Young Children’s Voices in Legal Settings

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

4. Contexts • 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: • 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

5. CAFCASSChildren and Family Court Advisory and Support Service • The body responsible for safeguarding and promoting welfare of children involved in Family Court Proceedings, in England, is CAFCASS • 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

6. The Research • 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

7. Previous Project 1 • Exploration of views of 2,200 children [aged 7-13] - who/what could help if they were 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

8. Previous Project 2 • 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  

9. Conclusions from projects 1 and 2 • 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

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

12. Method • 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

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

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

15. 1. Direct work issues • 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

16. Techniques to help children communicate • 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

17. 2. Child development knowledge

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

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

21. Conclusions • 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

22. Vygotsky relevant because: His theories: • see children within social contexts • can be applied to young children and those with communication difficulties • acknowledge importance of mediating adults and peers and co-construction 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”

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