Mutual distrust can prevent parents and social workers working together to safeguard children. New research into the use of parental advocacy hints at a solution.
Child protection processes can be overwhelming for many families, often leaving parents feeling like they have no say in decisions about their children. Achieving the outcome that children’s social care services were designed for – keeping children safe – is easiest when parents and social workers collaborate in a spirit of mutual trust and understanding. What often prevents this happening are fears on both sides. Parents worry their children will be taken away from them and social workers have concerns that children could be harmed.
A solution to this could be the use of Parental Advocates (PAs), where an intermediary works with both parties to achieve a spirit of cooperation and understanding, in particular encouraging and empowering parents to actively engage in child protection processes. PAs are there to ensure parents’ voices are heard and respected, and to work towards better relationships with social workers. Research in Wales has looked at how effective they are in achieving these aims.
The Research
The study evaluated parental advocacy across three Welsh regions. Two regions used professional advocates, while one used peer advocates. Professional advocates provide independent support without necessarily having personal experience in the child protection system, while peer advocates are parents who have personal experience with the child protection system and can help others to navigate it.
Researchers conducted interviews, focus groups, and surveys with parents, advocates, and social workers to explore how advocacy improves engagement.
Table [1]. Distribution of Interviews across stakeholders and Case Studies
| Stakeholder Group | Case Study 1 – Professional Advocacy | Case Study 2 – Professional Advocacy | Case Study 3 – Peer Advocacy | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parents | 5 | 3 | 4 | 12 |
| Parent Advocates | 4 | 7 | 6 | 17 |
| Professionals | 12 | 10 | 7 | 29 |
| Total | 21 | 20 | 17 | 58 |
Findings
What kind of advocacy works best?
Both types of advocate offer advantages and disadvantages. Because they’ve experienced child protection process, having a peer advocate means parents have someone there who knows what they’re going through and understands how they might be feeling. There is some risk for the peer advocate though, who might experience vicarious trauma. Therefore, good reflective supervision and support is particularly important for peer advocates.
Conversely, professional advocates come with expert knowledge of processes and policies, but what they often lack is personal experience in child protection processes. This potentially hinders the building of trust and rapport with parents, who may perceive them as yet another professional.
Relationship-building and improved collaboration and communication
The research highlights how both parents and professionals saw PAs as pivotal in improving relationships between the two parties. PAs acted as ‘bridges’ between parents and other professionals, encouraging parents to engage with social workers.
Ensuring that parents feel heard and valued within child protection processes is a key aspect of parental advocacy. A core element of procedural justice is parents feeling like they have a say in decisions, being able to voice their opinions in meetings with children’s social care professionals and having their views taken seriously by professionals. Parental advocates facilitate this by listening to and validating parents’ experiences, to help foster a sense of confidence that is sometimes lost in their interactions with children’s services.
PAs played a crucial role in bridging communication gaps, translating the complex terminology of social services into language that is more accessible for parents. They also encouraged social workers to comply with requirements to make documents and reports available well in advance of key child welfare meetings, including child protection conferences. PAs helped parents understand social workers’ roles and the concerns raised about their children, enabling them to address these issues more effectively.
Challenges
Confusion about the PAs’ role within social services sometimes created misunderstandings with professionals, but advocates maintaining clear boundaries around the scope of their roles and services providing better training for both advocates and social workers could address this.
The importance of maintaining boundaries between advocates and parents was also highlighted in the data. This was particularly important for peer advocates, who needed to balance a less formal role (which had clear advantages for parents) with the protective benefits of maintaining professional boundaries around when they were available.
Limited funding for parental advocacy services threatens their sustainability. Often organizations running advocacy services in the UK have short term funding, which has an impact on recruitment and retention of parental advocates. This can make it difficult for parental advocates to establish and maintain trusting relationships with parents.
Conclusion
Overall, the findings from this study create a compelling argument for the benefits of providing parents with either a peer or professional advocate. The benefits include:
- parents feeling heard and more supported
- improved communication and relationships between parents and social workers
- parents feeling better equipped to navigate the complex child protection process due to the practical guidance that advocates provided them
With the involvement of PAs, parents feel empowered to play a more meaningful role in decisions made about their family, and to take actions needed to prevent escalation, which can otherwise result in families being separated. Ultimately, it’s those children whose parents are supported to engage with social services who stand to benefit the most.