05 March 2008
Community Care conference, London
Justice Minister Bridget Prentice has given a speech on the public law outline, a new system for managing child care proceedings.
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Bridget Prentice MP:
Thank you very much for that kind introduction, Mark [Ivory, Executive Editor, Community Care]. I'm delighted to be here and have the opportunity to talk to you all about something very close to your hearts - improving matters for children who are subject to care proceedings.
I usually like to begin my speeches off with a little tongue in cheek football story - or perhaps something about cats - two things which I'm passionate about when I get away from the Ministry of Justice!
But the jokes quite slipped my mind when I realised that I had been asked to address a room full of experienced social care professionals on what the Child Care Review means in a social care context.
I'm really not sure I'm best qualified to do that. I suspect those who follow me today are far better qualified and placed to talk to you about that.
But there again, I do believe passionately in working to ensure that all children have the best possible start in life - and as a Minister I'm in a position to be able to do something about it. That particularly includes children where, for whatever reason, there is a need for state intervention in their lives.
And, as family justice is a key responsibility of mine at the Ministry of Justice. Indeed, one of my very first acts when I was appointed last summer was to attend a meeting of the Ministerial Group on Care Proceedings.
Context
All of us here today know that the children - and families - involved in care proceedings are clearly amongst the most vulnerable in society.
When you think that 60% of care proceedings involve children under six years old. With cases frequently taking more than a year to reach a conclusion, this is a huge slice of a child's life.
The statistics are frightening - for example, roughly a quarter of the adult prison population were in care as children.
But - and also those - when they have children of their own, these children are in turn more likely to be taken into care.
It's a vicious cycle which we need to try and break out of by giving children the best possible start in life.
Background
Five years ago, what was then Department for Constitutional Affairs agreed a target with HM Treasury - to increase the proportion of care cases completed within 40 weeks by 10% by 2009/10. That was, and remains, a challenging target.
More recently, we commissioned a wide-ranging review into the care proceedings system that looked carefully at whether we were meeting the needs of the child.
It made a number of recommendations, which we accepted.
Perhaps one of those was the need for all family justice agencies to co-operate more fully and to work more effectively together - In other words, a new age of a new style of working; the forging of successful partnerships - something I shall return to in a moment.
Three other particularly important recommendations were made about how we should improve the system:
- Firstly - we should try and prevent children entering care at all. I believe applications should only be made after all safe alternatives have been thoroughly explored - for example though support initiatives or wider kinship care opportunities such as grandparents, cousins and even older siblings.
- Secondly - we need to realise parents need more assistance and better information both before and during proceedings. This will help them understand what is going on and make more informed decisions.
- Thirdly - we need to look at what happens once an application has been made to the court. We know that there are frequently too many way too many unnecessary delays in the system, resulting in cases taking far too long.
Two key reforms will start from 1 April and will go a long way to delivering those important recommendations.
The theme of today's conference is one of those reforms in particular - the Public Law Outline.
There are others far more expert and familiar with the Public Law Outline who'll be talking to you during the day … Anthony Douglas, for example. Anthony has been actively involved in driving forward these reforms and my colleagues and I, including Kevin Brennan, are extremely grateful for Anthony's tireless commitment.
You'll also hear from Judge Altman, who led the initiative in London, as well as from local authority representatives, such as Uma Mehta and Julie Penny, who have both given a huge amount of time and support to drafting and testing these reforms.
So what I want to do is to talk to you about some of the wider issues which face everybody dealing with care proceedings.
Partnership working
I said just now about the need for everyone working in the system to co-operate and work more closely together. And that must be the key to successfully implementing all these reforms - including the Public Law Outline.
For far too long, far too many of us, from ministers right through frontline staff, have worked in isolation. We are not good at sharing information with colleagues. In fact we often don't really talk to opposite numbers in other organisations.
But I think we are all learning that it is vital that we change our way of working - that we break down those silos, those boxes, and start talking to each other and working constructively with each other.
The care proceedings programme for example has already demonstrated the power of partnership working. As many of you'll know, there's been a truly joined-up approach to working on the Review's recommendations, which is how we have been able to get to this point far faster than things normally happen.
Teams from my own department, the judiciary, DCSF [Department for Children, Schools and Families] and the Welsh Executive have been working closely together for some months to ensure that the Public Law Outline and statutory guidance closely mesh together.
They've received fantastic support from partners throughout the system - local authority lawyers and social work teams, the legal profession, whole professional and voluntary sector bodies. And, of course, the many staff in agencies such as HMCS [Her Majesty's Courts Service], Cafcass [Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service] and Cafcass Cymru, and LSC [the Legal Services Commission] who've all have worked hard on these reforms. And then there are all those who have been involved in testing the reforms in the initiative areas throughout England and Wales.
I could go on, but I'm sure you can see where I'm coming from. The programme has already broken down barriers and created successful new partnerships.
Now I want to encourage all of you - everyone working within the care proceedings system - to join in this new way of working.
Communicating with each other - and going beyond the bounds of your normal working team! Think about the impact of your actions on other agencies when working on a case … Are there things you could do to help other agencies? Is there information you could give them to make life easier? Could you pick up the phone, or email, and speed things up?
