Listening to Children
| Published date | 01 December 1993 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455059304000405 |
| Date | 01 December 1993 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
189
Listening
to
Children
The
impact
of
the
Children
Act
1989
on
the
work
of
Family
Court
Welfare
teams
Brian
Cantwell,
Senior
Family
Court
Welfare
Officer
in
Humberside,
and
Liz
Trinder,
Research
and
Development
Officer
with
Save
the
Children
North
and
East
Division
in
Hull,
report
the
initial
findings
of
their
recent
research
survey
of
court
welfare
work.
The
Children
Act’s
requirement
upon
courts
to
have
regard
to
the
ascertainable
wishes
and
feelings
of
the
child
in
contested
applications
has
clearly
places
renewed
practitioner
emphasis
on
ascertaining
children’s
wishes,
but
there
remains
considerable
variation
in
interpretation
of
’good
practice’.
uring
the
summer
of
1993,
we
sent
a
questionnaire
approved
by
the
Association
of
Chief
Officers
of
Proba-
tion
and
the
Home
Office
to
eighty
team
seniors,
all
but
a
handful
being
leaders
of
fully
specialist
court
welfare
teams.
Sixty-
three
replied,
representing
forty-six
Proba-
tion
Areas
across
England
and
Wales.
The Extent of Change
Over
half
of
the
respondents
considered
that
their
team’s
general
practice
in
inter-
viewing
children
was
different
from
two
years
ago.
In
many
senses
it
appears
that
the
changes
were
not
revolutionary
but
were
built
on
previous
practice.
Where
no
change
was
reported,
there
was
an
implicit
message
that
practice
was
appropriate
before
im-
plementation
of
the
Act.
One
respondent
referred
to
the
Act
as,
in
effect,
endorsing
existing
good
practice
and
making
up
a
,cultural
lag’.
Where
change
was
identified,
many
respondents
reported
that
the
changes
introduced
were
incremental
or
evolutionary
in
practice.
Many
simply
said
they
now
plac-
ed
more
emphasis
on
children,
or
found
the
welfare
checklist
useful.
Several
noted
an
in-
crease
in
officer
skills
and
confidence
in
working
with
children,
following
a
heavy
in-
vestment
in
pre-Children
Act
training.
Some
sense
of
the
concrete
changes
was
discernible.
There
appears
to
be
a
pattern
of
more
officer
contact
with
more
children.
Respondents
reported
spending
more
time
with
each
child,
and
more
interviews
with
younger
children.
There
was
also
a
trend
toward
seeing
children
alone
rather
than
with
parents,
and
also
at
a
neutral
venue
(court
welfare
offices)
rather
than
at
home.
Respondents
also
reported
using
a
wider
range
of
working
aids
and
becoming
more
participative
with
younger
children
(rather
than
simply
observing
them
with
parents).
A
few
respondents
mentioned
other
innova-
tions
such
as
personal
letters
to
children,
use
of
videos
and
allocating
more
space
to
children’s
wishes
in
reports.
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