Family Members' Experiences of the Care and Protection Family Group Conferences Process

Bryony Walker

The Children, Young Persons and their Families Act 1989 brought about considerable changes to the way youth justice and care and protection responsibilities are managed by statutory agencies.

This paper reports on a research project carried out on experiences of Pākehā family members who were involved in statutory care and protection proceedings, specifically the Family Group Conference (FGC), under the Act.

The paper first presents background on the Act and gives a brief account of how the research was carried out. It then describes the findings of the study, focusing on which aspects of the Act were working well and which were not working well from the point of view of family members involved in FGCs.

The results show that for many families the FGC was a positive experience that helped them to resolve their care and protection difficulties. Aspects that worked well included the improvement of family members’ relationships, the co-ordinator’s effective management of the conference to ensure participation by everyone, and help and support from the social worker. In contrast, some family groups experienced difficulties with the process or with achieving a positive outcome. The paper finishes with a discussion of the main conclusions.