Young Childrens Voices in Legal Settings Celia Doyle

Young Children’s Voices in Legal Settings Celia Doyle and Gill Handley University of Northampton

Contexts n n In the UK there is, in most cases, a legal requirement for the child’s wishes and feelings to be taken into account, when a Family Court makes decisions about their future Examples of matters that may be taken to Family Courts are: n n n when parents who are separating or divorcing cannot agree on arrangements for their children an adoption application when Social Services are concerned about the safety of a child and may wish to remove the child from the care of their parents

CAFCASS Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service n n n The body responsible for safeguarding and promoting welfare of children involved in Family Court Proceedings, in England, is CAFCASS officers are called Family Court Advisors (FCAs); they are qualified, experienced social workers FCAs write reports for Court explaining enquiries they have made and advising Court what decision would be in the best interests of the child

The Research n n The main project looked at the ability of young children to state their views in relation to Family Court Proceedings The decision to undertake this research was informed by the conclusions of 2 previous research projects

n n Exploration of views of 2, 200 children [aged 713] - who/what could help if they were Previous Project 1 emotionally distressed Children from 7 years acted as consultants to the project They developed a questionnaire & vignette These children were clearly able to express their views and develop child-friendly research materials

Previous Project 2 n n The English Government has set up support services ‘Sure Start’ for children and their families aged 0 to 5 years. Using a letter box method and ‘smiley face cards’, children as young as 2 were able to express their views about the services provided by Sure Start

Conclusions from projects 1 and 2 n n Children between the ages of 2 and 7 can clearly express their views and opinions on a diverse range of issues Younger children need to express these through methods which depend as much on play and demonstration as on direct speech

Main project A survey was undertaken to explore: 1. views of FCAs on abilities of young children to express their wishes & feelings in the context of legal proceedings 2. how far child development theories influenced those views 3. how adequate FCAs’ training was in this context

Method n n Ethical approval was given A stratified sample of 7 CAFCASS offices was obtained Questionnaires were emailed to staff at participating offices FCAs emailed back their questionnaires

Findings n 23 FCAs responded n 14 were female, 9 were male n n Length of experience as family court officer - from 10 months to 22 years Qualified between 5 and 31 years

Ages of children Response to question: How old was the youngest child whose wishes and feeling you attempted to ascertain?

1. Direct work issues n n n 1. 2. n No significant difference between gender of FCA and age of youngest child No correlation between length of time as qualified social worker or FCA and age of youngest child Most commonly quoted factors influencing decision to use direct communication Child’s verbal ability - 14 Child’s maturity - 7 Self-rating of skill level – 10 highly skilled 13 moderately skilled

Techniques to help children communicate n n n Toy courtroom Use of ‘go betweens’ eg FCA’s own dog [floppy ears] Place to put secrets eg ‘toy rabbit with a zip’ Story telling Airport play set/cars

2. Child development knowledge

Child development continued Knowledge of Vygotsky not related to: n n Length of time since qualification Gender of FCA Skill rating Age of child

3. Training issues n n No significant difference between self-rated skill level and length of time since qualified Provision of child development training at qualifying level n n n birth to 2 years - 18 3 -8 years - 19 Number of FCAs reporting that training met their needs relating to communicating with children n n Qualifying training - 6 In-service training - 17

Conclusions n n n FCAs consider seeking wishes & feelings of children from age 3 But some have reservations below age 5 They self-rate skills as high or moderate Use wide range of communication/play methods They use cognitive theories flexibly to inform decisions [Piaget] Rarely use Vygotsky despite his relevance

Vygotsky relevant because: His theories: n see children within social contexts n can be applied to young children and those with communication difficulties n acknowledge importance of mediating adults and peers and coconstruction of meaning Examples one FCA said “Good preparation by carers” helped children understand role of FCAs Another stated importance of FCAs capacity to “pick up [child’s] abilities to express herself through play and develop play”

Recommendations n Qualifying training needs to include: More observation of children and placement in early years settings n Teaching and application of wider range of child development theories, especially Vygotsky n More training in communication skills/techniques – applying theory to practice n n On-going training is needed, which revisits all these areas