Change and continuity 1980-2010.

Parker, Roy

Roy Parker considers key developments in services for children separated from their birth families in England and Wales over the last 30 years.

Introduction and a little background

In the year that BAAF was founded (1980), the National Children's Bureau (NCB) in London published the report of a working party that it had convened to consider the care of separated children (Parker, 1980). This publication is helpful in appreciating the changes in policy, practice and problems that have occurred over BAAF's 30-year history.

The report reflected a longstanding concern about the nature and extent of appropriate state involvement in parenting children, a relationship that became particularly manifest in the Second World War when well over a million children, unaccompanied by their mothers, were evacuated from cities and coastal resorts to safer areas (see, Titmuss, 1950). (1) This upheaval revealed two things. First, that a worrying minority of the children, especially from the cities, arrived in a poor state of well-being and behaved in ways that were regarded as reflecting a disturbed upbringing. Secondly, enough of the children demonstrated distress at their separation to cause concern. How these two revelations related to each other was difficult to determine; but separately and together they raised questions about how children were to be better cared for, particularly those who were separated from their families. (2) This disquiet was further accentuated by, for example, the death of Dennis O'Neill who died from abuse in his foster home in 1945 (Monckton, 1945), by the findings of the Curtis and Clyde committees that were issued in 1946 and by a variety of pamphlets, such as that produced by the New Education Fellowship entitled Children in Wartime.

In a way, however, the concerns that were generated in this period subsided once the reforms inaugurated under the 1948 Children Act (see, Parker, 1983; Cretney, 1998) had overcome at least some of the problems associated with the separated child. Then, in 1963, (3) local authorities were at last permitted to spend money on preventing children from coming into care and that too seemed to be an important step forward. However, the death of Maria Colwell in 1973 (Secretary of State for Social Services, 1974) revived a variety of concerns about both policy and practice, with the press bringing the tragedy into a new public prominence (see, Parton, 1985).

In the social sciences, interest in the effects of separation on children's development was also growing. John Bowlby (1951) had highlighted the separation of a child from his or her mother as a risk factor for poor social and psychological adjustment, although by the time of the NCB report this rather rigid view had been tempered by other researchers, particularly Michael Rutter (1972), who argued that the effects depended upon the circumstances under which the child was separated as well as what happened next.

Although the NCB initiative occurred at the end of a decade that had seen several important reforms, such as the creation of integrated social services departments, the 1975 Act (4) and the closure of residential nurseries for young children, many earlier concerns and dilemmas persisted. For example, institutional placements continued to be widely employed, the number of children in care had risen alarmingly and the balance of risk between endeavouring to keep children in their families and removing them for their protection remained a disputed issue, as did the associated question of the appropriate role of the state and therefore when and how it should or could assume parent-like responsibilities.

In its 1980 report, the NCB working party endeavoured to address some of these issues, to present the facts and to suggest possible ways forward. Yet reliable facts were rather thin on the ground. There was a dearth of robust research evidence, not just about the effects of separation on different children but also concerning the long-term experiences of children in care or at risk but left at home. Indeed, although in 1967 the NCB (then the National Bureau for Co-operation in Child Care) had published extensive reviews of research on adoption (Pringle et al, 1967), residential care (Dinnage and Pringle, 1967a) and foster care (Dinnage and Pringle, 1967b), many of the studies that were reported were small scale, unscientific or from overseas, particularly from the US. For example, it could list only three ongoing projects in the UK concerned with foster care. Nevertheless, the 1970s did see more studies of a number of aspects of child care, most notably that of Jane Rowe and Lydia Lambert's Children who Wait, published in 1973. Throughout the 1970s, further material began to be available (for example, Triseliotis, 1973; Millham et al, 1978), but even by 1980 glaring gaps remained in what we knew about the many issues that surrounded the children's services and the children and families whom they served. Many case histories, commentaries and theories were offered, but most had not been tested empirically (see, Axford et al, 2005).

So, what have been the main changes since BAAF's foundation in 1980 and how might they be explained?

