Squeezing the Toothpaste Tube: Will Tackling Court Delay Result in Pre-Court Delay in its Place?

McKeigue, Bridget; Beckett, Chris

doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcn119

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(5 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We hope that the Public Law Outline (Ministry of Justice, 2008) will help, though we fear that it may have the effect of increasing pre-court delay, which is potentially just as harmful to children as over-long proceedings (McKeigue and Beckett, 2009). It is important to bear down simultaneously on pre-court, in-court and post-court delay, rather than focus exclusively on in-court delay.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a fuller account of the methodology, see McKeigue and Beckett (2009). In the area covered by Local Authority X, fifty-nine children from thirty-eight families were made subject to care proceedings during the financial year 2004-05, and these children were the focus of the study.…”

Section: Methodology and Its Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(For international readers: care proceedings, in England and Wales, are court proceedings that may result in the making of a 'care order', which allows a local authority to determine where a child is to live.) In the previous article (McKeigue and Beckett, 2009), we raised some questions about the 'precourt' period: the period before cases of this kind actually arrive in the court arena. We intend in a later article to discuss the 'post-court' period, after proceedings are over.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Objects of Concern: Caring for Children during Care Proceedings

Beckett

McKeigue

2009

British Journal of Social Work

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard

This article is the second to look at the fifty-nine children who were made subject to care proceedings in one local authority area in the financial year 2004-05. It focuses on what happened to children during the proceedings and considers how well those responsible for their care during this time (the local authority and others involved in the court process) performed in terms of providing the children with parental care during the process. While the local authority in question performed well in relative terms, nevertheless, in respect of the duration of the process and the number of placement moves to which children were subjected, many of the children were subjected to a great deal of bewildering change, complex routines and large numbers of adults going in and out of their lives. The authors suggest that the process will tend to objectify children if it becomes too focused on decision making for the future, at the expense of thinking about their needs in the here and now. We conclude with some suggestions as to possible ways of improving things.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodology and Its Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Objects of Concern: Caring for Children during Care Proceedings

Beckett

McKeigue

2009

British Journal of Social Work

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard

show abstract

“…Given the increased administrative and bureaucratic demands the PLO is creating, the new procedures may create more problems than it solves. If the PLO serves only to shift ‘delay’ to pre‐proceedings, this will do little to help children and their parents (McKeigue & Beckett 2008). A whole range of unintended but possibly risky permutations of socio‐legal practices may emerge as local authorities and their practitioners strive to manage competing demands.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This use of s.20 will simply shift the locus of ‘delay’, to a point pre‐proceedings (cf. McKeigue & Beckett 2008). In addition, safeguards for both children and parents in this context may be weakened – for parents, the importance of access to independent legal representation may not be so evident.…”

Section: Parental Engagement and The Plo: Contextual Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%