What Challenges Emerge from Cases Where Children Are Made Subject to a ‘Care Order at Home’?

• Published in: The British journal of social work Vol. 54; no. 3; pp. 1014 - 1032
• Main Authors: Murphy, Ciarán, Maguinness, Noreen, Stathopoulos, Eoanna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 16.05.2024
• Subjects: Care Order; child protection; social work; Care Order at home
• ISSN: 0045-3102; 1468-263X
• DOI: 10.1093/bjsw/bcad217

A continued and unprecedented demand for England’s child protection services has coincided with increasing numbers of children being made subject to Care Orders within the Family Court. There is a growing understanding of the associated challenges—not least in terms of cost and placement availability. However, there has been limited discussion of the difficulties associated with children being made subject to a Care Order, but who remain living at home with their parents. This article reports on an iterative mixed method study which sought to explore child protection social workers’ experiences of ‘Care Orders at home’. It discusses the prevalence of ‘Care Orders at home’ within Northwest England and identifies specific challenges in the context of ‘managing child protection partners’ expectations’; apparent ‘confusion and disempowerment of the child and family’ and ‘an increased sense of risk’ with respect to several of the key stakeholders involved. Implications that emerge from the study are that a ‘Care Order at home’ might, in some circumstances, be considered as a ‘contradictory’ and therefore ‘confusing’ concept, and that it can offer less protection to a child than a care plan for ‘No Order’ running concurrently to a detailed child protection plan. This article explores the challenges associated with social work cases where children are placed ‘in the care’ of the local authority under the auspices of a Care Order, but where they simultaneously remain living at home with their parents. These challenges are said to manifest in the form of child protection partners’ expectations about what is and is not possible with a child subject to a ‘Care Order at home’; confusion and disempowerment for the child and their family and an increased sense of risk amongst practitioners. It also leads social workers to explicitly ask: ‘Why do we accept leaving a looked after child in an environment that we think is harmful to them?’ and moreover: ‘Does a child really need to be in public care when they live at home with their parents?’