The use of experts in child care proceedings in England and Wales: benefits, costs and controls
The use of experts in child care proceedings in England and Wales: benefits, costs and controls
复制标题
英格兰和威尔士儿童保育程序中专家的使用：收益、成本和控制
DOI：
10.1053/spen.2001.29475
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发表时间：
2010
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
J. M. Ma
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
J. M. Ma
为了孩子而将儿童从父母身边带走“S的保护在英格兰和威尔士仍然是一个极具争议的实践领域，尽管有强有力的法律框架(1989年《儿童法》)和公认的标准和程序。公众和司法机构都对地方当局的社会工作者缺乏信心，这些社会工作者是识别国家干预案件的第一线工作者。实施保护措施的法律程序--从家庭内部的监督到陌生人的收养--由普通治安法官或专业法官审理，既有审问特点，也有控诉特点，每一方(地方当局、母亲、父亲和孩子)都由国家支付费用的律师代表。严重依赖专家，90%以上的案件有专家证据。法律援助系统的费用非常高--每年约6,500个案件的总费用为2亿加元，而专家费据称约为4000万加元。还有一个长期的关切是，对专家的依赖拖延了案件--这些诉讼程序从申请到最终审理的平均时间超过一年，这是有关儿童一生中相当长的一段时间，其中一半的儿童年龄在5岁以下。使用来自两个主要的护理程序研究的数据，一个是定量的，另一个是定性的，这篇论文探索了专家的使用。理论上，法院控制专家的使用，但在实践中，这几乎总是得到当事人的同意，很少受到法院的限制。照料诉讼制度已经变得依赖于专家，不仅需要获得复杂领域的专家信息，如是否故意造成伤害，而且还需要了解儿童“S的需求”和家长S满足这些需求的能力，这些信息通常可以从地方当局获得。专家的使用赢得了时间(在此期间，父母可能会改变他们的生活方式)，并提供独立性。专家报告提供
The removal of children from their parents for children‟s protection remains a highly contentious area of practice in England and Wales despite a strong legal framework (Children Act 1989) with accepted standards and procedures. Both the public and the judiciary have little confidence in local authority social workers, the frontline workers who identify cases for state intervention. Legal proceedings to impose protective measures, which range from supervision within the family to adoption by strangers, are heard by either lay magistrates or professional judges, combining both inquisitorial and accusatorial features, with each party (local authority, mother, father and child) represented by lawyers paid for by the state. There is heavy reliance on experts, with over 90% of cases having expert evidence. The costs to the legal aid system are very high – around 6,500 cases a year cost a total of £200 million, with experts‟ fees stated to be around £40 million. There has also been longstanding concern that dependence on experts delays cases – the average length of these proceedings from application to final hearing exceeds 1 year, which is a substantial period in the life of the children concerned half of whom are under the age of 5 years. Using data from two major studies of care proceedings, one quantitative and the other qualitative, the paper explores the use of experts. Theoretically the court controls the use of experts but, in practice, this is almost always agreed by the parties and rarely limited by the court. The care proceedings system has become dependent on experts, not only for expert information in complex areas such as whether injuries were deliberately caused but also about children‟s needs and parent‟s capacity to meet them, which is often available from the local authority. The use of experts buys time (during which parents may make changes to their lifestyle) and supplies independence. Expert reports provide