System shift 1: Successfully supporting adults’ needs more often through aligned partnership resource and practice
Figure 2: Primary categories of factors affecting children and young people prior to them entering care, with underlying parental needs Primary categories of factors affecting children and young people prior to them entering care, with underlying parental needs
20 25 30 35 40 45
What does the evidence show? When analysing the assessment factors recorded before children entered care, the most common factors present were mental health, domestic abuse and drug/alcohol/ substance abuse for parents or other household members (shown in Figure 1).
My mum’s not a bad mum, she’s just a mum with trauma.” Care experienced young person
10 15
Figure 1: Top ten most prevalent assessment factors for children and young people entering care Top ten most prevalent assessment factors for children and young people entering care
0 5
Domestic abuse – parent/carer Mental health – parent/carer
Alcohol misuse – parent/carer Domestic abuse – other household member Drug misuse – other household member Mental health – child Abuse neglect child Abuse neglect concerns Drug misuse – parent/carer Mental health – other household member
Neither parental mental health concerns nor parental alcohol/substance misuse present Parental alcohol/substance misuse present Parental mental health concerns present Both parental mental health concerns and parental alcohol/substance misuse present
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
a local authority’s children’s social care department, as well as the challenges in engaging parents in support (see shift two). For some families meanwhile, entry to care reflected the point at which sustained parental need, despite support, meant that remaining at home was no longer safe for the child.
As shown in Figure 3, case reviews indicated that parents with these needs interacted with relevant specialist support services in only approximately half of cases. In part this reflects capacity constraints in adult mental health, substance misuse, and domestic abuse services that sit outside
Number of assessments
Assessment factors relating to the child Assessment factors relating to the parents or other household member
This demonstrates the importance of supporting not only the child but also the family, as a whole, with preventative activities. Exploring this further through reviews of child case notes showed that for the majority of children’s needs, either one or both of adult mental health and substance misuse were also present in the household prior to the child entering care (shown in Figure 2).
Figure 3: Services most commonly interacted with by parents prior to the child entering care Services most commonly interacted with by parents prior to the child entering care
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
Service
Service interactions with the parent/family Service interactions focussed on the parent’s underlying needs
30
31
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs