Child psychiatry and child protection litigation
Julia Brophy
What do the courts require of a clinical expert in child and
adolescent psychiatry?
How can clinical expert opinion be developed to improve family
justice?
In the decade following the Children Act 1989 two issues have
emerged as indisputable. First, care proceedings are a
multi-disciplinary exercise and second, child and adolescent
psychiatrists are key players providing the majority of expert
evidence. This book is based upon a study that is the first to
analyse and digest the views and practice of these clinicians after
more than a decade's experience with the Children Act.
The text examines the Act itself and what courts require of
experts; the institutional and contractual base from which these
clinicians approach medico-legal work; their own views of their
added value to proceedings; and how this field of work should be
taken forward, both by the family justice system and by the
clinical community.
In a policy environment in which multi-disciplinary and
multi-agency approaches to child abuse and neglect are vital and
where evidence-based practice increasingly dictates clinical
approaches, this book provides vital information for setting a new
agenda for current practice and future policy developments. It
addresses complex and controversial issues in this field and the
text will be central to future education and training initiatives
for:
- new and established child and adolescent psychiatrists
- lawyers, and academics in law, social work and socio-legal
studies
- judges, magistrates and court clerks
- guardians and court welfare officers in CAFCASS
- social workers, team managers and heads of children and
families services in local authorities.
Features of this volume include:
- a thorough examination of the Children Act 1989
- detailed discussion of what the courts require of a clinical
expert
- discussion of how clinical opinion can be developed to improve
family justice
Contents
- List of tables, boxes and figures
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
Background • The sample • The structure of
the book
- The Children Act 1989: a new landscape for the work of expert
witnesses
The Act – a milestone in family proceedings
• The principles that guide the courts • A new court structure for
family proceedings • Local authority support for children and
families • Proceedings for care and supervision applications • A
new landscape for experts • The use of experts following the
Children Act 1989
- NHS structures and contracts: the context in which child
psychiatrists meet the needs set by care proceedings
Introduction • From welfare state to welfare
markets? Medico-legal work during the NHS reforms at the beginning
of the 1990s • Custom and practice or contractual obligation? The
work of the child psychiatrist in child protection litigation •
Waiting lists for medico-legal work • Working practices: working
alone or in a multi-disciplinary team • Ethical dilemmas: doctor to
the family and an adviser to the court? • Numbers of cases, numbers
of appointments and length of experience in clinical and legal
arenas • Conclusions
- The bearers of gifts? What do child psychiatrists consider they
bring to child care proceedings?
Introduction • Presenting problems • What do
parties generally want from child psychiatrists? • Ethical
dilemmas: making recommendations as to children’s future
therapeutic needs • The risk assessment – a multi-professional
exercise • Social work assessments • ‘Added value’: what do child
psychiatrists consider they bring to the task of assessing families
that is different from that of a social worker? • Underpinning
theoretical perspectives and techniques • Assessing children and
parents from Black and other ethnic minority households • ‘Gilding
the lily’: using psychiatrists to add status and power • More
‘added values’ from child psychiatrists •
Conclusions
- The new legal agenda: those ‘on the receiving end’
Introduction • ‘On the receiving end’:
letters of instruction after the Act • Joint letters of instruction
– time for clinicians to debate? •Writing reports for courts • The
content of reports and the language of recommendations • Using
research in court reports – ‘evidence-based practice’ and strategic
planning • ‘On the receiving end’: improvements to the work of
experts following the 1989 Children Act
- A new clinical agenda: challenges for child protection
litigation
Introduction • The ‘forensic’ exercise and
children’s future therapeutic needs: a need for debate • Competing
expert opinions • The ‘texture’ of expert evidence • The failures
of the 1989 Children Act • Conclusions
- Child psychiatrists and the family justice system: a
multi-disciplinary, multi-agency agenda
Introduction • Service provision for the
twenty-first century • The tasks of the child psychiatrist: legal
and welfare discourses
- Appendix
The sampling procedure - References
- Index