Children in contact with family court, whether following parental separation or care proceedings are more likely to self-harm than those who have no contact with the family justice system. Any family court contact is an opportunity to identify and initiate care and prevention efforts for at risk children, according to new research.
Decisions on caregiver, family contact and living arrangements for children are made in family court proceedings. This includes both private (such as decisions in relation to parental divorce/separation) and public (where local authorities have taken steps for the welfare of children) family law proceedings. Around one in 10 separating families are involved in private family court proceedings.
Now a study by the National Centre for Suicide Prevention and Self-Harm Research at Swansea University, in partnership with Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, has explored self-harm following both private and public family law proceedings. This is the first time self-harm has been compared between children following contact with family courts and the wider population of children with no family court contacts.
Lead author Professor Ann John, from Swansea University Medical School, said: “While increased risks of self-harm in children involved in child protection court proceedings are well established, less is known about children involved in private court disputes over living and financial arrangements following parental separation.
“We found that the risk of self-harm in children involved in private family court proceedings was double that of children with no such contacts.
“This is important for several reasons. Self-harm is relatively common in adolescents and while the vast majority do not go on to die by suicide, it is a strong signal of distress. Nevertheless, self-harm is one of the strongest risk factors for suicide so all children in contact with family courts should be prioritised for support and prevention efforts.
“Basically, because parental separations are common, we can underplay their impact, but where parents involve family courts, we really need to ensure the whole family but especially the children are supported.”
For its research the team examined linked Children and Family Courts Advisory Service (CAFCASS) data with routinely collected healthcare data held in the SAIL databank at Swansea University. It studied cases involving 703,182 children from 2011-2018. Of these 17,041 were in private family law proceedings and 5,524 in public family law proceedings.
The team’s findings have just been published by journal BJPsych Open and revealed rates of self-harm were higher in court-involved children than children in the general population with no court involvement.
The study also showed that compared with age and sex matched comparison children, risk of self-harm was around twice as high following private family court proceedings and around three times as high following public family court proceedings.
The increase is likely to be due to the circumstances that lead to families becoming involved with courts - issues such as family conflict, uncertainty over living arrangements or welfare concerns.
The researchers believe contact with family justice is an opportunity to identify the needs of these families - both adults and children - and to offer proactive support and intervention which may be through wider networks such as school.
Co-author Dr Amanda Marchant said: “Pro-active self-harm and mental health support should be available for children in contact with family law proceedings. This could include a clear integrated stepped care pathway across settings from family courts to school based support and where needed specialist mental health services, tailored to the potentially complex needs of both children and adults/carers.”