Researchers find north-south divide in use of supervision orders and care orders

Children in the North East are at greater risk of being subject to Family Court proceedings than in any other area in England, researchers at Lancaster University have revealed.

The Centre for Child and Family Justice Research found that in 2015/16 there were more than 4,000 care and supervision proceedings in the North East compared to less than 3,000 in the South West and London regions.

The research – comprising two studies funded by the Nuffield Foundation – also showed that the North East and North West, which comprises 27% of all children living in England, had emerged as “a hotspot of concern” as the two regions accounted for more than a third (35%) of all care proceedings in England.

The Centre’s other key findings included that:

• Overall demand was going up across all regions but the picture fluctuated within regions and over time “creating a complex picture and making predictions difficult”.
• Local authority and court cultures had a marked effect on the likelihood of children returning home under a supervision order, which sees a court returning a child to the family and the local authority responsible for advising, assisting and befriending the child.
• Children in the North and Midlands were less likely to return home under a supervision order than in the South meaning more children return to court in the South for fresh care proceedings because reunification under a supervision order had broken down.
• There was a North-South split in the use of supervision orders and care orders (courts placing children in the care of Children's Services) for example: in 2015/16 9% of all orders made in the North West were supervision orders compared to 28% in London (highest of all). The North West had the lowest rate of supervision orders nationally but the highest rate of care orders (46%) and London had the highest supervision order rate but the lowest rate of care orders (25%).

By contrast, researchers at the university found that all regions were behaving in a consistent and similar way when it came to special guardianship - a court order placing a child with extended family or friends who take on parental responsibility - and placement orders leading to adoption.

Special guardianship had increased nationally whilst placement orders, which sever family ties, had gone down, they said.

The Centre suggested that the north should receive priority attention with more resource allocation and preventive family support strategies to help reduce the risk of children becoming the subject of care proceedings.

Its researchers also called for a better understanding of regional patterns and trends to help inform local decision-making beyond, what they described, as the current narrow range of indicators. Fairness should be at the heart of any justice system, they said.

Centre Co-Director Professor Judith Harwin said: "The finding of a north-south divide in the use of supervision orders and care orders was unexpected.

"Deciding on whether children should return home is one of the hardest decisions a court can make and risk appears to be weighed up differently in the north and south.

"Of course we need to explore the dynamics behind these statistics but it raises questions about the fairness of the system.”

Centre Co-Director Professor Karen Broadhurst added: "Courts and local authorities need to be able to share and compare practices to increase consistency and fairness for all children and families. At present there are insufficient opportunities for regions to do this."