The Narey Report was published early last week (5 July). You may not have read it because, unusually for a report which purports to be signally important in the development of government policy on matters of such public interest and importance as the permanent severing of the child : parent relationship, it is behind a paywall and (C) News International Trading Limited and hailed as an “exclusive”. That leaves a bit of a bad taste already, doesn’t it?
I will do my best to write this post so as to be meaningful to those who object to subscribing or who do not have access to the report itself.
In fact, it didn’t take long to read: whilst it runs to 48 pages it is discursive in style and contains no footnotes or references (that was the 1st of many raised eyebrows for this reader). It has taken me some time to put this post together, partly because of other commitments, and partly because of the gravity of the subject matter, and the need to do it properly. And partly because I like to sleep on a post when something has got me really riled up. This post required several nights sleep before I felt safe to start typing, let alone hit “publish”.
I would like to have spent more time on the post than I have been able to, but in the interests of publishing whilst there is still some news currency I have resolved to post what I’ve got – there will no doubt be some flaws and gaps which others will correct or fill in comments or elsewhere. In fact, for the same reasons I have resolved to post this in two mammoth posts – this is the first. Part two will follow – when I have finished writing it.
Background
Let’s begin at the beginning.
The Times newspaper has previously run campaigns about family justice, notably the campaign a couple of years ago for open family courts, spearheaded by Camilla Cavendish. It’s current campaign calls for radical reform to the adoption system. David Bebber, introducing the report wrote on 5 July:
“Three months ago, amid mounting evidence that thousands of children are left languishing in temporary foster care or residential homes, The Times launched a campaign for radical reforms to the adoption system. We called for more and speedier adoptions, and for older children in particular not to be overlooked. And…we realised that to make a real difference, a more detailed analysis of the system, with specific recommendations on how it should be reformed, was required.”
Enter Martin Narey, stage left. Martin Narey has a long and distinguished career, first in the prison service, subsequently probation (NOMS) and latterly Barnardos. In the latter role he expressed forthright and often controversial views about the fast tracking of routes to adoption. Having left Barnardos in January 2011 he was available for work. Perfect candidate for the production of a controversial and therefore eminently newsworthy report, the outcomes of which are neatly foreshadowed in the quote above.
Consider:
tendentious |ten?den sh ?s|
adjective expressing or intending to promote a particular cause or point of view, esp. a controversial one : a tendentious reading of history.
DERIVATIVES
tendentiously adverb
tendentiousness noun
ORIGIN
early 20th cent.: suggested by German tendenziös.
David Bebber goes on:
“So we asked an expert to help. Martin Narey…was ideally placed to draw up a report, exclusively for us, that would appraise the system fairly and thoroughly”.
Ideally placed indeed. Fairly and thoroughly? I’m going to analyse that proposition below.
Before I go to the content of the report it’s important to note the announcement of Martin Narey as the Government’s Adoption Tzar on 7 July (two days after publication of this private commission). How’s that bad taste? Another concerning example of Public Policy apparently driven or influenced by the media you say? Pshaw! Ridiculous!
Detailed analysis
As noted above, there are no footnotes, endnotes or indeed any references. The sources cited are in the main not referred to with their full title. This is a further barrier to transparency. It took me a number of hours to track down the references to books, reports and other written material that Narey refers to and relies upon. I have compiled them below, with links where available. This could be viewed as a surprising lack of rigour.
I have not undertaken the exercise of identifying sources which are not referred to by Narey but which evidence alternative or contradictory positions to those which he adopts (excuse pun) in his report. That exercise could be undertaken, but it is not within the scope of this post. I would welcome the posting of links to other reference material, research etc in comments.
Material that IS referred to in the report:
- “A highly regarded study by the University Of York, Mike Stein” (p5 & p10) – ??
- Quote from Royal College Of Paediatrics And Child Health teaching (p5) – unable to identify from RCPCH website.
- Bowlby and Rutter – attachment theory – no specific source identifiable, but many sources available for general history, development and principles of attachment theory.
- Martin Narey’s Institute of Public Policy Research paper 2010 (p6-7)
I can only find a reference to a paper published in 2008 (here).
- The Daily Telegraph summary of 2010 article (p7): ??
