How Does Covid-19 Affect Family Contact with Children in Care?
In normal circumstances the majority of children living in foster care under a Care Order have face to face contact with parents and sometimes other family members supervised by Local Authority staff or others either in a contact centre, other local authority venue or in the community.
Whether these arrangements can continue in the current health crisis will depend on many factors including the current and underlying health of children, parents and carers, their ages, and also depending which local authority has the Care Order.
Local Authority Duty
Under a Care Order (either an interim or final) the Local Authority shares parental responsibility for the child. The paramount consideration of the Court in children matters is the welfare and safety of the child. The Local Authority has a duty in law to promote contact if it is safe to do so. The Local Authority also has a responsibility to its staff, foster carers and to the wider public. There are also resource implications at a time when many workers may be self-isolating and working from home, or absent through sickness.
A Rapidly Changing Situation
This is a rapidly changing situation based on emerging and changing government and health guidelines, particularly social distancing and the need to stay at home except for specified reasons.
In all cases the Local Authority must carry out a risk assessment and attempt to balance the safety considerations and welfare of the child and others against the benefits of contact for the children and parents. Parents may not agree with the Local Authority’s decisions but I think the Court will be very unlikely to interfere with a decision on contact in these circumstances unless the Local Authority can be shown to have acted in a way which is clearly unreasonable. At the current time the Court is unlikely to list an application for a contested hearing on contact.
Derby City Council reached a decision yesterday (24th March 2020) to suspend all direct contact. Contact will be by Skype/Facetime/Zoom/Whatsapp or similar where possible and if not then by telephone. This is, of course, much more suitable for teenagers than for babies.
Staffordshire County Council do not have a blanket policy. Each case will be considered separately. Indirect contact by social media video calls will be preferred to direct contact where it is appropriate. Obviously direct contact will not take place when either the parent, child or someone in their household has a diagnosis or suspected symptoms of Covid-19. Similarly direct contact is unlikely if they fall into a vulnerable category and are self-isolating for 12 weeks. This will cause particular issues as over 30% of Staffordshire foster carers are aged 65 or over.
It is very unlikely that contact supervised by the Local Authority will remain unchanged. If direct contact is possible and safe the frequency and duration are both likely to be reduced due to limited resources of supervising staff and venues. Community contact will not be possible due to government guidelines and the fact that the sort of places where contact usually takes place are shut. Strict measures will be in place to keep everyone safe.
What Happens If Direct Contact Cannot Take Place?
If direct contact cannot take place, there should be indirect contact by whatever means is suitable, and parents should be kept informed how their child is. Social Services and also solicitors’ offices are running on skeleton staff and may be closed to the public. It may take longer than usual for your queries to be answered.
We all hope that this pandemic and health crisis comes to an end soon and contact arrangements can return to normal. In the meantime all of us must do everything we can to keep everyone, especially the most vulnerable, safe and well.
Jo Taylor
25th March 2020