Growing role of parental advocacy in the child protection system

Parents involved in the child protection system often feel intimidated, isolated and like they are “walking on eggshells”.

As a result, they can experience interactions as “oppressive” and “traumatic”, stopping them from being their authentic selves.

That was the warning from social workers promoting the role of parental advocacy.

Speaking at a webinar hosted by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, Kar-Man Au, a parent advocate at Camden Council who has lived experience of the system, said: “Many parents tell me that they feel as if they are walking on eggshells and that one wrong word will be misinterpreted.

“When you feel that way, it becomes hard to speak openly, hard to absorb information and really hard to show who you truly are.

“I recently attended a child protection conference to represent a parent who was unable to attend. Sitting in that room brought back the loneliness I felt 13 years ago, [being] one voice in a room full of criticism.

“I came out of that room and I felt exhausted, as if I’m the one being scrutinised and it reminded me how exposed parents can feel.”

Parental advocacy, where people with lived experience of child protection support those currently going through it, is being piloted at local authorities in England.

Drawing on models from the US, including the pioneering work of New York parent advocacy activist David Tobis, a rollout was recommended in England’s Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.

Kar-Man said: “In my advocacy work I see what happens when that support is in place and parents, who begin with short, careful answers, start to speak more clearly. They explained their situation, their intentions and their needs more openly. 

“What then happens is professionals can see that person rather than only the crisis, only the things written on the paper.”

Research confirms the distress often felt by parents and children involved in the child protection process.

Dr Clive Diaz, professor of social work at Swansea University, said: “It’s evident that parents find the child protection system to be very intimidating, very oppressive.

“They don’t feel able to participate meaningfully in decision-making. Ten years ago we interviewed 52 parents across two local authorities about their experiences of child protection conferences and we found pretty much all of them had negative views.

“They felt intimidated, they felt tearful, they felt stressed and angry. One mother said, ‘I felt like I was being put in a corner’.”

A more recent study by Swansea University looked at authorities where parental advocacy exists in England, Wales and Ireland. Dr Diaz said three themes emerged.

“The first is that most participants – social workers, senior managers, parents and parent advocates – felt that parental advocacy had a positive impact on parents' experience of the system.

“The second is that parent advocacy seemed to improve parents and social workers' relationships and helped build trust and rebalance power relations.

“That was particularly critical during child protection conferences [which]… can become a very adversarial relationship… parents feel under a lot of pressure and attacked by different agencies.

“The third theme is that parent advocacy helped ensure parents are more involved in decision-making. They felt able to explain their views. They could talk through the advocate if they wanted to.”

Dr Diaz said employing parental advocates could also help allay fears and suspicions held by some people towards social workers and the child protection system.

“There are certain areas of England and Wales where the numbers of children with a social worker are quite high and there's lots of mistrust and fear and concerns that social workers are going to come and remove their children. 

“We've even heard parents state in focus groups and interviews ‘I think social workers get a bonus if they remove children’.

“Of course that's not true, but that's the perception. So with a parent advocate alongside they can explain that actually the social worker wants to keep the family together.”

A survey by Community Care last year found 76 per cent of 1,250 social workers supported the right of parents to advocacy during child protection cases.

A further 11 per cent agreed but said there were no funds to support it while 11 per cent believed it would “undermine the focus on protecting children”.

Dr Diaz said in his study social workers were generally supportive: “Social workers say my role is easier, I enjoy it, I feel I am able to work with families better if there’s a parent advocate involved.”

Dr Diaz said parents also felt more empowered and confident in a system that seemed “less adversarial”. He added: “Often parents will tell us that social workers treat them much better and are much more polite and respectful when they’ve got their advocate there with them during home visits or meetings.”

Parental advocacy has been in place at Camden Council in London for a number of years. Tim Fisher, a social worker who helped establish it, said it grew out of coffee mornings with local parents talking about their experience of child protection.

“Top of people’s list was peer advocacy; that was what parents and family members were asking for. It was also what professionals were interested in as well.”

Louise Spragg, principal social worker at Telford & Wrekin Council which runs parental advocacy via the Dandelion group, said: “To fully understand the lived experience of the child you have to understand the lived experience of the parent. They are not two separate entities. 

“Having an advocate in the room [brings] tht kind of future-orientated possibility that your current situation is not your final destination. You can grow. You can progress. 

“It’s having somebody sitting alongside you who has been in a similar position, who understands and really enables the parent to have their own voice. That is the aim of advocacy.”

A consultation to the previous government’s Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy for reforming children’s social care found only three per cent of respondents in child protection received parental representation.

The government is testing parental advocacy models through the Families First for Children Pathfinder programme.