Voluntary Care Arrangements: Section 20 of the Children Act 1989

In 2016 most children entered the care system under a section 20 voluntary arrangement. Whilst some were subsequently subject to a care order, over a quarter of the 70,440 children in care were subject to a voluntary arrangements.

Concerned about lack of focused guidance from government to practitioners and local authorities on the use of section 20, Family Rights Group launched a ‘Knowledge Inquiry’. The Inquiry aimed to examine the original intention behind section 20, to understand how voluntary arrangements were being used and what might need to change.

Guided by an expert panel of family members, academics, lawyers and social workers, the Inquiry invited contributions from young people, parents, kinship carers, foster carers, social workers, family support workers, lawyers, academics and others.

The final Inquiry report, Cooperation or coercion? Children coming into the care system under voluntary arrangements’ by Caroline Lynch was published in July 2017. It identified several areas of concern, including:

• Families often did not understand their rights and options when section 20 voluntary arrangements were first discussed.
• Many parents – particularly younger parents – described feeling pressured by practitioners to agreeing to their child entering or remaining in the care system under a voluntary arrangement.
• Practitioners faced pressure to use voluntary arrangements to avert the need to begin care proceedings or avoid kinship foster care arrangements.
• Parents and carers were often excluded from decision-making or information sharing about their child.
• Statutory guidance offered little assistance and direction about the meaning and application of ‘partnership’.
• Guidance was splintered across a patchwork of different statutory guidance, giving rise to wildly different experiences of voluntary arrangements.
• Kinship foster carers risked not being recognised as such, and instead were often told – incorrectly – they are caring for the child under a private arrangement (and thus neither they nor the child were entitled to support).
• Some authorities appeared to use voluntary arrangements to achieve placement of children in ‘foster for adoption’ foster care.

The report made recommendations in thirteen areas including:

• Government should issue statutory guidance on the use of voluntary arrangements. This should include guidance on the principles of ‘partnership’ working with families.
• Changes to the legal aid framework should be made to ensure families have access to free, independent legal advice to understand their rights and options when voluntary arrangements are proposed.
• Independent advocacy support should be provided to vulnerable parents, in particular young parents and disabled parents, wherever a section 20 arrangement is put in place.
• Government should amend the Children Act 1989 to prohibit the instigation of ‘foster for adoption’ placements for any children under section 20, unless a) care proceedings are already before the court, or b) the parent has given formal consent for such a placement via an independently witnessed procedure.