Statistics

One way of approaching the identification of significant changes in child care during the last 30 years is to look at the available statistics. There are two reasons for doing so. First, they show changes in the 'profile' of the child care population and secondly, what is recorded (and under what headings) sheds light on the issues that gain prominence. Here are a few statistical reference points. (5)

The decline in the number of children in care is perhaps the most striking shift, from 100,700 in 1978 to 65,600 in 2009. That is a fall of 35 per cent. Although significant, what does it reflect? The answer may be different if we try to explain the large number in 1978 or if we concentrate on the reasons for the subsequent decline.

The number of children in care had begun to rise in the early 1970s but had reached a plateau in the years 1977-80. The increase was partly due to the inclusion of the approved schools (institutions mainly for young offenders) population at the beginning of 1971, roughly an extra 10,000; but 'the rediscovery of abuse' in that decade may also have been a factor as more children at risk were identified. Certainly, there was a surge in referrals from many quarters. The reduction in the number in care is probably easier to explain: essentially a shift in focus towards prevention, together with a transfer of attention and resources to 'family and community work' and, after the Children Act 1989, the fact that young offenders and those failing to go to school could no longer be committed to care by the courts.

Both the proportion and the number of children in foster homes have witnessed a dramatic growth since 1980. The proportion rose from 35 per cent to 73 per cent in 2009 and the number by about 13,000, despite concerns about 'hard-to-place' children (see Triseliotis, 1980; Hill, 1999). The change was driven by the quest to reduce reliance on residential care but also, early on, by a remarkable increase in the number of children committed to care by the courts being allowed home 'on trial'. This group was counted in the foster care total of which, in 1978, it accounted for 19 per cent. It reached almost 25 per cent a few years later (see, Farmer and Parker, 1991). It is now recorded separately as 'placement with parents'. Thus, although it helped to boost the recorded number in foster care in the 1980s it ceased to do so soon afterwards: the growth in foster care could no longer be attributed to this oddity of statistical classification. A mixture of other factors has to be considered. It may be that a wider pool of foster carers began to be tapped; that more marginal foster parents were being used; that better payments had an effect, together with more determined foster family finding, to which BAAF has made an evident contribution. In addition, there were fewer residential places available as an alternative. Indeed, whereas 37 per cent of children in care in 1978 were in some form of residential accommodation, this proportion now stands at eleven per cent in England and at four per cent in Wales.

One other notable change in the intervening years has been in adoption from care. In 1978 these adoptions numbered 1,600 (2% of all discharges) but they had risen to 3,560 by 2009 (5% of those leaving care). But the age of those adopted has also altered. In 1978, 23 per cent were under one year of age but by 2009 only two per cent. In part, this reflected the virtual disappearance of the stigma associated with illegitimacy and thus to fewer unmarried mothers relinquishing their babies for adoption. But from the late 1990s onwards adoption from care also received considerable encouragement from central government. With all of this came a marked shift away from adoption being regarded as meeting the needs of infertile couples to it being seen as a way of meeting the needs of certain children for a permanent home. One other change has been the decline in the role of voluntary adoption organisations, partly because local authorities are now required to act as adoption agencies themselves and therefore call less often upon the help of the voluntary sector. This is reflected in BAAF's current membership, which now stands at 211 local authorities and 32 voluntary societies (15%) compared with 126 and 49 (39%) in 1980.

Legal changes have also modified the in-care 'profile' considerably. For example, as we have seen, since the 1989 Children Act children are no longer committed to care as offenders; in 1978 they comprised 18,000 of the total, or 18 per cent. Likewise, children are no longer admitted for 'non-school attendance'; but in 1978 there were 4,500 in care for this reason, or some five per cent. These exclusions help to explain declining numbers in care, but they also reflect changed attitudes towards the treatment of these problems as well as the re-classification of 'reasons for being in care'. Some who fell into these former groups will now fall into the category of being in care because of their 'neglect or abuse'. This designation now covers 61 per cent of the children in care, up from 21 per cent in 1978.

It should also be borne in mind that the 1989 Act required more exacting conditions to be met before a court could issue an order committing a child to local authority care (see, Journal of Children's Services, 2010). Indeed, the shift that the Act represented towards the better protection of parents' rights and towards the assumption that a child should remain at home unless 'significant harm' was established may well have contributed to the reduction of the number 'looked after'. However, whereas in 1978 45 per cent of children in care in England were subject to care orders, by 2009 this had risen to 58 per cent, although the actual number had fallen from 45,500 to 38,000.

