Working group issues report calling on each children services department to implement Best Practice Guidance on supervision orders “without delay”

The Public Law Working Group’s (PLWG) Supervision Order Report and its resulting best practice guidance have been “welcomed and endorsed” by the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane.

The report, published yesterday (24 April) considers how supervision orders could be made more “robust and effective”, and “promote the welfare of children in the care of their parent(s) or wider family”.

The membership of the working group consists of members of the judiciary, academics, legal practitioners, social workers and Cafcass.

Introducing the report, the PLWG said that in brief, the study found that when a supervision order was “effectively implemented, and support and advice was provided to the parents / carers”, they found it to be a “useful and helpful order” to enable them to protect and promote the well-being of their child or children.

However, nearly all the parents / carers involved in the study expressed the view that the supervision order “could have been made to work better and more effectively for them and their families”.

A supervision order is obtained by the local authority through the court, which requires a child to be supervised by social services, while remaining with their parents or carers.

The report makes five core recommendations for ‘short term change’:

1. Each local authority’s children services department implements the Best Practice Guidance (BPG).
2. Supervision orders are only made when all the matters set out in the supervision order template within the BPG have been considered and addressed.
3. Each children services department adopts and completes self-audit questions within the BPG in respect of every supervision order made in its favour.
4. Each children’s services department considers developing ‘good practice tools’ to embed the BPG.
5. In light of the report and recommendations by the Independent Care Review, HM Government to commit to provide the necessary resources to local authorities to enable them to adopt and implement the BPG to the fullest and most effective extent possible.

The PLWG Supervision order sub-group noted that the key features of the supervision order best practice guidance (BPG) are three “overarching principles” and six “core principles”.

The three overarching principles are:

1. The child’s welfare is paramount.
2. Children are best looked after within their families, with their parents playing a full part
   in their lives, unless compulsory intervention in family life is necessary.
3. Any interference in family life should be “necessary and proportionate”.

The six core principles are:

1. Partnership and co-production with children and families.
2. Multi-agency, multi-disciplinary working.
3. Clear, tailored plans including to address ongoing risks, and the findings and conclusions of the court in care proceedings.
4. Resource clarity.
5. Formal, robust review.
6. Accountability.

The group proposes the BPG to be implemented “without delay” on publication of the report.

In its “longer-term recommendations” the PLWG invited the Government to consider:

• Amending the Children Act 1989 to provide a statutory basis for supervision support plans.
• Placing local authorities under a ‘statutory duty’ to provide support and services under a supervision order.
• Amending statutory guidance to reflect the recommendations in the report and the BPG.
• The government undertaking or funding an external body to identify all supervision orders made by the Family Court to support family reunification and collect data on:

(a) the supervision plan at the end of proceedings,

(b) the implementation of the plan during the life of the supervision order and

(c) change of placement or return to court for the children and their parents up to two years after the end of the supervision order.

Commenting on the report, the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane said: “The report and its recommendations are the fruits of intense and extensive collaborative work by professionals from all of the sectors working on child protection cases in the Family Justice system. Whilst the group has been brought together and led by the judiciary, this has genuinely been a joint endeavour by all of the many PLWG members and others who have been involved. I am most grateful to each and every one of them.

“This report makes recommendations to ensure that in the future a supervision order is a robust and effective public law order to secure and promote the welfare of children in the care of their parent(s) or wider family. The Best Practice Guidance sets out six core best principles which underpin the making and operation of supervision orders. I am particularly impressed by the new requirement of best practice that a supervision order should only be made when the court has approved a supervision support plan which clearly sets out the support and resources to be provided for a family by a local authority.”

Sir Andrew added: “It has been a striking feature of this work that the development of the group’s ideas and recommendations has been organic and has proceeded at each turn on the basis of agreement across the board, rather than controversy. That this is so, strongly suggests that the recommendations made are both sound and necessary. It gives ground for real optimism that the messages in this report will be welcomed by social workers, lawyers, judges, magistrates and court staff across England and Wales and that, after a short implementation period, they can be put into effect and begin to make a real difference on the ground. That is my earnest hope and confident expectation.”

Lottie Winson