to keep children out of state care but supports very few to do so. As a consequence, children experience the negative consequences of poverty, and many would be far better supported in the care system. As a counter to Freeman, it argues that there should be more state support for alternative care and more (and longer) care for those without family and friends to care for them -a right to state care.

No typical care story: How do care-experienced young people and foster carers understand fostering relationships?

“…There have been several marked changes in the nature and role of foster care in recent years. One that is especially significant is the increasing professionalisation of the service (Kirton, 2007); another is the amendment made in 2015 to the Children Act 1989 which recognised long-term foster care as a legitimate option for children unable to return to their birth families and deemed 'unsuitable for adoption' (Masson, 2015). Given these changes, it seems essential to understand what it is like to be a young person in foster care or a carer responsible for a child's welfare.…”