Recurrent care proceedings: progress in research and practice since the Family Justice Council 6th Annual Debate

The Family Justice Council 6th Annual Debate, held in December 2012, was on the following motion: ‘Women who have children removed to care, year after year, are being failed by a system unable to respond to them as vulnerable adults needing support in their own right’. In this article, Mike Shaw and colleagues, reflect on developments in research and practice since the debate, documenting new research evidence and emerging practice initiatives. The article considers the value of formal knowledge exchange events to progress wider national conversation about pressing matters in family justice – in this case mothers caught in a cycle of recurrent public law proceedings. The article concludes with some thoughts on the Family Drug and Alcohol Court, and the topical issue of timescales within family proceedings – for children, the courts and for parents. For parents with complex difficulties, change does not come quickly, but Mike notes society’s reluctance to see child protection in cases such as these as a long-term problem worthy of sustained high quality intervention.