- Liberty quote (p7):
“Separation of family members will normally constitute an interference with the right to respect for family life, although such interference may be justified, for example where a child is taken into care for his or her own protection”
This quote is taken from a brief summary for the public on the Liberty website (here), and is clearly neither intended to be a full exposition of the law in this area nor taken out of context. In any event it is a trite proposition – clearly the removal of a child may be a lawful interference with Article 8 rights – and depending on the facts it may not. Narey sets up a false dichotomy – there is no contradiction between the paramountcy principle and due regard to Article 8 and indeed Article 6 rights – the proper consideration of welfare issues in accordance with s1 Children Act 1989 is likely to render an interference necessary and proportionate on Human Rights grounds, but it need not be an either or situation. Welfare itself is difficult to identify and even more difficult to agree on – it has many aspects and an action may simultaneously enhance welfare in one aspect whilst harming it in another. Narey seems to see the world in black and white: safe and unsafe homes; good parents and bad parents.
- “Demos study” (p10) In Loco Parentis, Celia Hannon Claudia Wood Louise Bazalgette, Demos, 2010, but also see another more recent study by Demos, not mentioned by Narey: The Home Front, Jen Lexmond, Louise Bazalgette, Julia Margo, 2011, which recommends better support for parents in order to achieve better outcomes for children.
- All In A Day’s Work, Becky Hope (p10):
Published by Hodder & Stoughton and described in marketing material as “one woman’s gripping story”. Without wishing to doubt the authenticity or sincerity of this social worker cum author’s account, this seems to me to be a suprising source for a report which is intended to shape public policy. There is a place for qualitative evidence, but this is not just anecdotal evidence, it is a commercial product. This is no substitute for meeting with and speaking to Local Authority social workers, lawyers and others, for visiting the places where their work goes on and for gaining a real understanding of what they do. Narey says her book “captures the sad reality that too often we wait too long before removing a child from parental neglect, sometimes because of an unjustified optimism about the capacity of parents to improve.” It’s not a reality that I am often presented with when explaining a Local Authority’s care plan to my clients. My sad reality is quite different – optimism about parental capacity for change is not something that today’s overworked, jaded social workers are generally overflowing with.
- “A University of York study published last year” (p13):
- “An article published in the Journal of Social Policy in 2009” (p13):
What is the Impact of Public Care on Children’s Welfare? A Review of Research Findings from England and Wales and their Policy Implications, Donald Forrester, Keith Goodman, Christine Cocker, Charlotte Binnie and Graham Jensch; Journal of Social Policy (2009), 38: 439-456. The quotation is a direct quote from the abstract.
- This “deeply unbalanced reference…on the website of one local authority” (p16):
“A parent who is considering placing their baby for adoption must be offered counseling and must be given time after the baby is born to reflect on tehri decision. Many are sad about not being able to raise or have a relationship with their child. Some have said that they eventually adjusted to the loss of a child, but that the pain and grief lasted a very long time. Others have said that life was never the same after placing the child.”
This appears to relate to Kirklees and concerns the decision by a new mother of a newborn baby to place him for adoption. It appears to me that far from being “deeply unbalanced” this statement is likely to be factually accurate, and aimed at the same issue that is behind the statutory prohibition on adoptions immediately after birth – namely that such decisions can have lifelong serious consequences for mothers and should be taken after proper reflection.
- Planned Parenthood (p16-17) is a US website, and as such deals with the US legal and cultural framework.
- “One local authority says this on it’s website” (p17):
“It is an important part of an adoptive parent’s role …to help a child or young person deal with their feelings about being part of two families and it is essential that efforts are made to keep a child’s birth family “alive” for that child”
This appears to be Dundee: and is rather taken out of context. In any event there is plenty of research that suggests that adoption is more likely to be successful (particularly in relation to older children) where knowledge of the birth family is open to the child “for identity purposes” (See for example the Kirklees website that Mr Narey refers to).
- Adoption statistics referred to at p19 can be found via the BAAF and Department of Education website here:
- “The Guardian recently estimated adoption breakdowns at 20%” (p24)
The only reference I can find is to this article, written by a member of the public in 2008:
Shows an average adoption breakdown rate of 20% for “late” adoptive placements.
- PACT adoptions (p26):
Superficially, the written material referred to above gives an impression of “detailed analysis”, but in my view the use of even those sources is questionable. In any event it is apparent that in large part the conclusions reached are based largely upon Martin Narey’s strongly held opinions, opinions which pre-dated the commission and which are base upon limited anecdotal evidence in the course of his previous roles, rather than any systematic qualitative evidence gathering or fact finding exercise in the report writing period (a period which extended over as little as two or three months depending on which bit of the report and introductory article you rely on). There is no evidence of Martin Narey having visited courts or Local Authority social workers (the information he takes from social workers appears limited to social workers employed by Barnardos and one or two Local Authority social workers who have chosen to write to him, perhaps aware that his views chimed with their own). There is no reference to any legal source, other than passing mention of the Children Act and Articles 6 and 8 ECHR, and not even a mention of the complicated (and dysfunctional) framework of regulatory material in relation to care and adoption.
