Posted by Natasha in Researching Reform

The Children and Families Truth Commission has published another survey for children and families going through Britain’s child protection system, which will investigate contact between children in care and their birth families. You can access the survey here: https://qualtricsxm43cmb2m6b.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6Q1eaGfk9cc9C2a 

The deadline to submit responses is October 31, 2023 at midnight.

The Children & Families Truth Commission say:

“We are very grateful to the more than 100 families who have taken the time to fill out this survey, but please don’t worry if you would like to submit your feedback as the survey is open for another 10 days.”

What is the survey about?

The survey asks parents about their experiences of contact with their children once they were taken into care, and whether they felt their family’s human rights were supported in relation to child contact.

We decided to produce this survey as an additional piece of research connected to our first survey, which we believe is the first ever human rights-focused survey for children and families going through Britain’s child protection system.

An oversight on our part meant that we did not include what we feel are important questions about child contact with birth parents during child protection proceedings.

What happened to the first survey?

Our first survey has gathered more than 300 responses, and we are very grateful to the people who filled out the survey. Once we receive responses to this latest survey, we will produce a report.

We would be so grateful for your support in filling out this second questionnaire, if you feel you are happy to do so.

Like the first survey, we have created the second survey so that we can better understand which human rights are being breached inside the system, and how.

We warmly invite you to complete the survey if you are a child or child-protection experienced parent or relative. The more responses we get, the more we can understand the problems.

Please fill this survey out if you can, and share it with others who may want to complete it, too.

How can I access the second survey and what if I have questions?

If you have any questions about, or problems with, the survey, you are very welcome to email the Commission at truthcommissionuk@gmail.com

You can access the survey here: https://qualtricsxm43cmb2m6b.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6Q1eaGfk9cc9C2a 

The deadline to submit responses is October 31, 2023 at midnight.

The Commission would also like to extend its deepest thanks to Dr Jeri Damman, for her assistance in formatting this survey, her guidance on language and terminology, and for providing us with the text in the introduction about confidentiality and anonymity.

Dr Damman is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Work and Social Care at the University of Sussex, who “specialises in how child welfare systems seek to engage with and involve birth parents.” Her research “addresses how meaningful participatory practices with birth parents at multiple levels in the child welfare system contribute to service improvements or reform, and ultimately positive child, parent, and family outcomes.”