When Transparency Goes Wrong

This weekend a judgment from care proceedings was published on BAILII, late on Friday night. This is not unusual. But what was unusual was the fact that it was a judgment relating to a fact finding hearing in respect of sexual abuse to a young child, in which all the...

Adoption – where are we now?

Varying views and concerns have emerged in the weeks following the publication of the government paper on adoption in England. The policy landscape is still far from clear or agreed. The Supreme Court judgment published this week, on whether it is in the best...

New “child-friendly” court design

Readers may recall last year’s Report of the Vulnerable Witnesses & Children Working Group (March 2015) (the “Hayden / Russell Working Group”) which recommended at para 34: “The need for greater transparency has been a leitmotif of recent modernisation of family...