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http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0402.htm
The main programmes featured in this concise review, like The Incredible Years, Triple P, the Nurse-Family Partnership Programme, Multi-systemic therapy and Functional Family Therapy, rightly attract interest from parenting providers and agencies keen to develop a contemporary practice model for reducing antisocial behaviour, writes Anthony Douglas.
The emphasis on selecting the right programme at the right time for a particular set of problems is welcome as a one-size-fits-all approach is doomed. While all programmes have been positively evaluated in some part of the globe, the fragile understanding of how to relate a particular programme to a particular set of local problems in the UK means that targeting needs greater precision. This study can help strategists and operational managers alike.
Success factors like high programme fidelity (delivering a programme according to a core curriculum), a strong value-base for partnership working with families, and a tiered approach, are more likely than not to be effective whatever model is used.
This study could usefully have included some cross-referencing to other programmes which may have a preventive part to play, especially child and adolescent mental health services. The sheer unaffordability of some specialist programmes could also have received more coverage, while showing how, despite that, some can still be good value for money.
The strongest message from this study is that assessment without treatment is unlikely to change very much. The social care equivalent of “education, education, education” is “treatment, treatment, treatment”.
Anthony Douglas is chief executive of Cafcass and chair of BAAF
Archive for October 12th, 2007
From the vaults
Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0401.htm
The Conservatives should take heed. This month 30 years ago, the general secretary of the then National Union of Public Employees made a strong plea for money to be pumped into public services rather being spent on facilitating tax cuts. We can guess where he would have told George Osborne to shove his inheritance tax proposals announced at the Tory Party conference.
In October 1977, the then director of mental health charity Mind Tony Smythe suggested that every MP should mark mental health week with a visit to their local mental health hospital. Many would say his point is just as valid today. With Parliament conveniently re-opening the day after World Mental Health Day this year, I wonder how many MPs used their last day off to visit mental health services in their area?
The new wider remits of today’s breed of adults’ social services directors would have been scoffed at by their counterparts 30 years ago if the reaction to proposals for one London director to take on responsibility for car parks and refuse collection at his council is anything to go by. Kingston’s social services director described the plan as “absurd” – a sentiment one imagines he might have echoed had he been asked to take on swimming pools, adult learning or culture.
Full Story:
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A 10-month old baby was found dead from massive internal injuries on Christmas Eve despite being placed on the “at risk” register, a court heard today.
Neo Craig, who lived with his drug-using parents, tested positive for cocaine at birth but the results were twice ignored by doctors, the Old Bailey was told.
Social workers failed to detect any bruising or injuries on a visit two months before his death because he was covered in baby powder.
The infant died from a punch to the stomach that caused fatal internal bleeding, the court heard.
As he lay dead the baby’s mother Sharma Dookhooah sent her own mother a text message telling her not to come over as she was making the Christmas dinner.
Dookhooah, 25, and her boyfriend James Craig, 26, of Rush Green Gardens, Romford, Essex, today both admitted causing or allowing the death of a child.
Craig admits lashing out with a “clenched fist” at his girlfriend while she was holding Neo during a row on 24 December last year.
“Sharma Dookhooah moved slightly and the blow impacted on Neo,” said Richard Whittam, prosecuting.
“James Craig does not accept that the blow was aimed at Neo.”
The baby was “in some physical distress” following the blow and some time later his parents, both crack cocaine users, realised he was not breathing.
Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0400.htm
A 10-month old baby was found dead from massive internal injuries on Christmas Eve despite being placed on the “at risk” register, a court heard today.
Neo Craig, who lived with his drug-using parents, tested positive for cocaine at birth but the results were twice ignored by doctors, the Old Bailey was told.
Social workers failed to detect any bruising or injuries on a visit two months before his death because he was covered in baby powder.
The infant died from a punch to the stomach that caused fatal internal bleeding, the court heard.
As he lay dead the baby’s mother Sharma Dookhooah sent her own mother a text message telling her not to come over as she was making the Christmas dinner.
Dookhooah, 25, and her boyfriend James Craig, 26, of Rush Green Gardens, Romford, Essex, today both admitted causing or allowing the death of a child.
Craig admits lashing out with a “clenched fist” at his girlfriend while she was holding Neo during a row on 24 December last year.
“Sharma Dookhooah moved slightly and the blow impacted on Neo,” said Richard Whittam, prosecuting.
“James Craig does not accept that the blow was aimed at Neo.”
The baby was “in some physical distress” following the blow and some time later his parents, both crack cocaine users, realised he was not breathing.
Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0400.htm
A 10-month old baby was found dead from massive internal injuries on Christmas Eve despite being placed on the “at risk” register, a court heard today.
Neo Craig, who lived with his drug-using parents, tested positive for cocaine at birth but the results were twice ignored by doctors, the Old Bailey was told.
Social workers failed to detect any bruising or injuries on a visit two months before his death because he was covered in baby powder.
The infant died from a punch to the stomach that caused fatal internal bleeding, the court heard.
