Born into care in Scotland: circumstances, recurrence and pathways

9. Becoming looked after and the Children's Hearings System

This section provides details of infants' pathways into and through the CHS, looking at when they first became looked after, different routes to being placed on a CSO away from home, and information on referrals to the reporter.

Becoming looked after

The average age at which the infants in the case file sample first became looked after (on any legal status, including Section 25) was four weeks old; over half (38, 54%) were less than seven days old and 50 (71%) were less than 28 days old.

Seven in ten of the infants (49, 70%) were accommodated straight from hospital after birth, when they were up to 49 days old (mean=5 days). This included five infants who were described in the case file as having been abandoned by either their mother or both parents. Although not necessarily caring for the baby, mothers were 'present' in the lives of the other 44 infants, with fathers 'present' for just over half of them (25, 51%).

Less than a third of the infants (21, 30%) went home with their parents after birth, and were living at home with either both parents (13) or just their mother (8) prior to being accommodated, when they were on average three months old. A slightly higher proportion of infants whose mother had previously had a child removed from their care were accommodated straight from hospital (77%), as compared to the infants of first-time mothers or those whose older child(ren) had not been taken into care (58%).

The most common legal status for infants when they first became looked after away from home was a CPO (44, 63%). Twenty-two (31%) of the infants were first accommodated using Section 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and the legal status of the remaining four infants was not recorded.

Infants on the 'CPO route' were younger, on average, when they became looked after away from home (mean=10 days, with 73% less than seven days old), than those on the 'Section 25 route' (mean=37 days, with 27% less than seven days old). It is important to note that some children were in hospital for some time after birth, so were not looked after until discharge.

The mothers of infants on the 'CPO route' were more likely to have had a previous child accommodated than those on the 'Section 25 route' (68% compared with 50%).

The majority of the infants (55, 79%) were initially placed with unrelated foster carers, whilst 12 (17%) were placed with kinship carers, and the placement type of the remaining three infants was not recorded. The majority of infants (55, 79%) remained in the same placement from becoming looked after away from home (on any legal basis) to their first CSO. Nine infants (13%) had one placement move, with the remainder (6, 8%) having three or four placement moves.

Although there were two main routes to being placed on a Compulsory Supervision Order (CSO) identified, based on initial legal status, the individual journeys that infants took were far more complex.

Child Protection Orders

As noted above, a majority of the infants (44, 63%) were initially looked after away from home on a CPO. Three-quarters of these CPOs were made before the child was seven days old and were likely to have been planned pre-birth. In one previous study (Henderson and Hanson, 2015), children identified at risk pre-birth made up around a quarter of all children with a CPO in a three-month period in 2013. This group appeared similar to the infants in our sample, in that the majority of their parents had already had at least one child removed from their care, and within six months of birth all except one child were on compulsory measures of supervision.

When a CPO is made by the Sheriff (under Section 38 or Section 39 of the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011), the Children's Reporter must arrange for a Children's Hearing to take place to review the CPO on the second working day after the order was made. If continued, the Reporter must present grounds of referral at a hearing on the eighth working day, and that hearing consider whether longer-term measures are required to protect the child. If further measures are considered necessary, the usual outcome is for the hearing to make an Interim Compulsory Supervision Order (ICSO). The grounds of referral must be put to the child and parent(s). If the grounds are not accepted or understood (for example, where the child is very young), either they have to be discharged or the Reporter needs to make an application to the Sheriff to establish the grounds. A CSO cannot be made by a Hearing unless one or more of the grounds of referral are accepted or established.

A second working day hearing was recorded as being held for all of these 44 children (who were first looked after on a CPO), and whilst some (16) were held more than two days after the CPO was made (maximum five days), this may have been due to weekends and bank holidays. For all but three of these 44 children, the CPO was continued at this hearing and a second (eighth day) hearing held, when an ICSO was made and grounds of referral presented. The grounds of referral for 27 of these 41 infants (71%) related to lack of parental care, with four children having other first grounds (victim of a Schedule 1 offence, having a close connection with a Schedule 1 offender, residing in the same household as a child victim of a Schedule 1 offence or having a close connection with a person who has carried out domestic abuse). Ten children had multiple grounds of referral, all of which included lack of parental care. The grounds of referral were established for all 41 children, and a CSO made, on average 18 weeks after the CPO, with a range of between six weeks and a year.

For three of the 44 children (who were first looked after on a CPO), a Section 25 arrangement was made after the CPO, after the initial (second day) hearing but before an eighth day hearing would have been held. These were in place for around two months for each of the three children, before they were referred back to the CHS, grounds of referral established and a CSO made.

Use of Section 25

Overall, 25 of the 70 infants (36%) had been looked after away from home using Section 25 at some point prior to a CSO being made. Three, as mentioned above, were on a CPO prior to Section 25 arrangements being put in place, then returned to the CHS and a CSO was made.

Twenty-two infants (31%) of the infants were first accommodated using Section 25 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, before entering the CHS. The average time that children were accommodated for under Section 25 was 15 weeks, ranging between four days and 57 weeks. For 11 infants, detail was recorded on why the legal basis changed from Section 25, with parental objection (or withdrawal of consent) mentioned for six infants and the need to secure or protect arrangements mentioned for five infants.^[19]

Six of the twenty-two infants then came to the CHS as a CPO was made by the Sheriff, when they were between two and 16 weeks old (mean=9 weeks). The CPO was continued at the first (second day) hearing, an ICSO made and grounds of referral subsequently established. A CSO was then made, an average of 19 weeks after the CPO, when infants were aged between 19 and 35 weeks old (mean=29 weeks).

Thirteen of the twenty-two infants who first became looked after under Section 25 had their first referral to the Reporter when they were aged between less than a week and 20 weeks old (mean=7 weeks). The grounds of referral were accepted and this referral led to a Hearing and a CSO was made, on average 24 weeks after the first referral, when the infants were between five and ten months old.

Three infants had a referral to the Reporter before they became looked after away from home under Section 25, when the decision was to not to arrange a hearing. It was only after a further referral that a hearing was held and a CSO made, when the infants were aged between five and nine months old.

Key findings

• Over half of the sample infants (54%) were less than seven days old when they first became looked after.
• 70% of the infants were accommodated straight from hospital, including five who were recorded as having been abandoned by their parent(s).
• Less than a third (30%) of the infants went home with their parent(s) and were subsequently accommodated, when they were on average three months old.
• The majority of infants were initially placed with unrelated foster carers (79%), with less than one in five (17%) placed with kinship carers.
• The majority of infants (79%) remained in the same placement from becoming looked after away from home to their first CSO, despite changes to legal status.
• There were two main routes to children being placed away from home on a Compulsory Supervision Order, broadly defined by their initial legal status – a Child Protection Order (63%) or Section 25 of the Children Scotland 1995 Act (31%).
• Individual children's subsequent pathways to a CSO varied, and were often complex.
• Around a third (36%) of the infants had been looked after under Section 25 at some stage prior to the CSO being made.