Latest News:Latest News - May 2011
Support for parents could reduce the need for children to go into care
More than 40% of children in care could have remained at home if their parents had been offered better help and support.
That is one of the findings of the latest Children on the Edge of Care report which suggests that more parental guidance and respite care is needed.
Victoria Pogge von Strandmann, a solicitor at Maxwell Gillott, is one of a team of solicitors which provide education and community care law advice to children and families in these types of cases. She says there is often reluctance from social services to provide essential support which could prevent family breakdown.
“We see many cases where social services have failed to provide help and support for parents who are under extreme pressure and where the family may be at risk of breakdown.”
According to Victoria, parents often struggle to care for children with behavioural difficulties and special educational needs without additional support. If the child’s educational needs are not being met, for example, because the child is in the wrong school, this exacerbates the problem.
“This has a knock on effect on the entire family,” Victoria explains. “Sometimes the child has to be removed from school entirely which places huge pressure on both parents and siblings. It is not uncommon that families break down as a result."
The team at MG Law is considered one of the country’s leading suppliers of legal advice to families with children that have special care and educational needs and director, Elaine Maxwell says the firm handles cases where the local authority is threatening to place a child in care when, in fact, the solution comes when education issues are resolved and the family can function normally again.
“Parents are left to fight for the support which they are legally entitled to and which could prevent children going into care in the first place.” Indeed, the report found that many of the children who took part in the survey believed that their entry into the care system could have been prevented had their parents received more help and support.”
Such difficulties are only likely to increase with local authorities’ budgets coming under ever increasing pressure from cuts.
On the flip side, young people are sometimes left in limbo when the relationship at home has broken down: parents do not want them back but the local authority refuses to provide them with suitable accommodation and solicitors at Maxwell Gillott regularly act for young people to ensure that the young person obtains the support and accommodation she or he is entitled to from social services.
The 'Children on the edge of care' report is based on interviews with 122 children across the country and concludes that lives could have been improved through better parenting guidance.
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© Maxwell Gillott 2008
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