Follow the money Part One

During the investigation of the Watergate scandal by Woodward and Bernstein, their source “Deep Throat” (if you aren’t familiar with this story, don’t google that phrase at work) told them to “Follow the money” It is an accusation often made about child protection...

Lord Neuberger on Transparency

Lord Neuberger, the President of the Supreme Court (the most senior Judge in the most senior court) recently gave a speech on Transparency. You can read the speech on the Supreme Court website here, and a summary on the Skills for Justice site here.

Statistics and emotional harm

Emotional harm is the type of harm to children which divides people most. It is not hard to understand why children shouldn’t be hit or beaten, why they should not be subjected to sexual harm, why parents heroin or alcohol misuse causes problems for children, or that...

Pink Tape Blog

Pink Tape is a blog about family law written by Lucy Reed, one of our contributors. Find it at pinktape.co.uk

Cafcass

‘Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service’  gives us the acronym ‘Cafcass’. The function of Cafcass is to advise the court about what is in the best interests of the child whom it represents in family proceedings. The principal functions of...

Proportionality

  ‘Proportionality’ is the key concept to understanding how family law operates. This comes from Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR). The ECHR has been given ‘direct effect’ into domestic law by the Human Rights...

Care and Supervision Orders

Care and Supervision orders were created by Part IV of the Children Act 1989. On the application of the local authority (LA) or the NSPCC the court can consider making either order if the provisions of section 31 are made out. This requires the judge to be satisfied...

Threshold Criteria

A care or supervision order can only be lawful if the court satisfies a two stage test. The first stage – the threshold stage – there must be sufficient reasons to justify making a care or supervision order, i.e.  the case must cross a threshold. This threshold can...