The Impact of Expert Evidence on Care Proceedings
There has been an increased demand for expert child psychiatric opinion in child care cases where social services have instigated care proceedings under the Children Act 1989. However, there has been little evaluation of this work in terms of whether such a referral changes the care plan of the referring social work agency or the outcome for the child. This article examines the contribution to care proceedings of assessment reports completed by a child and adolescent forensic psychiatry team in respect of 37 consecutive child care cases. All of the assessments were presented to court and the information was collated once the proceedings were completed. Our ยฎndings indicated that the court followed the recommendations of the child psychiatric report entirely in 73% of cases. In addition, in 86% of cases the social service departments reported that they had gained conยฎrmation of their professional opinion. In only 10% of cases did they change their care plan in response to the child psychiatric assessment. In conclusion, the results suggest that in most cases social service departments are using child psychiatry expert evidence merely to validate and/or lend support to their original care plans.