The much closer attention being paid over the last decade or so to the problems of neglect and abuse is, of course, a notable change since 1980, even though we cannot be sure whether there has been a real increase in the phenomenon or whether there is now more awareness. Nonetheless, as we have seen, the growth in its salience is reflected in the statistics. It now dominates the scene in most children's services as well as in the media, and although there was concern in 1980, it did not occupy such a central position, despite the disquiet about child abuse that had begun to grow in the 1970s. What we have seen in recent years is an intensification of the tension between striving to keep child and family together (or achieving their reunification) and the need to protect children from actual or potential harm through their removal into care. This has caused fluctuations in the politics of child welfare.

The emergence of 'new' issues tends to be signalled by the assembly of new statistics. For example, in 1978 there were none on the ethnicity or education of children in care. The 2009 returns cover both issues. They tell us that 27 per cent of the in-care population in England were classified as not 'white British' (a considerable over-representation) and we now know the educational attainments of children in care at Years 2, 6, 9 and 11 as well as the gap between their achievements and other children. Other new statistics have also made an appearance; for example, the number of young mothers of 12 years old or over who are in care (330 in England, of whom 280 were 16 or 17) and information on 'outcome indicators', again reflecting a considerable change since 1980 when little attention was paid to the assessment and measurement of outcomes. Such changes in what is enumerated do mirror the rise and fall of the issues of the day, but because of this, data are liable to be discontinuous, making comparisons over time that much more difficult. There is also the problem of obtaining an overall picture of the situation in the UK as each constituent country publishes its own statistics that, in their turn, reflect different policy and legal situations. In this respect, the reader should be reminded that the figures provided in this article refer to England and Wales. Both Scotland and Northern Ireland warrant a similar review.

Changes in politics, policies and practice

There have been, of course, major transformations in the social and economic structure of the country since 1980. Some of the repercussions will have affected children's services, although it is not clear which, to what extent, or how. There has been the increase in divorce, the growth in the number of step-parent families, more one-parent families, youth unemployment, growing inequality, more asylum seekers (3,700 of them in care in England in 2009, but none listed in 1980)--and so the list might be continued. However, apart from such changes there have been other important alterations in the 'climate' in which these services have operated. Let us consider some of them.

By 1980 there had been a discernable increase in what might be regarded as pressure group activity. For example, the Family Rights Group had been set up in 1974; the National Association for Young People in Care a year later, and the Children's Legal Centre in 1981. Other new groups followed. Associated journals began to make an appearance, such as the Who Cares? magazine in 1985. The rights issue continued to gain in significance, both for children and for their parents (including fathers) as well as for carers, much of it exemplified by the Children Act 1989. Inquiries into the deaths of children in care or of children for whom social services carried some responsibility proliferated. Criticism abounded, much of it heightened by a more robust media. In 1983, the House of Commons Social Services Committee (1984) chose to inquire into the state of the child care services and published its telling report a year later. In 2003, a Children's Commissioner (Ombudsman) was appointed, partly in response to the report of the inquiry into abuses in children's homes in North Wales (Waterhouse, 2000), but also in response to pressure from several groups concerned with children's rights. Such developments have meant that children's services have become exposed to much closer scrutiny and to influences that pull them in many directions. The work becomes more complicated and demanding. Expectations are raised and calls increase for government to respond to each new disquieting event, and often more rapidly than before. 'Remedial' policies emerge, making it hard for practitioners to keep up.

In the last 30 years research has come to play a more important part in both policy and practice. Of course, in many ways Rowe and Lambert set the ball rolling in 1973 but the establishment of the National Children's Bureau two years later was also significant, as was the decision of the Department of Health to sponsor a programme of research into children's services. BAAF, too, increased its encouragement of research and became an important outlet for the publication of its results. Although the influence of research has waxed and waned, there is certainly much more of it: its findings appear in a growing number of journals; material is to be found on the internet, and organisations like Research in Practice and Making Research Count seek to make studies available to practitioners. In short, we have had a proliferation of information since 1980. The challenge now becomes how best to use and manage it, not least because it is not all of the same quality and, in any case, is capable of introducing new doubts and uncertainties as well as valuable illumination.

