Children whose families were referred for Family Group Conference “less likely” to be in care one year later, study finds

A study published by Foundations has found that that children whose families were referred for a Family Group Conference (FGC) were less likely to be in care one year later.

The organisation has estimated that if FGC’s were to be rolled out across England, 2,293 fewer children would go into care in a 12-month period.

FGCs are family-led meetings which bring a network of family and friends together to make a plan for a child, supported by an independent coordinator.

The study, published on 13 June, involved a “large-scale randomised control trial” conducted by Coram, whereby individual families entering pre-proceedings were “randomly allocated to be referred to a FGC or receive service-as-usual”, Foundations revealed.

Over 2,500 children in approximately 1,500 families took part in the study.

The study found that children whose families were referred for an FGC were:
• Less likely to be in care one year later (36%) compared to those not referred (45%).
• Had spent significantly less time in care 6 months later (87 days, on average) compared to those not referred (115 days, on average).
• Less likely to have had care proceedings issued (59%) compared to those not referred (72%) by the end of the reporting period.

However, Foundations noted that there were “no statistically significant differences in whether children’s living arrangements had changed or how included parents felt in planning their children’s care”.

Further, the study found that none of the outcomes were significant at 18 months.

As a result of the findings, Foundations recommends that FGCs are provided for all families before care proceedings, “accompanied by a range of other effective support to keep children safe in the long-term”.

The organisation also found that FGC’s can save public money. The report said: “This study found Family Group Conferences to be cost effective, despite higher-than-expected costs due to COVID-19, with a saving of £960 per child referred in the first year.”

Dr Carol Homden, Chief Executive of Coram, said: “Coram is at the forefront of developing solutions that offer children and young people a better future so we are pleased to deliver this important research which shows the significant potential of Family Group Conferencing to help keep children and families together.”

Dr Jo Casebourne, Chief Executive at Foundations, said: “Every effort must be made to enable vulnerable children to live safely within their family network before considering care proceedings. We now have evidence that Family Group Conferences, which empower families and children, have a higher success rate of keeping families together than going straight to care proceedings does. We encourage all local authorities throughout England to act on this high quality evidence that FGCs work to implement FGCs earlier.”

She added: “As part of our new strategy, Foundations will focus on getting the families who need it access to FGCs in the coming years.”

Lottie Winson