Discharge of care orders: a national study

Researchers: Dr Jo Staines | Dr Ludivine Garside ...

Project overview


This project will examine differences between successful and unsuccessful applications to discharge care orders.

Existing research has studied the process, recurrence of, and orders made in care proceedings. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the practice of discharging care orders, including the circumstances which lead to successful applications, length of orders prior to being discharged and whether children are successfully re-unified with their parents. Information on the use of care orders and discharges is sparser in Wales. This knowledge gap has implications for care planning, in particular determining whether the aim of a care order should be permanency in care or family reunification.

The project aims to increase knowledge and understanding of current practices by identifying characteristics of successful and unsuccessful applications to discharge care orders. The project will also examine variations in the proportions of orders discharged and contributing factors for these differences. The project team will use both quantitative and qualitative methods in pursuit of these aims.

The quantitative research will utilise data on children subjected to care orders in England and Wales from a fully anonymised database of care proceedings and a randomised casefile sample of discharge applications. Temporal and regional analysis will be conducted on the database, with a more detailed analysis of the casefiles, to determine distinctions between applications and wider differences in the circumstances surrounding the applications.

Interviews and focus groups will be conducted to enable an in-depth exploration of issues identified through the analysis of the quantitative data. Local authority lawyers, principal social workers, Independent Reviewing Officers, children’s guardians and members of the judiciary will be invited to discuss their perspectives on the discharge of care orders.

The findings of this research will be of interest to a variety of practitioners and organisations, including the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, Cafcass/Cafcass Cymru, local authority and private practice lawyers, social workers and independent reviewing officers. The main method of dissemination will be the production of a public report and executive summary with key information and implications for policy and practice. The summary will be shared with practitioner, academic and non-academic audiences and will be accompanied by a series of publications in academic and practitioner journals, and through online webinars and in-person conferences.

Team


  • Dr Jo Staines
    University of Bristol
  • Dr Ludivine Garside
    University of Bristol
  • Dr Gillian Macdonald
    University of Bristol
  • Professor Judith Masson
    University of Bristol
  • Dr Jessica Roy
    University of Bristol
  • Dr Beth Stone
    University of Bristol
  • Dr Helen Hodges
    University of Bristol

  • Ash Patel headshot
    Ash Patel
    Programme Head, Justice
    Nuffield Foundation

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