One should also consider how policies have changed over the last 30 years. There are several difficulties in doing this. One arises from the fact that each local authority exercises a measure of discretion about what it does, even though the edicts of central government impose certain constraints. Moreover, policies that are established by administrations do not always filter down to the field and, even when they do, they may fail to be fully or consistently implemented; and some 'policies' emerge from the growing regularity of what is done without necessarily having been introduced by a superordinate authority.

Furthermore, when considering the changes in policies that have affected children's services since 1980, it is necessary to cast the net fairly widely because what happens in other fields can have an effect on both the demand for them and their supply. There is, as Jean Packman put it, 'a tangle of services which [lies] beyond the public child care system whose activities are clearly related to it' (1986, p 7). Shifts in the policies adopted with respect to welfare payments, housing, education, health and the justice system all have the potential to affect children's services, as do those pursued by the voluntary and private service sectors: take, for example, the rise in private foster family-finding agencies or the growing official encouragement for the public sector to utilise the services of voluntary organisations.

Some policies have come and gone and some have cancelled each other out. So, what might one select as significant? I would choose four, but others could be added. First, there has been the growing emphasis upon 'prevention'; that is, upon the general duty of local authorities 'to promote the welfare of children by diminishing the need for them to be received into care, to be kept in care, or to be brought to court' which was re-codified in the Child Care Act of 1980. That intention has remained intact and, especially during the last 20 years or so, has been supported by the expansion of services devoted to day care for preschool children and to family support.

The second policy development that I would include would be the greater attention being paid to children's wishes and feelings and to what they have to say about their experiences. This, of course, is related to the rights of the child that have been increasingly incorporated in legislative requirements, not least in the Children Act 1989. Even though difficulties remain, not least when it comes to young children and in moving from what individual children tell us to generalising for the many, the very fact of consultation marks a laudable and important break with the past.

Many additional requirements for the collection of both individual and aggregate data have been imposed since 1980; this would be the third policy development that I would select and echoes what has been said earlier. Now, for example, there is the children in need census to be provided and the seven national indicators to be assembled (for instance, on children's emotional behaviour). More emphasis has been placed on timely reviews and upon the formulation and recording of plans, particularly in child protection cases. Such developments provide important details about the performance of individual authorities; but it is difficult to know exactly what difference they have made to what is done and to what is achieved by social workers grappling with the problems of individual children. What is clear is that as a result of these requirements (and the growth of research), both administrators and social workers have much more information available to them than they would have had in 1980, although, as we have said, it may be difficult for them to sift out, or even to find, what is relevant for their particular purpose.

A fourth important and related policy development has been the increasing emphasis placed upon outcomes and their evaluation, and upon targets of various kinds, partly driven by anxieties about levels of expenditure. In 2008, for example, the gross cost of children looked after in England was 2.2 billion [pounds sterling], up from 1.3 billion [pounds sterling] in 2000; that is a rise of about 40 per cent. In 1978, the cost of care stood at 190 million [pounds sterling]. Likewise, in 1978 the average weekly cost per child in care was 48 [pounds sterling] while in 2000 it was 430 [pounds sterling] and by 2009 it had reached 707 [pounds sterling] or 36,770 [pounds sterling] a year. Although it is difficult to make accurate comparisons, expenditure on these services has risen in real terms--hence the preoccupation with getting 'value for money'. More questions now arise about what differences these increases have made; for example, the doubling of expenditure on fostering between 2000 and 2008.

With regard to practice, it is difficult to know which aspects of the system have improved or deteriorated, although more staff are now trained than 30 years ago. There is certainly a broader range of perspectives and theoretical developments; for example, those that address issues of attachment, child development and trauma. Even so, it is hard to see much application of theory in most of the work that has to be done in children's services. It may be that this would change were the tempo of that work to be reduced and if the connection between theory and practice became more evident in more cases.

Yet it could be that wider social forces have offset some of the gains that might have been expected of better social work practice. Likewise, it is difficult to judge whether the in-care experience of children is more satisfactory than it was and, if so, to what that is attributable. Certainly, much has been done with that end in mind. For example, children appear to change their placements less often, but some of this improvement could be due to the closure of observation and assessment centres which, in 1980, accounted for 21 per cent of all first placements and from which residents moved on after a short stay. However, the emphasis on 'permanence' that gained ground during the 1990s may well have helped to reduced the frequency of disruptions, as could the greater support offered to foster parents.

