Member

I also wholeheartedly agree that family networks should be offered and have the chance to benefit from the transformative family group decision-making process at multiple points in their journey with children’s services, including from their earliest point of contact. As I previously said and want to reiterate, current statutory guidance makes this clear, and we will continue to encourage this. However, as we have also discussed, there is robust evidence from research that shows that children can be diverted from care when family decision-making is offered at the pre-proceedings stage, which is why we are legislating that an offer must be made at this important stage.