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...

McKenzie Friends: a litigant’s guide

By Sarah Phillimore and Paul Magrath The continued reduction in legal aid means that many people going to court are finding they have no choice but to represent themselves or try to get some help from someone other than an expensive lawyer. One such resource is a...

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,...

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”...

Transparency overseas

This weekend I have been at the Family Law Bar Association annual conference at Cumberland Lodge, which this year has an international family law theme. Yesterday we heard two really illuminating presentations from foreign judges, who told us all about how they do...