Of course, the issues surrounding children in care are inextricably linked to the social work that is being done (or that needs to be done) with families in order to prevent that eventuality or to achieve restoration. The scale and nature of these latter activities are more difficult to chart, whether it be in terms of their duration, intensity, effectiveness or cost. But to the extent that such work has expanded (and there is every sign that it has), that devoted to the child in care may have suffered somewhat. Indeed, the question of how scarce social work and other resources can be best deployed seems to have become more pressing (not least because of the emphasis upon evaluation) and although the answers are liable to be affected by each new crisis or exposure, the issue remains as taxing as it did in 1980. And that leads me to my last observation. What has remained largely unchanged?

Although we have developed new ideas and theories about what should be done to promote the welfare of vulnerable children, core issues remain. They concern principally the deleterious effects of significantly poor parenting and the related disruptions to children's lives. Of course, the scale of the problem remains a matter of dispute but not its seriousness for the children affected. There is a common assumption that we understand better than we did the reasons for these devastating upheavals: poverty, poor parenting, marital conflict, alcohol, drugs, run-down estates, the absence of fathers, and so the list continues. But, in fact, the passage of 30 years has offered us little by way of an understanding that would give clear guidance about what best to do structurally: that is, across the board. What understanding we possess is most convincing at a case-by-case level.

On a more administrative level, certain other things have shown little change either; for example, the ratio of boys to girls in care (3 to 2), the problems surrounding the co-ordination of different services (despite much exhortation to do better), the amount of discretion that is able to be exercised by frontline staff, or the important influence that the courts and other related services have on what is and can be done in child care.

Despite considerable efforts and specific legislation such as the Children (Leaving Care) Act of 2000, children who leave care at 18 still face much the same daunting prospect now as they did in 1980, although there are few figures for that year. In 2009, however, the largest proportion (43%) of 19-year-olds who had been in care in England--at least since they were 16--were classified as being in 'independent living' while the next highest proportion (13%) were living with parents or relatives. Six per cent had been lost to view and three per cent were in custody. On a different analysis, one finds that 31 per cent were not in training or employment, but five per cent fell into that category because they were ill or disabled.

Although its scale has been reduced, there remains the problem of 'disruption'; that is, of a child having a sequence of placements. During 2009, 10.7 per cent of children in care in England had had three or more placements. Hence, there is an enduring concern about stability and not just in respect to children's placements. There continues to be considerable turnover of staff, especially in certain areas, often associated with a persistence of unfilled posts, both of which are likely to have a deleterious effect upon the quality of services. And that leads to one other continuity.

In 1980, there were marked differences on many matters between the local authorities responsible for the provision of children's services. For instance, in 1978 the number of children in care per 1,000 of the population under 18 ranged from 27.2 in Tower Hamlets to 3.6 in Surrey and the percentage in foster care from 70 in Warwickshire to 24 in Greenwich. Similar differences exist today. In England, in 2009, the in-care rates stretched from 14.6 in Manchester to 2.0 in Wokingham and although the highs and lows cluster around the same kinds of areas, the upper levels are coming down; for instance, Tower Hamlets falling to 7.1. Similarly, although the rate of foster care has increased, differences still exist: rates now spread from 89 per cent in Hartlepool to 61 per cent in Salford. Indeed, although the pattern may have changed in some respects there continue to be substantial differences between the problems that authorities face. To take one further example: in 2009 just three authorities (Croydon, Kent and Hillingdon) looked after almost 30 per cent of all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

I hazard a guess that one other thing that has changed little since 1980 is the public perception of children's services. Considerable opprobrium continues to be heaped upon social workers and upon those with whom they work. In terms of the politics of these services, this is a significant problem and one that may intensify in the atmosphere of 'welfare cuts'. The image of children's services has to be improved as well as their quality.

