In the past few weeks, two Serious Case Reviews have been published – one on the murder of an 18-month-old, and the other on the sexual abuse of two children under five. All three were being cared for by relatives under the legal order called special guardianship.
Introduced in 2005, special guardianship is a court order that transfers parental responsibility for a child to the applicant. It lasts until the child is 18. The order gives the guardian parental responsibility, but unlike adoption, the legal relationship with the parents continues, even if practically that means little. The important thing from the child’s point of view is that they have a family that they can call their own.
Before, where children were abused and/or neglected, foster care or adoption were the only long-term options if the child could not return to their parents. Recent research has clearly indicated that for the great majority, special guardianship is very positive for the child and the guardian. But the two serious case reviews highlight that there are risks.
Whenever a child is being considered for adoption or foster care, those carers will have been fully assessed. The design of special guardianship assumed there would be a strong, pre-existing relationship between the applicant and the child. But sometimes relatives come forward as the court is considering the child’s future, which means the assessment is undertaken too quickly.
Where this happens, the special guardian has no time to fully think through the implications of what they are offering and to receive help. From the local authority’s point of view, there is no time to assess the risks and collect evidence. This places huge stress on the guardian and the child, and too many become vulnerable.
In the sex abuse case, the children were in daycare; nursery staff did pick up and report concerns about injuries to the children, but the social worker failed to initiate inquiries. While this order reminds us to be supportive of the positive contribution that extended family can make to children, we need to be mindful of the risks, and the importance of good multi-agency links.
John Simmonds is director of policy, research and development at CoramBAAF