Special Guardianship is intended to provide a pathway to permanence for certain groups of children for whom adoption is not thought feasible or appropriate. The profile provided of children and special guardians points to how SGOs are being used in practice. These findings are broadly consistent with the perceptions of practitioners that were presented in Chapter 3. As detailed in Chapter 2, our case file audit and survey of special guardians provide information on 230 carers who became special guardians between 2006 and 2009 and on their index child. 58 For some cases data was obtained from both special guardians and case files (n=109). Where the same information was provided from both sources we most commonly merged these responses, in the main giving preference to information provided by the special guardian.59 In the remaining cases we have information solely from the special guardian (n=6) or the case file audit (n=115).
57
It would have been unreasonable to expect special guardians to complete multiple questionnaires on sibling groups, especially when their circumstances were often broadly similar. However, the index questionnaire did collect some information on siblings.
58
There were six cases (2.5 per cent) from two local authorities that had been granted a Special Guardianship order post 2009 who had been included in the survey of special guardians’ mail out by these local authorities and who returned a questionnaire. We decided to include these cases to maximise the data we had available.
59
Many cases had been closed for some time at follow-up and information on the current circumstances of the child was therefore sparse. We also assumed that special guardians would generally be best placed to know about the day- to-day progress and wellbeing of their children. However, researcher judgement was also exercised (see Chapter 2) where data on key variables were included from both sources. Data were not merged in relation to the stability of children and only case file evidence was used, as this would otherwise have biased our findings (see Chapter 2 and Appendix A for details).
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6.1.1 Gender and ethnic origin
The sample included an equal number of boys (50.5 per cent) and girls (49.5 per cent). These figures are comparable with the national data on use of Special Guardianship for looked after children, but contrast with data for the care system as a whole where boys are usually over- represented by about 10 per cent (Emerson et al., 2001).
Just over one half of the children were described as being of White British ethnic origin (55 per cent), with just over one-in-six children described as being Black or Black British (15.5 per cent). A further 15.5 per cent of children were of mixed White and Black heritage. Table 6.1 shows the breakdown for the remaining children.
National statistics indicate that minority ethnic groups make up approximately 14 per cent of the population of England and Wales (Office for National Statistics, 2012), 22 per cent of looked after children in England (Department for Education, 2013b) and 24.5 per cent of looked after children in England moving to Special Guardianship. Whilst minority ethnic groups appear to be over- represented in our sample this is a reflection of the local authorities involved in our research, with 87 per cent of all the ethnic minority children coming from local authorities that have a more diverse population. This breakdown is very similar to the findings of the earlier York study of Special Guardianship which included six of the same local authorities as this study (Wade et al., 2010). In addition to an effect of area, this variation may also reflect the types of families in these areas for whom Special Guardianship could provide a suitable option. It is known that adoptive placements for children from minority ethnic backgrounds can be more difficult to find (Lowe et al., 2002; Thoburn, 2002; Selwyn and Wijedasa, 2009). Furthermore, minority ethnic children are known to be over-represented in kinship care (Department for Education, 2010), with kinship carers making up 90 per cent of our sample in this study.
Table 6.1 - Child’s ethnic origin
Number (n=230) Percentage
White British 126 55
White Other 5 2
Black or Black British 36 15.5
Mixed White and Black Caribbean/African 36 15.5
Asian 13 5.5
Other Mixed Background 9 4
Other ethnic group 1 0.5
Ethnic group unknown 4 1.5
In 2013, unaccompanied asylum seeking children formed 2.5 per cent of the looked after population in England (Department for Education, 2013b). These children were identified as potential beneficiaries of Special Guardianship (Department for Education and Skills, 2005), however, there was little evidence that Special Guardianship was being considered as a route out of care for these children. Just one index child was an accompanied asylum-seeker when they first came to the UK. This child had come to England with her siblings and an older female cousin who subsequently became their special guardian. These findings correspond with data from the earlier York study.
6.1.2 Age
When Special Guardianship orders were introduced, they were expected to at least in part be used to provide security and permanence for older children, for whom finding an adoptive
placement had become unlikely (Lowe et al., 2002; Thoburn, 2002; Selwyn et al., 2006; Sinclair et al., 2007) or for children for whom adoption may not be possible, appropriate or desired
(Department for Education and Skills, 2005). For example, they may be considered appropriate for children who have been settled in long-term foster care but who do not want to sever ties with their birth family. Special Guardianship has been taken up by carers of younger as well as older
children, with 45 per cent of children in our sample being aged under five years old when the SGO was granted and one-third of children being two years old or younger (see Figure 6.1).60 Children in the survey sample were slightly older than those who were included in the national dataset (See Chapter 5; 55.2 per cent under five years of age at SGO), but is consistent with our earlier York study. Given the young age of many of the children at the time of the order, it may be more difficult to anticipate their future support needs.