Imagine how it feels to be in the position of the person or the child.
I know this is a lot to ask: everything we're proposing needs a huge sea change in the culture of how we approach care proceedings.
Cultural change
Everyone involved in care proceedings is going to need to reconsider their role because of the changing demands of both the Public Law Outline and, of course, the statutory guidance for local authorities.
It's worth us just pausing to think about this for a moment - to think about how people's habits will alter and how this will impact on existing habits and practices.
The Public Law Outline makes clear, as does the statutory guidance, what the court will expect to be in an application. For example, up-to-date core assessments must be included unless there are overriding reasons, such as safety, as to why one can't be prepared pre-application. In those cases, Standard Directions will be given so that the assessment is completed as soon as possible.
This means local authorities will need to ensure applications have all the necessary supporting evidence, including recent, up-to-date core assessments. That is because the review identified that one key factor in unnecessary delay was the quality of application - particularly the absence of key documents such as core assessments, chronologies and care plans.
The days of Cafcass guardians spending hours, even days, writing hugely long summaries of documents and submissions in proceedings are over. There is now to be a real focus on analysis and recommendation as the case progresses. This will help ensure that children's interests remain at the core of proceedings.
Then there's the advocates - advocates will now have to meet at least two days before a hearing, having taken instructions, and agree about both common ground and points of disagreement. They need to tell the judge what those are and give the judge a draft order which makes clear what the unresolved issues are.
And of course the judiciary and legal advisers will be giving increased judicial leadership through greater case management responsibilities.
We also need to reduce our reliance on experts ...
But should I rephrase that?
Perhaps I should be saying we need to increase the confidence that is placed on the work of the experts who are already involved - social workers, Cafcass, guardians, teachers, GPs and others who are already involved with the child. These people could and should be used as a first port of call for expert opinion and analysis rather than automatically assuming that external expertise is required.
And of course, the President's new Practice Direction marks a difference between expert assessment, which should normally be commissioned by the local authority as part of a core assessment, and experts' opinions to assist the court in reaching a decision.
So you see there is a shift in habits and existing working practices being asked of everyone involved in the care proceedings system.
Celebrating success
I've already spoken about the successful partnerships that have been established within the care proceedings programme - particularly between my department, the judiciary, DCSF and the Welsh Executive. And these have been supported by the various family justice agencies such as HMCS and Cafcass.
The success of this inter-agency working has enabled us to move things on very rapidly, and sooner than many might have thought possible.
The achievement of all of those who've been involved in production of both statutory guidance and Public Law Outline is enormous. When I first chaired my meeting of the Ministerial Group on Care Proceedings last summer I have to say that even my faith in people's ability to deliver was stretched! I really couldn't believe that we would've published both key documents in time for 1 April … or that by now our support programme, including inter-agency training, would be well and truly under way.
But we have got this far because of the huge effort and commitment of so many people. I would like to name and thank those involved, but the Programme Office team in my department warn me that the list would be longer than my arm, and take up most of the rest of my speech!
So forgive me if I don't name you or your organisation specifically, even though you have been a major contributor to all the work that has been done, or you are from one of our test beds - the ten initiative areas in England and Wales.
That said - there are a couple of organisations who do spring to mind that have been particularly involved over the last 18 months, and I do want to mention publicly – the Local Government Association, the Association of Directors of Children's Services, and the Association of Lawyers for Children. All of whom have been actively involved in not only these reforms but also other aspects of care proceedings reforms and have willingly given up not just work time but a lot of spare time as well to help us get to where we are.
Of course, something we should also think about is what success will look like in the future.
As Sir Mark Potter and the Judicial Review Team have repeatedly made clear: the timetable for care proceedings must be totally driven by what is right for each individual child. Sometimes delay will be inevitable and absolutely appropriate, but more usually speed will be of the essence. Each case will now have an appropriate timetable set by the judge which reflects the needs of each individual child.
But we will still need some form of yardstick to measure progress with. So the 40-week target remains our benchmark. But of course this doesn't mean that we expect cases to take 40 weeks! It means that we expect the majority of cases to complete in rather less than 40 weeks - and with the new fast track procedures you will hear about today, this should become increasingly achievable as the new practices bed in and become habitual.
We need to keep at the centre of everything we do that this is in the interests of the child … We must be child-focused, not process-driven. We need to ensure that we keep the child's needs at the heart of all our actions.
Conclusion
I'm mindful of the time and that you have a long and intense day ahead of you learning about the Public Law Outline.
You have some genuine experts to take you through the Public Law Outline today, and I know you will leave here much better informed and more able to get to grips with these new procedures.
But of course another part of conference is the opportunity to network and make new contacts. So perhaps I am going to end by setting you all a challenge! Rather than spending the day talking to people you already know, get out of your comfort zone - start making new partnerships now! Talk to people here that you don't know - particularly people who work for another part of the care proceedings system to you!
Thank you all for your time, and I wish you the very best of luck, and I am confident that with all your support these reforms will be a great success.