Having written previously about This Bill and the concerns we have surrounding it’s overly simplistic approach to child abuse, we can’t say we’re surprised that this Bill appears to be somewhat suspended.
The Bill’s home page on Parliament’s website tells us:
The Bill was not moved for debate on 17 January 2014. The order to read the Bill a second time lapsed. There is no indication when the Bill will progress further.
The Bill was presented to Parliament through the ballot procedure on 19 June 2013.
If you wish to know more about this bill please contact its sponsor, Mr Mark Williams.
We did try previously to contact Mark for more information on this Bill, but he was not available for comment. (That just means he failed to respond to our tweet on the matter). Private Members’ Bills often do not make headway in the House of Commons, but this particular Bill appears to have stalled before it started.
It was a pretty poorly drafted Bill. We can’t say we’re sorry it appears to be dead in the water, but we do hope that some real change on the ground will take place at some point so that vulnerable children are protected properly.
UPDATED 22nd January, 2014: The Bill now appears to have a provisional sitting for its second reading marked down for the 28th February. Watch this space.
Researching Reform 
Look at what our friends are doing.
http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed63055
Last time we got all the parents groups in the UK to attack CafCass & now the professionals are having a go.
The Multi Organisational Response 27th January 2006
http://www.ukfamilylawreform.co.uk/themultiorganisationalresponse27thjanuary2006.htm
We have a solicitor who has now joined our free group & what we need ideally is at least one person from each of the other groups to join ours so we can coordinate our efforts.
ukfamilylawreform-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk
http://www.ukfamilylawreform.co.uk/
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Hi David, I could be wrong, but I think that position statement was made in 2010. Do let me know if I’ve made a mistake.
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Cafcass data reveals fall in care application numbers….. but it’s not a lot!
Cafcass received with fewer care applications in 2013 than 2012
Statistics released by Cafcass have revealed that the organisation received 7,896 care applications between April and December 2013.
This is a 4% drop on the same period in 2012, when there were 8,190 applications.
The figures also show that the 2013 calendar year had fewer care applications than 2012, with 10,813 applications in 2013 compared to 10,902 in 2012.
This represents the first fall in the number of care applications during a calendar year since 2008.
However, they do not tell of how many of those care applications were rejected by the courts and the children went home or to grandparents or the case was dropped? I suspect not many!
Meanwhile Cafcass are continuing to make their presence felt …….
…. the number of private law cases received by Cafcass rose 7% between April and December 2013 compared to the same period in 2012.
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Reblogged this on Parents Against Injustice..
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Foodbanks in the UK
EMP v.3.1.0.r749603_749269_749444_6
http://www.trusselltrust.org/real-stories
Biggest ever increase in UK foodbank use:
170% rise in numbers turning to foodbanks in last 12 months
Trussell Trust foodbanks have seen the biggest rise in numbers given emergency food since the charity began in 2000. Almost 350,000 people have received at least three days emergency food from Trussell Trust foodbanks during the last 12 months, nearly 100,000 more than anticipated and close to triple the number helped in 2011-12.
Rising cost of living, static incomes, changes to benefits, underemployment and unemployment have meant increasing numbers of people in the UK have hit a crisis that forces them to go hungry. This dramatic rise in foodbank usage predates April’s welfare reforms, which could see numbers increase further in 2013-14.
346,992 people received a minimum of three days emergency food from Trussell Trust foodbanks in 2012-13, compared to 128,697 in 2011-12 and up from 26,000 in 2008-09. Of those helped in 2012-13, 126,889 (36.6 percent) were children.
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/child-poverty/uk-child-poverty
Families living in severe poverty often have to choose between heating and eating as they struggle to live on less than £15,000 a year for a household of a couple and two children.
The coalition government says it’s committed to ending child poverty by 2020. To meet the goals set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010, the government needs to lift approximately 100,000 children out of poverty each year for the next 10 years.
Well that didn’t happen!!!!
http://www.bing.com/search?q=child+poverty+in+the+uk+201&form=MSNH90&mkt=en-gb&qs=n&sk=&pc=U219&x=120&y=14
“British children face much higher rates of poverty
than many other similarly wealthy EU countries and there is no reason why British
children should suffer more than their European neighbours”.
How can the government justify the billions paid out to take children into care but let millions of children live in poverty in the UK?
What exactly is the government doing to help ALL the kids in the UK?
By taking kids unnecessarily into care they clog up the system for those that truly need to be there. They dilute the resources to bring the child up properly and while there are so many kids in care they lose track of them, they go missing and no one reports them gone and abuses happen, as no one makes proper checks on those who profess to care for the kids out of the goodness of their hearts! Oh, and the money helps too!
http://news.sky.com/story/955374/abuse-of-care-home-children-truly-horrific
WATCH VIDEO Tim Loughton, the children’s minister (no longer)
The deputy children’s commissioner warns of violence and sadism in care homes as new reforms are announced.
If the Deputy Children’s Commissioner is saying it, must be true! Did anything change?
Care Home Abuse: Trouble Spots
Updated: 6:07am UK, Tuesday 03 July 2012
Tim Loughton, the children’s minister, has said there are areas where children in care homes are most at risk.
:: Rochdale
– The town in Greater Manchester saw two cases of child grooming rings earlier this year. Some of the girls targeted had been in care.
:: Fylde district in Lancashire, which includes the town of Lytham Saint Annes and parts of Blackpool
– A 14-year-old girl disappeared in Blackpool in 2003. She is thought to have been murdered. A police report into her disappearance warned of widespread child sexual abuse and prostitution in the seaside town.
:: Margate in Kent
– Many children from surrounding areas have been put in care homes here.
Tip of the iceberg? Shame on the government for not collating ALL abuse, alleged or otherwise with a breakdown of type of abuse and their ages, all children in care deaths and the cause and how many children go missing from care on a monthly basis.
We know about some of the abuses by hospital and care home staff …
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17810136
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/care-home-abuse-watchdog-failed-803656
…If this can happen to elderly people who are ill in the “care” of those deemed fit to look after them, what about the ill-treatment in foster homes where no official body does checks? How can social workers assess the foster homes when they have a vested interest?
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https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/social-mobility-and-child-poverty-commission
Link to more recent info.
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