Figure 6.1 Child’s age at Special Guardianship Order
60
The average age of children at the time of the SGO was 6.02 years (median=5 years, SD=4.74, range=0-18) 103
Moving now to the age of children at the time of follow-up, just over half (54 per cent) of the children were aged ten or over. 61 This is a key period in these children’s lives, with challenging behaviour more likely to emerge at this time (Roth et al., 2012). Evidence from large studies of adoption and fostering has also suggested that placement breakdown is most likely to occur during adolescence (Sinclair et al., 2007; Department for Education, 2011; Selwyn et al., 2014). Special guardians of younger children acknowledged that, even when things were currently going well, they were quite likely to experience difficulties in the future.
‘The teenage years, that’s the critical stage…’
(Aunt to Dion, aged 13 years)
‘Not yet anyway. I’ll tell you when she’s fifteen.’
(Grandmother to Victoria, aged 11 years)
6.1.3 Health, disability and behavioural difficulties
Just under one-quarter of children were reported to have a chronic health problem or a physical, sensory or learning impairment (see Table 6.2). Where there was evidence that a child had either health problems and/or a disability, a learning disability was the problem most often presented (63 per cent of all children with additional needs), accounting for nearly one-in-seven children in the total sample. Furthermore, it was likely that those children with additional needs would have multiple difficulties, accounting for 65 per cent of those with additional needs.62
Table 6.2 - Child’s health and disability
Number (n=230) Percentage
Mental health problem 20 8.5
Chronic physical health problem 16 7
Learning disability 34 15
Physical or sensory disability 19 8.5
Child has one or more health problems or disabilities
54 23.5
Table 6.3 identifies the proportion of the sample that was reported to have social, emotional or behavioural difficulties, with one-half reported to have moderate to more severe difficulties.
61
The average age of children at follow-up (typically 3-6 years post order) was 11.03 years (median=10 years, SD=4.71, range=4-23)
62
Given the relatively small number of children with chronic health conditions or impairments, we have combined these into an ‘additional needs’ variable for further analysis in subsequent chapters. These children account for over 20 per cent of the survey sample.
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Table 6.3 - Children’s social, emotional and behavioural difficulties
Number (n=202) Percentage
Serious problems 21 10.5
Moderate problems 80 39.5
No problems 101 50.0
Evidence from qualitative data collected from special guardians illustrates the ways in which social, emotional and behavioural difficulties are not constant, but rather may improve or
deteriorate over time as the circumstances of children change or helpful interventions are made.
‘Towards the end of the first year, things started to go slightly wrong…but I’d say that
was sort of normal teenage rebellion. And…then she was going out with Cara and I
discovered… they’d both been truanting from school.’
(Family friend of Holly, whose Special Guardianship placement broke down following a deterioration in the behaviour of Holly and the guardian’s adopted daughter)
‘He was suffering from post-traumatic stress and he’s also got learning disabilities and
ADHD. And she put him on a low dose of [medication]…for the ADHD and he just started to come on leaps and bounds. The tantrums very, very slowly went less and
less to the point where really he didn’t have them.’
(Former stranger foster carer to Danvir who had autism and learning disabilities who was doing very well with his special guardian)
Children are at risk of developing insecure attachments as a consequence of maltreatment (Main, 1986). Furthermore, children with insecure attachments are subsequently more likely to
demonstrate aggression and other behaviour problems (Campbell, 2002; Clegg and Sheard, 2002). Just over one-in-four children in our survey sample (for whom there was data available) were reported to have had some attachment difficulties (27 per cent) and a similar proportion (28 per cent) had shown signs of delayed development. We found children who also had learning disabilities were twice as likely as other children to have had difficulties in forming secure
attachments63 or to have had social, emotional and behavioural problems64, suggesting that this group of children are likely to need more intensive support. The management of social, emotional and behavioural problems is critical. Chapters 8, 10 and Appendix B illustrate the poor outcomes that can be associated with such difficulties.
Evidence concerning the presence of a statement of educational need was available for 105 children in the survey sample. Over one in five (n=22) of these children had a statement, which whilst much higher than the national average of 3 per cent of all school pupils (Department for
63
Fisher’s Exact Test p=.013, n=178. 64
Mann Whitney U Test p<.001, n=197.
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Education, 2013a), is comparable to other groups of vulnerable children, including those in the care system, where this figure is closer to 25 per cent (Berridge et al., 2002; Biehal, 2005).
Overall, therefore, children living in Special Guardianship families appear similar in many ways to other groups of vulnerable children, including those looked after by local authorities. Children were often very young when they entered their Special Guardianship families. However, over one- quarter were aged ten or over at the time of the order, compared to adoption where just two per cent of adoption orders in 2012 were made to children aged 10 or over. A sizeable minority of these children had additional needs related to health or disabilities. Whilst the stability and security provided through Special Guardianship may establish the basis for a family life with all the
advantages that security, stability and commitment bring, this may not of itself address the longer- term impact of their poor start in life. Many families are therefore likely to have continuing needs for access to high quality support. In Chapters 8-11 (and Appendix B) we explore outcomes for these children, taking into consideration any support offered and used by these families.