Current UK government policy is to promote mediation as a way of avoiding family
court proceedings and there is a risk, therefore, that welfare report-writing
practice may receive less critical attention than it merits. A largely unstudied
aspect of this practice is the significance given by practitioners to the
child's age. More widely, across a broad academic and policy canvas,
preoccupying concerns with children's rights, their ability to participate
and their individuality have shifted attention away from questions about the age
relatedness of competence. Two sets of findings from recent research are presented
in this article: first, statistical data relating to the age of children involved in
welfare report enquiries; and, second, data drawn from a qualitative study of how
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