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Jon Robins reports on how mothers are being offered help to escape the cycle of drug dependence and prostitution and regain custody of their children
"Sally" (not her real name) worked as a prostitute on the streets of Ipswich for seven years to feed a drug habit before finally kicking her addiction in 2004. "I consider myself lucky now," says the 38-year-old mother of six. "I've got my kids back. They might be a handful, but life is back on track."
Sally's is an exceptional story. Last year, 1,120 babies under one month old were taken into care with little prospect of their mothers getting them back – with a devastating effect on those women whose first response is often to have more children. In one case, a family court judge reported removing 14 children from the same mother.
Trying to break that cycle is clearly a massive challenge. Iceni, a winner of last year's Guardian Charity Awards, is an independent drugs treatment centre in Ipswich which has worked with some 21 sex workers leading chaotic lives like Sally's. Of that number, 16 have children – eight of them have had them removed from their mothers' care and eight are being cared for within the extended family.
"Somebody who is coming off drugs can take a lot longer than the timescale that children's services are prepared to give," says Anne Rawcliffe, a social worker at the project. "Six months in the life of a young child is a very long time. They need to get stability for that child as soon as possible whereas for somebody trying to get over a drug addiction, there's no such thing as a quick fix."
Do care proceedings take place too quickly to allow vulnerable mothers to get their lives back on track? "Most of the children that are eventually adopted enter care in under one year, as opposed to one month," reckons Barbara Hutchinson, executive director of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering. The bigger concern, she argues, is how long it takes for the child to be adopted if the birth family cannot provide a secure environment. "Our concern is that in the case of a child coming into the care system at two months, adoption won't take place within the next year. Very often it will be more like four years and that is far too long."
Hutchinson flags up research published last year by academics at Bristol university looking at 386 cases involving 682 children initiated by 15 local authorities. "The research emphasises that there was no evidence to suggest that local authorities opt for care proceedings without good reason," says Hutchinson. "Many of the families had lost the care of children in previous proceedings – 90% had been known to children's service departments for an extensive period and 45% of those for more than five years."
The Manchester Adoption Society has pioneered what is known as "concurrent planning", which means placing children with carers who will later adopt them but only if the child is not returned to the birth family. That carer is under a duty to support the birth parents to take the child back. The focus is on the child and the point is to avoid them being shunted around between carers before a decision is made about the possibility of their return. "Our experience of the vulnerable parents we work with is there is an extremely high risk of children not being returned to them," reports Janet Thomas, manager of the Manchester-based Goodman Team. She puts the "chance of return" in such cases as "between 10% and 13%".
How can a small number manage to succeed but others can't? "One of the things about our concurrency team is that our workers have a low number of cases and they work intensively with parents. We are very clear and honest and open from day one about the consequences of not doing all that's necessary – addressing drug addiction, going to see counsellors about domestic violence, sorting out the home... It is very stark and it is very harsh."
Thomas reckons that, even if that process is unsuccessful, the parents generally view the experience positively and that the process helps them come to terms with the grief of their loss. As for its successes, she says: "Of the eight children that have gone back to the family, none have gone back into the care system."
• This article is part of the Guardian's Justice gap series based on research conducted by the Legal Action Group for its Access to Justice Audit
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