US experiment to save children from neglect arrives in Scotland

The Times reported today on a pioneering American programme that works to improve the lives of neglected children and save them from abuse is to be brought to Scotland for the first time.

The scheme measures which seeks to encourage order into the home lives of children at risk, assesses whether parents can learn the skills to enable a stable upbringing. If this proves impossible, an early decision can be taken to keep the child in a foster home.

The intention is to avoid the pitfalls of the present system, in which children are often shuttled between their parents and care.

The project, which will be introduced to Scotland on a trial basis in the spring, was welcomed by children’s charities who emphasised the importance of taking an early decision on a child’s future.

The group involved in Westfit — West Glasgow Family Intervention Team — hope that it will satisfy two disparate camps: those who believe that children should remain with parents if possible, and those who feel they should be taken into care at an early stage. If parents can show that they are capable, they keep their children; if not, the child’s fate can be decided more quickly.

Currently, maltreated children in Scotland can be taken into care after a Children’s Hearing. A panel receives background reports from social workers, with input from all agencies involved in child welfare, then orders whether the child should be taken into care.

Increasing numbers of children are living with foster carers or prospective adopters. The figure has risen from 2,759 in 1987 to 4,480 in 2008. In 2008, 411 children were removed from the child protection register because they went into care, compared with 536 in 2009.

Children can be subjected to many hearings with different outcomes. With Westfit, infant psychologists assess children under five with their biological and foster parents. These “attachment-based assessments” determine the quality of the adult-child relationship.

They then prescribe an “intervention” for the birth parents — such as counselling or group therapy — to give them the best chance to get their child back. This lasts about six to nine months and the infant team and social workers have regular conferences throughout. Westfit will also work with foster carers prepared to adopt children who are unable to return home.

Their report will go to social workers and Children’s Hearings to inform their decision on the child’s future.

A version of the scheme has been operating in New Orleans for more than a decade. More children have been adopted permanently, but early data revealed that children who returned home after the intervention were 67 per cent less likely to go back into care.

Matt Forde, head of children’s services at the West Glasgow Community Health and Care Partnership, said that child protection schemes needed to establish whether parents could ever provide a decent home. “If we get that early decision wrong, it can be very difficult for children,” he said.

Anne Houston, chief executive of CHILDREN 1^ST, said: “It is extremely encouraging that additional alternative services for children under five are being considered. The early stages of a child‘s life and the care they receive have proved to be a crucial factor in the opportunities they have in later life.”

CHILDREN 1^ST has received over £965,000 in support from charity lottery the People’s Postcode Lottery to date.