Residential parenting assessments: uses, costs and contributions to effective and timely decision-making in public law cases

Abstract

The Family Justice Review (FJR) highlighted the need for timely decision-making and high quality assessments in care proceedings and recommended wide-ranging reforms intended to put children’s interests back at the heart of the process (Ministry of Justice, the Department for Education and the Welsh Government, 2011). During the course of the FJR concerns were raised ‘about the value of residential assessments of parenting capacity , particularly set against their cost and lack of clear evidence of their benefits’ (p.18). The Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre (CWRC) was commissioned by the Department for Education (DFE) to undertake a small-scale research study to explore the role, costs and contribution that residential parenting assessments make to timely and effective decision-making in public law.