Key words: children in care, children's services, 1980-2010

References

Axford N, Berry V Little M and Morpeth L, Forty Years of Research, Policy and Practice in Children's Services, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2005

Bowlby J, Maternal Care and Mental Health, Geneva: WHO, 1951

Burlingham D and Freud A, Young Children in War-time in a Residential War Nursery, London: Allen & Unwin, 1942

Clyde (Chair), Report of the Committee on Homeless Children, cmd 6911, Edinburgh: HMSO, 1946

Cretney S, 'The state as parent: the Children Act 1948 in retrospect', Law Quarterly Review 114, pp 419-59, July 1998

Curtis (Chair), Report ofthe Care of Children Committee, cmd 6922, London: HMSO, 1946

Dinnage R and Pringle M, Residential Care: Facts and fallacies, London: Longmans, 1967a

Dinnage R and Pringle M, Foster Home Care: Facts and fallacies, London: Longmans, 1967b

Farmer E and Parker R, Trials and Tribulations, London: HMSO, 1991

Hill M (ed), Signposts in Fostering, London: BAAF, 1999

Holman R, The Evacuation, Oxford: Lion, 1995

House of Commons Social Services Committee, Report: Children in Care, HC 380, 1984

Isaacs S (ed), The Cambridge Evacuation Survey, London: Methuen, 1941

Journal of Children's Services 5:2, Special issue on the Children Act 1989, 2010

Millham S, Bullock R and Hosie K, Locking up Children, Farnborough: Saxon House, 1978

Monckton (Chair), Report on the Circumstances that led to the Boarding-out of Dennis and Terence O'Neill at Bank Farm, Minsterly, and the Steps taken to Supervise their Welfare, London: HMSO, 1945

New Education Fellowship, Children in Wartime, London: New Education Fellowship, circa 1946

National Foster Care Association, A Review of the Children Act [1975] 10 Years On, London: NFCA, 1986

Packman J, Who Needs Care?, Oxford: Blackwell, 1986

Parker R (ed), Caring for Separated Children, London: Macmillan, 1980

Parker R, 'The gestation of reform: the Children Act 1948', in Bean P and MacPherson S (eds), Approaches to Welfare, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983

Parton N, The Politics of Child Abuse, London: Macmillan, 1985

Pringle M, with Dewdney M, Crellin E and

Dinnage R, Adoption: Facts and fallacies, London: Longmans, 1967

Rowe J and Lambert L, Children who Wait, London: ABAA, 1973

Rutter M, Maternal Deprivation Re-assessed, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972

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Titmuss R, Problems of Social Policy, London: HMSO, 1950

Triseliotis J, In Search of Origins, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973

Triseliotis J (ed), New Developments in Foster Care and Adoption, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,1980

Waterhouse (Chair), Lost in Care: Report of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Abuse of Children in the Care ofthe former county councils of Gwyndd and Clwyd since 1974, London: Department of Health, 2000

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(1) Titmuss (1950) provides an excellent account of evacuation in the main text, but the detailed statistics are to be found in the appendices. Together with the unaccompanied children there were those who went with their mothers under the government scheme; but as well as these a 'very large' but unknown number of evacuations were arranged privately.

(2) See, for example, Burlingham and Freud (1942), Isaacs (1941), Women's Group on Social Welfare (1948) and, later, Holman (1995).

(3) Section 1 of the 1963 Children Act required local authorities 'to make available such advice, guidance and assistance as may promote the welfare of children by diminishing the need to receive children into or keep them in care ...'

(4) See National Foster Care Association, A Review of the Children Act [1975] 10 Years On (1986). The Act encouraged the adoption of children in care by, for example, requiring local authorities to act as adoption agencies and by introducing the concept of 'freeing for adoption'. It also aimed to give carers greater security, for instance by the creation of custodianship orders for which foster parents could apply, although few did. The critics focused upon the potential reduction of parental rights.

(5) Unless otherwise indicated, the statistics are for England and Wales although now, unlike 1980 and earlier, they are no longer published together and therefore may vary in format or appear at different times. The reader will notice that for the start of the period under consideration the figures are often for 1978. This is because the NCB report, which has been used as something of a starting point, although published in 1980, employed mainly figures from 1978. The source throughout is Children Looked After in England (and Wales), now published by the Department of Education but earlier by the DCSF and DHSS (latest: www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/).

[c] Roy Parker 2010

Roy Parker is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, University of Bristol