Posts
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...
Child Protection Conference – Podcast of panel discussion
On 1 June we were involved in the innovative conference, posing the question : Is our child protection system fit for purpose? With apologies for the delay, you can now download and listen to the audio recording of the afternoon panel discussion involving various...
Adoption Statistics – again (part 2)
In part 1 we responded to a blog post by John Hemming on the Marilyn Stowe blog. We raised some queries which Mr Hemming answered in a blog on his own blog. It's taken us a few days to respond, but here is what we think of that response. Firstly, orientation :...
The journalist who believes that lawyers always lie?
In today's Telegraph, Christopher Booker has written about a case where care and placement orders for two children were made in Rhyl Family Court in April 2014. You can read the judgment on Bailii here. In April, HHJ Gareth Jones said in his judgment: 'The mother has...
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...