Improving care proceedings: ‘There was so much said about me that I didn’t get to answer for myself’

This report sets out the findings of research commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) to support the work of the Care Proceedings Reform Group (CPRG), a subgroup of the Public Law Working Group (PLWG). The CPRG was created to address the recommendations of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care to make care proceedings more compassionate by drawing on principles of the Family Drug and Alcohol Court, and research on parents' perspectives of care proceedings and different care orders. The aim of the research reported here was to provide a ‘lived experience’ perspective on care proceedings to inform the ongoing work of CPRG. Online discussion groups were held with 34 parents, kinship carers and young people, who were recruited and supported by Cafcass and Family Rights Group. We discussed what sources of advice, support and information they accessed (and how there was a lack of support and advice); if and how they were able to participate in proceedings and whether they had a ‘voice’ in court hearings; what their interactions with judges and other professionals were like; and how aspects of problem solving courts could be adopted more generally to improve experiences of care proceedings.