Posts
Press Release: #CPConf2016
How do we keep children safe and families intact when the social care system is no longer fit for purpose? The Transparency Project is pleased to support the second conference to discuss how best to keep children safe and families intact on Friday 3 June at the Priory...
Court of Protection pilot scheme: finding out what the case is about
Following my first experience of attending a Court of Protection hearing in public under the pilot scheme, described in an earlier post, I attended another case hearing last week to see how far it would follow the same pattern, and whether I could pick up some more...
Family courts in the headlines this week
Family courts hit the mainstream news headlines this week. Here is a brief summary of transparency related matters. Dr Waney Squier and expertise on non-accidental head injuries and babies The esoteric subject of an expert witness in the family courts came up, because...
An exercise in collaborative drafting….section 20 guidance
UPDATE FEB 2017 : In light of the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Hackney v Williams (see here) we will be looking at our guidance note to see if it needs amendment or updating. At The Transparency Project we tend to draft collaboratively, which can be a bit...
Social Media Evidence in Family Proceedings
I attended this very popular event organised by the London Family Justice Board at the Law Society this week. The large Common Room was packed. Unfortunately due to train issues I missed the very beginning and had to rush off before the end of questions but...
Poppi Worthington – legal aid
There have been a number of news reports today concerning the grant of legal aid to the father of Poppi Worthington, who was named by a judge as having sexually assaulted his daughter before she died. They are in very similar terms in (for example) The Times and The...
Court of Protection pilot scheme: an experiment in greater transparency
This post follows my experience attending a Court of Protection hearing for the first time, under its new transparency pilot. The last few years have seen a gradual process of opening up the Family Courts to greater public scrutiny, partly to comply better with the...
Guidance on use of voluntary accommodation (“section 20”) published
UPDATE FEB 2017 : In light of the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Hackney v Williams (see here) we will be looking at our guidance note to see if it needs amendment or updating. Following on from the guidance about recording that we published in December 2015,...
Guidance on use of section 20 accommodation
This guidance note was updated in April 2017. Download section 20 guidance
Choosing our words carefully
Louise Tickle's article about "Annie" (or Surviving Safeguarding as she is known on her blog) was published this weekend : ‘I saw his fluffy little head going out the door’: one woman's fight to keep her baby - Annie’s son was removed from her just days after he was...