‘Why should we talk to you? You'll only tell the Court!’ On being an informer and a family therapist

The family therapy literature recognizes the constraints imposed on a therapist's freedom and impartiality in a statutory agency. This paper shows that clinical settings that are apparently independent are not free of such constraints. The wider professional welfare system has confused expectations of a clinical agency that it should provide simultaneously both therapy and a measure of social control. An account is given of one hospital-based family therapy team's struggles to find manoeuvrability in child-focused statutory cases, so as to be helpful both to families and referrers. One method of working is illustrated with a case example.