Posts
Child whose parents played too many video games ‘removed from family home’ – the fuller story
Earlier this week we highlighted reports in the press suggesting that a Sun "probe" had uncovered that children were being removed because their parents played too many video games. See Julie D's post : Press reporting random scare stories helps no-one. We were pretty...
Press reporting random scare stories helps no-one
A particularly irritating example of opaque reporting came up under #familylaw on twitter yesterday. According to this story in the Telegraph, Child whose parents played too many video games 'removed from family home' Social Services said to have believed their...
Survey
Just prior to the Child Protection Conference that we were involved with in June we put together a survey for participants and others with experience of the Child Protection to complete. We had high hopes for it. This post is an update on how it went with the survey....
Adoption Statistics – again
John Hemming, former MP, has recently written a blog post on the Marilyn Stowe blog, called Adoption - A look at the statistics, in which he says : In the year to 31 March 2014 5,050 children left care through adoption, and of these 2,400 were “non consensual” or...
Guest post by David Burrows: Vulnerable individuals and children in family proceedings – consultation
Consultation on draft amendment rules From at least last summer, the people who run the family courts have been concerned about the roles of children’s evidence and views in family proceedings; and the participation in proceedings of ‘vulnerable’ individuals (see...
Transparency Toolkit
This toolkit was prepared by Alice Twaite and Lucy Reed in May 2015. It gives an overview of some transparency related issues in the Family Court. Download Toolkit You are free to use, copy and circulate it, but it does not contain legal advice and it may not be...
How do I make an application to the court to allow me to publish information about family proceedings?
Part of the aims of the Transparency Project is to gather resources to help others to promote openness and hence greater understanding about how the family court system works. I am attempting to start the ball rolling with my suggestions as to what could usefully be...
And yet more opprobrium heaped on social workers..
This has been pretty horrible week for anyone interested in children's services and family justice, what with the closure of BAAF and the controversy around Kids Company. And yet more criticism of social workers... Although I'm all for transparency, I'm not personally...
Wigan Borough Council v Fisher – a Judgment about transparency
Wigan Borough Council v Fisher & Ors v Fisher & Thomas (Rev 1) [2015] EWFC 34 (21 April 2015) is a decision of Mr Justice Peter Jackson in which he considers whether a judgment in care proceedings should be published. The interesting features of it are : The...
Fields v Fields – A judgment dealing with transparency issues
This judgment of Mr Justice Holman was published in June. You can read it in full on BAILII here : Fields v Fields (Rev 1) [2015] EWHC 1670 (Fam) (04 June 2015). It is a decision made in financial remedy proceedings (sorting out the finances after separation of a...