Posts
It’s wrong to measure the success of local authorities in terms of adoption numbers
Is the government drive to increase the numbers of children adopted from care (as opposed to the speed of decision making and the journey time to an adoptive placement once decision made), wrongly affecting individual placement choice for children? (Part One) This...
A blog post on important issues for children and open justice
This blog post is my summary and analysis of a new report on young people and family court judgments by Julia Brophy, funded by the Association of Lawyers for Children Since 3 February 2014, judicial guidance has required certain judges, hearing certain family cases...
Welcome to new project group members
We are really pleased to welcome two new members to the Transparency Project project group : journalist Louise Tickle and researcher Judith Townend. We think that their involvement will help broaden out our range of expertise and perspectives, to include those working...
Full Fact on Family Law
Guest contribution by Conor James McKinney, Full Fact Writer/Researcher Full Fact is the UK’s only independent factchecking organisation. We check factual claims made by politicians, journalists and pressure groups, and stop misinformation spreading by pressing for...
Workshop on Cross-Border Child Protection
I was very pleased to be invited to this workshop by Dr Claire Fenton-Glynn and Dr Ruth Lamont, to hear them speak along with Dr Julie Doughty, fellow Transparency Project member. Dr Fenton-Glynn in particular has done excellent work in attempting to disseminate...
Louise Tickle v North Tyneside Council – a call for sensible dialogue with the media
An important judgment, Louise Tickle v the Council of the Borough of North Tyeside was published on BAILII last week. It has been reported on the UK Human Rights blog and on Inforrm. This was an application by journalist, Louise Tickle, for permission to publish...
UKIP Policy on Family Courts
An article in The Guardian on 26 October refers to a "Ukip policy paper on opening up the family courts" : Family courts must open up to avoid 'outrageous injustices', warns Ukip. The article itself is selective and uses quite emotive language, and we think it is more...
‘More sensitive and more open’? say Ukip
An article published in The Guardian today reports that the political party Ukip has issued a policy that family courts should be 'more sensitive and more open'. We have not been able to read the policy document yet so cannot comment. However, it is troubling that the...
Accurate reporting of Family cases – A long road lies ahead
On October 21st 2015 The Times published an article by the journalist Mike Pattenden who quotes Jacque Courtnage and me - somewhat to my surprise. I had not realised that our conversation was in fact an interview. Of course, this was very naive of me and I will know...
Hang on a minute, don’t we need to hear from adults adopted as children, if we really want child-centred adoption policy and practice?
The Open Nest held an intriguing conference on Monday as National Adoption Week began: It gave a platform to the voices of some adults who were adopted as children; just at the moment that adoption agencies across England and Wales are filling media channels...