THAT my friends, was a tedious and laborious task. Having carried it out, I find I am surprised at both the choice and use of source material and the tendency to compress nuanced research conclusions and complex issues into soundbites, apparently in uncomplicated support of Mr Narey’s arguments. Whether I am right in this opinion will now at least be capable of discussion. I have not read all of the research on these topics. I have not had either the time or the stamina to do so after constructing Mr Narey’s Bibliography for him. It should at least aid transparency of discussion. Perhaps others can take up the baton whilst I take a rest?
Part Two of this blog post will follow in a day or two.
I have some useful stats for understanding what happens to children aged under 5 in the care system.
If you email me I will send them to you.
thank you.
Thanks very much for this herculean effort!
Readers may recall that in August last year Mr Narey publicised ‘new research’ by Barnardos about the impact of length of care proceedings. I followed this up with Barnardos as could not find the research. They directed me to an answer to a PQ which had been publicly available weeks earlier! All that did was list the case duration according to care centre. There was no research by Barnardos to support the headlines.
(Someone kindly gave me a paper copy of The Times last week – it doesn’t give references there either.)
This is generally the research that Barnardos refer to
http://www.barnardos.org.uk/resources/research_and_publications/in-loco-parentis–a-demos-report-commissioned-by-barnardos/publication-view.jsp?pid=PUB-1470
It is flawed in that it does not have sufficient longitudinal studies (which they accept).
The question is are all these chidren “Lost” as is claimed by Barnadoes in the previous statement by Nairey?
Oh, what is meant is they will be passed around from care home to care home and foster home to foster home and end up disturbed.
So they must be Forced Adopted, thus supplying a flow of merch.. sorry, children to Barnardoes as an adoption agency and other adoption agencies.
In other words it is special pleading and as posters have reprted, their “research” is higly questioable.
The arguments are identical to just over 40 ears ago when this started by adoption agencies.
Of course, Barnadoes could as a childre’s home charity ignored the siren song then and set up model community childrens homes, which was the alterative plan, insted of jumping on the trendy bandwagon.
Really it is about a generous supply of children for Forced Adoption to feed the adoption industry which the adoption agencies require, in a situation where the number of adoptions is falling.
In other words it is campaigning by a lobby in its own interests and not o the children.
At the moment we have a steady stream of tragic cases where children are to be obtained for Forced Adoption where the evidence against the family is distinctly questionable and relies on “diagnoses” which the mothers cannot have under the diagnostic criteria of the DSM – IV but no-one challenges it.
Is this not promoting trafficking in children by vested interests?
A blueprint for forced adoptions, and misery for parents that have never harmed their children.Yes some parents do harm their children but battered children make poor adoption material so like Baby p and Victoria Climbé they are left to die.
Far easier to snatch children for “risk” that may never happen,and who can dispute so called experts (with their crystal balls and tarot cards?)when they predict children to be at risk and to be better off with adoptive parents?
1:- The UK is the ONLY State in the WORLD that gags parents whose children have been taken by social services
2:- The UK is the ONLY State in Europe (except Croatia and possibly Portugal) to permit the horror of “forced adoption”.
3:-The UK is the ONLY State in Europe to allow “Punishment without crime” ie the taking of children by social services from parents who have not committed any criminal offence.
4:- The UK is the ONLY State in Europe taking children for “emotional abuse” and worse still “risk of emotional abuse” (on the basis of predictions from overpaid charlatans that one day parents just might harm their children)
5:- The UK is the ONLY State in Europe to censor conversation between parents and children in care.Children are left wondering what they have done wrong as parents are forbidden to explain the situation, or discuss the court case in any way. Phrases such as “I love you and I miss you” are also forbidden under the threat of contact beeing stopped immediately if the parents “transgress.” Children naturally begin to think their parents might not love them or want them back anymore.
1:- The UK is the ONLY State in the WORLD that gags parents whose children have been taken by social services
2:- The UK is the ONLY State in Europe (except Croatia and possibly Portugal) to permit the horror of “forced adoption”.
