The case studies

The case studies aimed to provide an in-depth understanding of how and why the SGO came about, from the perspectives of guardians and children, and of how events have unfolded

subsequently. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 special guardians (drawn from 60 SGs from the survey sample who expressed their willingness to take part) and with 10 of their index children.

Criteria for the interview sample included:

• Area – to ensure a spread across each local authority.

• Child’s age - children were not interviewed below the age of 9.

• Whether the arrangement was ’in-tact’ or had ended (all of these latter cases, where possible, were included).

• Whether or not the guardian was a relative – to ensure the perspectives of unrelated foster carers were also included.

Although the number of factors that could be taken into account when recruiting a small number of cases was necessarily limited, we were also mindful of some other factors:

• Age of special guardians.

• Children’s special needs (child interviews only at discretion of guardian).

• Ethnicity and matching.

Interviews with children were designed to explore their understanding of Special Guardianship and the meaning this has for them, their perceptions about how they were getting on in their lives and feelings of belonging and permanence. Interviews also aimed to explore children’s feelings about the degree to which their wishes had been taken into account, their experience of children’s services involvement and their feelings about the contact and relationships they have with birth parent(s) or other family members with whom they are not resident. Children were also asked about their transition to their Special Guardianship family, what (if any) difference Special

Guardianship had made to their lives and what (if anything) could be done to make this transition and their subsequent experiences easier. Because of the nature and content of the interviews, a decision was taken to only interview children aged nine years and over. Where a carer agreed to be interviewed but it was not thought appropriate to interview their child because of either age or other circumstances, we carried out a guardian-only interview.

Interviews with guardians explored their views on:

• The circumstances and motivations that gave rise to Special Guardianship;

• Their experience of the application process and the role of different agencies during this period;

• The arrangements that have been made to provide financial or other forms of support and their experiences over time (including views about decisions to close cases or terminate services);

• How things have gone for the child and the family since the making of the order, including their relationship with SG family members and progress at school;

• Contact and relationships with the child’s birth parent(s); whether support was needed to manage contact and whether it was received (in their view) appropriately;

• Where arrangements had formally ended (the child had moved on) or had been informally adjusted (to include shared care arrangements), how and why this had come about and what had been the implications for them and their child;

• The nature of Special Guardianship and similarities and differences between this and other forms of parenting (adoption, fostering or ‘birth’ parenting);

• Issues that may need to be tackled to make Special Guardianship more effective.

2.5.1 Recruitment of the case study sample

Special guardians who had consented to interview and were selected from our survey sample were contacted by telephone by the project researcher allocated to their interview. The guardian was reminded about the project and consent to take part in an interview was re-confirmed. Where a guardian was happy to take part in an interview, they were given the choice of a telephone or face-to-face interview. An information pack and consent form was sent to them in the post in advance of the interview to provide further information. After going through the purpose of the interview and the use and storage of the interview data with the guardian, informed written consent was requested. With the guardian’s permission interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Where a guardian cared for a child aged nine or over, they were asked to pass on an information pack to their child. All interviews with children and young people were carried out face-to-face. Other procedures were the same as with the guardian interviews. To facilitate discussion, children were asked as part of their interview to draw an eco-map of the people in their family.

Twenty guardians were originally selected to take part in an interview. Three of these carers subsequently declined or could not be contacted, therefore we selected a further three guardians with a similar case history. Sixteen cases were still intact at follow-up and four were not. Two of these represented the child ‘moving on’ in young adulthood. The other two involved scenarios where a breakdown in relationships had occurred. Only one eligible young person still resident with their guardian declined to take part. In the two cases where young adults had moved on, the guardian asked them if they would be happy to be interviewed, but they declined. In the two ‘breakdown’ cases the guardians did not have regular contact with the children concerned and it was not possible to arrange to speak to them.

Fifteen of the guardians were relative carers and the remainder had been unrelated foster carers. The ages of the guardians ranged from 27-69 and the dates their SGOs were granted ranged from

2006-2010.8 Overall, the sample of children was aged 6-19 at time of interview (although those interviewed directly were aged 10-17) and 11 were female. Nine had been placed together with at least one sibling and four were reported to have recognised additional physical or mental health needs.