The policy and legislative context

Abstract

This chapter explores the legislative context for family group conferences (FGCs) in both the UK and across the globe. While FGCs do not have a legislative mandate in the UK, with the exception of Northern Ireland, legislation and subsequent policy lends itself to the FGC approach and indeed in some cases recommends the use of FGCs as best practice. Meanwhile, very few countries across the globe have a legislative mandate for FGCs. What is clear, particularly from the field of children's social care, is that FGCs have been effectively applied in a legislative context to divert children away from care proceedings and from local authority care. Moreover, service evaluations for those FGC services that are using FGCs in an adult social care context have highlighted that FGCs have been an effective tool for decision-making and planning for vulnerable adults, including adult safeguarding cases.