3:-The UK is the ONLY State in Europe to allow “Punishment without crime” ie the taking of children by social services from parents who have not committed any criminal offence.
4:- The UK is the ONLY State in Europe taking children for “emotional abuse” and worse still “risk of emotional abuse” (on the basis of predictions from overpaid charlatans that one day parents just might harm their children)
5:- The UK is the ONLY State in Europe to censor conversation between parents and children in care.Children are left wondering what they have done wrong as parents are forbidden to explain the situation, or discuss the court case in any way. Phrases such as “I love you and I miss you” are also forbidden under the threat of contact beeing stopped immediately if the parents “transgress.” Children naturally begin to think their parents might not love them or want them back anymore.
The UK is a pariah State in Europe when it comes to family matters;
Why is the UK so DIFFERENT and so CRUEL to parents?
Ok Ian, valid view, important topic and all that but – CHANGE THE RECORD. In future I’m going to block comments that are simply a repetition of previous comments.
sorry to come back, Familoo.
It is of the highest significance that Community Care as failed to back Martin Narey and the Adoption Lobby for which he acts as spokesman.
In an article in today’s edition
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/childrens-services-blog/2011/07/adoption-for-under-3s-care-for-older-children.html
the authors say Forced Adoption went down the agend because there was some evidence that children were happier with their familes, that Quote “it beggars belief” statistics were not collected on the adoption failure rate and some judges believe it is as high as a third.
Also the reason why it is clawing its way back up the agenda is it that of cost – adopted children are moved out from the councils’ budgets and after adoption support cost is not their’s as the children are not in the Care system.
Also the demand of the Adoption Lobby that more and more money should be sunk into post-adoption support – so Forced Adoptions will not break down, although they will not admit it.
http://fostered-or-in-care.blogspot.com
you removed my comment because?
http://fostered-or-in-care.blogspot.com
Urm…because it’s the weekend and I hadn’t got round to moderating it yet.
But, as it happens your link is bad.
Difficult to reply to Narey without repeating previously advanced arguments Lucy .
Let’s just say however that Barnardos now bears no resemblance to the original organisation as begun by its founder.
Around £175 million income according to its published accounts on line ,it has now become a callous adoption factory built on the seizure of happy children from loving parents and giving them to strangers !
In his new post as advisor on adoption to children’s minister Tim Loughton I have no doubt Narey will press for more and more adoptions with little regard for the families he helps to break up for “risks” that may,and probably will never happen !
Wow! Didn’t take long for the censors to pull the comment off Blogspot.
It appears Forced Adoption is being seriously challenged and narey has had a counter-effect to his patrons’ intention.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/259355/10-000-children-ripped-from-their-families
10,00o children wrongly Forced Adopted is being quoted and a n Oxford social work academic resigning fro the Labour Party over the Blair’s adoption targets (the ones that weren’t supposed to exist).
I re-named it. Sorry. It turned into a scrapbook of events. If you’re too busy to read it, don’t be polite. It is quite windy.
http://uk-kidnap-scandal.blogspot.com
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Thank you for your analysis of the Martin Narey Times reporton adoption. I found it when I searched for the report online and found that a subscription to the Timesmwas needed to access it. Why was I looking for this report? Because I had contacted Martin Narey to ask him to provide me with the references for his assertion inthe House of Cmmons that the evidence is that’s ‘care is ‘better’. He replied to my email that ‘the easiest thing I can do is refer you to my report in thrnTimes, the first chapter of which rehearsed some of the evidence’. After much frustrating searching online I found that this report was impossible to access. I havemrecontscted Maetin Narey asking him to send me the relevant research references. Then I found your analysis. I am in Scotland where similar statements are being made about the superiority of care to families of origin. When challenged no evidence is produced. There is little evidence to support these sweeping assertions which should always be qualified as ‘better for some’ . I find his attitude arrogant and frightening. There is a care ‘business’ in this country that. Includes major charities whose ‘cash cow ‘ is care services. They stop measuring impact on the children they have looked after when the payments stop….l
And Barnardo’s got out of the residential care business for children when the going got tough…leaving their executive to snipe and criticise local authority provision.
Barnardo’s then went on to invest in new services for children, all paid for by the taxpayer.
Martin Narey and Anthony Douglas must be blood brothers as a recent article published in the Guardian reveals Mr Douglas’ enthusiasm for taking children into care….read it here Maggie…..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/social-care-network/2012/apr/16/taking-more-children-care-beneficial?INTCMP=SRCH