As he lay dead the baby’s mother Sharma Dookhooah sent her own mother a text message telling her not to come over as she was making the Christmas dinner.
Dookhooah, 25, and her boyfriend James Craig, 26, of Rush Green Gardens, Romford, Essex, today both admitted causing or allowing the death of a child.
Craig admits lashing out with a “clenched fist” at his girlfriend while she was holding Neo during a row on 24 December last year.
“Sharma Dookhooah moved slightly and the blow impacted on Neo,” said Richard Whittam, prosecuting.
“James Craig does not accept that the blow was aimed at Neo.”
The baby was “in some physical distress” following the blow and some time later his parents, both crack cocaine users, realised he was not breathing.
Crib Sheet
Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0399.htm
What is a family group conference?
It is a process where the wider family makes decisions about a child or young person who has been identified either by the family or by service providers as in need of a plan to safeguard and promote their welfare.
Where do FGCs originate from?
Family group conferencing was pioneered among the Maori community in New Zealand during the 1970s and 1980s because of the disproportionate number of Maori children on social workers’ caseloads and being taken into care. The practice then developed in the US from 1989 and the model is now used in different forms in at least 40 states. The first Australian project was set up in 1992 and through the 1990s the model was applied in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Canada. Other countries followed suit.
What about the UK?
Family group conferencing arrived in the UK in the early 1990s, with the Family Rights Group taking a leading role in establishing a number of pilot projects. It is in development or practised in 55% of English local authority areas. FGCs have also been promoted and endorsed in guidance issued by the National Assembly for Wales in 2000 and 2001. In Scotland, Children 1st has pioneered the use of the FGC model. The first projects were established in 1998, and the charity now co-manages FGC services in an increasing number of local authority areas. There is also one in-house FGC service at Edinburgh Council.
So what happens?Once the need for an FGC is agreed by the family, an independent co-ordinator is appointed. Each local area will have its own criteria and processes for this. The co-ordinator, with the young person and their immediate carers, identifies the family network, which can include close friends. The basic premise is that they have a meeting to come up with their own plan to tackle concerns. This redresses the power imbalance often experienced by children and their families who come into contact with services. The co-ordinator also arranges for any professionals involved with the young person to attend the meeting.
Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0398.htm
The system of placing children under 12 in care should be reviewed urgently, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) says. HIQA found that children as young as five were being put into care for as long as several years. Its Social Services Inspectorate has released a report on the issue. A tendency to put younger children into residential care was at odds with a stated principle to find a place for them with families, the report noted. The most recent available figures found that over 5,000 children under 12 were in care, the majority in foster homes but nearly one-tenth in residential care. Last year social services inspectors identified the 93 children under 12 in residential care, to form the basis of the HIQA report. Of these 58, or 62% were aged under 12. Over a quarter (28%) had been in their placements for more than three years. The majority of children were boys, at 78%, and most of them had been in placements before their situation at the time. The HIQA report also recommends that the Department of Health publish a clear national policy on the fostering of children under 12.
Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0398.htm
The system of placing children under 12 in care should be reviewed urgently, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) says. HIQA found that children as young as five were being put into care for as long as several years. Its Social Services Inspectorate has released a report on the issue. A tendency to put younger children into residential care was at odds with a stated principle to find a place for them with families, the report noted. The most recent available figures found that over 5,000 children under 12 were in care, the majority in foster homes but nearly one-tenth in residential care. Last year social services inspectors identified the 93 children under 12 in residential care, to form the basis of the HIQA report. Of these 58, or 62% were aged under 12. Over a quarter (28%) had been in their placements for more than three years. The majority of children were boys, at 78%, and most of them had been in placements before their situation at the time. The HIQA report also recommends that the Department of Health publish a clear national policy on the fostering of children under 12.
Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0398.htm
The system of placing children under 12 in care should be reviewed urgently, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) says. HIQA found that children as young as five were being put into care for as long as several years. Its Social Services Inspectorate has released a report on the issue. A tendency to put younger children into residential care was at odds with a stated principle to find a place for them with families, the report noted. The most recent available figures found that over 5,000 children under 12 were in care, the majority in foster homes but nearly one-tenth in residential care. Last year social services inspectors identified the 93 children under 12 in residential care, to form the basis of the HIQA report. Of these 58, or 62% were aged under 12. Over a quarter (28%) had been in their placements for more than three years. The majority of children were boys, at 78%, and most of them had been in placements before their situation at the time. The HIQA report also recommends that the Department of Health publish a clear national policy on the fostering of children under 12.
Full Story:
http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0397.htm
I have an example of egregious behaviour by the family justice system to present. The petition states: The Petition of a British Citizen Declares that a Local Authority has recently told a mother that she will not be allowed contact with her adopted child if she continues to protest outside the Family Court. The Petitioner therefore requests that the House of Commons urges the government to legislate to prevent Local Authorities from using control over contact with their children to prevent parents from protesting about the unfairness of the Family Justice System in England and Wales.
