Posts
Consultation on court rules: children & vulnerable witnesses
You can read all about the introduction of what is to be Part 3A of the court rules here and here. We continue to be concerned about the lack of clarity in the reports, the draft rules, and generally what is intended with regard to participation of children and...
Update on ‘Adoption Targets’
The continuing quest to get to the bottom of performance measurement and target setting about adoption at national, regional and local level. We have definitely not yet reached the bottom! (Whatever is or is not down there) This is an update to Lies, damn lies and...
Experts seeking permission to disclose documents from care proceedings
In the case I am writing about here, the court has refused permission to a psychiatrist to disclose documents from care proceedings, and other documents held by the General Medical Council (GMC), into the public domain. I am going to use the word ‘irony’ a lot. I have...
Lies, damn lies and statistics
Is the drive to get children out of state care and into adoptive families having an impact on decision making in care proceedings? This is a collective post by the Transparency Project Adoption Targets? The debate about the merits or otherwise of adoption...
House of Commons Research Briefing : Confidentiality and openness in the family courts: current rules and history of their reform
This document was updated and republished in September 2015. It contains a useful summary of the history of reform and debate in this area. It can be found on the House of Commons website.
Jigsaw identification and responsible reporting
In a judgment published on Bailii last week, called H v A (No.2), Mr Justice MacDonald had to consider a very risky situation that had potentially arisen because of the current Family Court guidance about publishing judgments. This case illustrates an interesting...
How do Local Authorities approach parents who want to record meetings?
In June, we made a raft of freedom of information act requests to each local authority in England and Wales. We asked them whether they had any policy in respect of parents’ recording meetings with social workers, or any plans to develop one. The results were really...
Judge removes child from disabled mother over costs of care – allegedly
The Telegraph reports : Judge removes child from disabled mother over costs of care. The sub-heading reads : Boy removed from disabled mother’s care over costs as judge dismisses an allegation of ‘social engineering’. We wondered how accurate the headline and body...
Adoption Statistics – Again – Part 3
Hopefully this will be the final installment of what has become something of a marathon. Context : Firstly, orientation : The original Marilyn Stowe blog is here. Our original reply is here (part 1). Mr Hemming’s response on his blog is here (23/8). Our part 2 is...
What’s the story?
The reporting of complex family court judgments. We are grateful for this guest post from Sanchia Berg, a reporter for Radio 4’s Today programme. She covers major news stories and also delivers original journalism- notably in fields of Education, Immigration, History...