Providing short-term primary preventive crisis intervention for children in schools

This chapter discusses some ideas about how the Caplanian approach to preventive mental health — specifically the method of crisis intervention — might be applied in state schools, a non-stigmatic site for primary prevention. It argues that there is a strong prima facie case, based both on evidence from children and young people and from theory, for finding ways and means to apply crisis intervention methods of support for children in schools to help them cope with stressful upheavals associated with intense interparental conflict, separation and divorce. The main challenge is how to persuade practitioners and policy makers and educational and school health services that this is a promising approach worth developing.

Summarised research reviews upon which to promote social and emotional wellbeing in children of separated parents

This chapter summarizes the principal research findings of social and behavioural science which highlight factors concerning risk and resilience in children when parental conflict results in the breakup of their families. The purpose is simply to indicate the growing background knowledge base for the practice and policy proposals for preventive support services for children. Two main streams of research are considered. The first focuses on the social and emotional wellbeing of children in schools. These institutions have a primary preventive role, as indeed do primary healthcare teams. The second, drawn largely from the field of developmental psychology, focuses more on intra-familial behavioural issues. This is a rapidly growing area of knowledge which is being recognised and applied more particularly to the field of parental conflict resolution and in the context of the interdisciplinary family justice system.

Hearing the voice of the child: messages from research that expose gaps between theory, principle and reality

This chapter draws attention to the developing field of policy and practice-related research which seeks to take account of the views and experiences of children, with a focus on parental breakdown and separation. The overall research into a wide range of children's life experiences is developing fast, representing something of a cultural shift since the 1970s. Even before then, certain pioneering researchers, such as Royston Lambert and Spencer Millham, in their research in the 1960s for the Public Schools Commission, sought to sample the views of children. This led on to a number of other studies concerned with listening to children in educational and other professional services contexts. The chapter considers research conducted in the 1990s and early 2000s, before the full impact of modern information technology had been felt and prior to the availability of smart phones for children.

Numbers, scale and trends

This chapter summarizes some key social and demographic statistics from England and Wales which illustrate the scale of the challenge which faces any governments should they wish to develop strategic preventative social and legal policies to better support children and young people caught up in the critical family transitions following the breakdown of their parents' relationship. It begins with some preliminary observations which may not be immediately apparent from the bold figures. It then discusses fluctuating divorce rates and the increase in cohabitation, and statistical problems concerning the number of children involved in private law litigation involving contact and residence orders.

Setting out the stall

This chapter first explains the author's motivation for writing this book. It then sets out the basic questions which this book seeks to address: Against the harsher economic and political climate, how will the interests of children be protected when their parent's relationship runs into difficulties leading to separation and divorce? Above all, will more and more children feel sidelined? Will they find that their needs for support and information are ignored when having to cope with stressful problems at home? These are important questions, particularly as there is mounting evidence of the potentially adverse consequences for their education, social wellbeing and mental health — to say nothing of the likelihood that some will be at risk of serious abuse and/or exploitation.

Changing the culture of family justice: barriers to be overcome

This chapter considers a number of underlying problematic issues that make it difficult to change the culture of the family justice system so as to put the needs of children centre stage and see the system as part of a matrix of public services to promote children's wellbeing and strengthen their emotional resilience. The discussions cover the way the Coalition government set about cutting legal aid from most private family law proceedings; the repeated and longstanding failures to invest in information technology; the ‘normalisation’ of divorce and the problem of scale; the problem of labelling interparental disputes as ‘private law’ cases; the problem of ‘churn’ in civil service staffing policy; and attempts to overcome obstacles to interprofessional understanding and collaboration.

The repeal of Section 41 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and related reforms: is the state turning a blind eye to the needs of children in divorce proceedings?

Section S.18 of the Children and Families Act 2014 repealed s41 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. Generally known as the welfare check in undefended divorce cases where there were no accompanying applications for child-related orders, these provisions required a district judge to scrutinise a Statement of Arrangements for all the dependent children of the family in order to determine whether the court should exercise any of its powers under the Children Act 1989. The repeal of s41 raised the question of whether the state should attempt to safeguard these children's welfare in some other more effective way. This chapter examines the matter from the perspective of a socio-legal researcher who over the years has studied the operation of the welfare check in its various guises, and who has conducted several other child-related divorce studies, including some high-conflict cases where the children were separately represented.

Policy and practice proposals to support children and young people coping with interparental conflict and separation

This chapter considers how the Caplanian approach might in time become embedded in a whole school system committed to a child's wellbeing and resilient mental health. The first part outlines policy and practice proposals, and looks further at how this approach to primary prevention should be applied not only in state schools but in the context of private boarding schools as well. The second part considers its potential application in the context of child-related litigation in family courts. The third part touches on its relevance to child and adolescent mental health services, and argues for the development of a broader consultative preventive mental health approach to augment and complement their specialist therapeutic intervention.

Barriers obstructing a preventive mental health approach

This chapter considers some barriers which need to be overcome in order to implement early intervention when children are facing critical family change. It begins by explaining marketization as it applies to children's access to services. It then discusses the shortcomings in Whitehall's capacity to view the mental health needs of children and their families as a whole. These include policy making that is short-termist, reactive, and uncoordinated; more reward for ministers and civil servants in ‘rising to the occasion’ than preventing such occasions arising in the first place; and most government responses are vertical (i.e. carried out in single departments) when most the key problems faced by government are horizontal (i.e. affect a number of different departments). The chapter then covers how to overcome shortcomings in established professional modes of thinking.

Demolition and reconstruction in the family justice regime: what can be salvaged for children whose parents separate and divorce?

This chapter considers the needs for children coming into contact with the family justice system to receive impartial information, to have a voice in proceedings if they so wish, and to receive support during the course of proceedings. It examines these issues in the context of fundamental changes in the system. The story underlying this chapter is one where the old regime of family justice administering private family law has been dismantled by radical measures introduced by the Coalition government between 2010 and 2015. The first part outlines the development of these measures. The second part focuses on the new policy framework based on what has been termed the Child Arrangements Programme (CAP), which replaces the old regime.