Barristers in the south of England running a child protection project have added Researching Reform to a list of ‘undesirables’ within the child welfare sector.

The list also includes the Ministry of Justice.

In a post by Child Protection Resource entitled “Information about the Family Justice System: Who can you trust?” The project alleges that the Ministry of Justice:

“Easily make the cut following their bizarre decision to launch an Inquiry over 3 months into how issues of violence are dealt with in the family courts… and that law and policy are best discussed in the context of a raft of subjective and unchecked submissions from the pubic.” (We think the authoress means public).

Although the authoress says in the post that the observations are based in fact, we found very little evidence to support that claim.

Also on the blacklist is former MP John Hemming, who campaigned for family court reform and was in part responsible for making the public aware of issues inside the system through the national media. The authoress claims the following:

“I have no doubt [John] caused a lot of damage while a serving MP as his position gave him credibility. However his influence appears to have diminished since he lost his seat in 2015.”

No details about the kind of damage he is alleged to have done have been given. On another note, the careless comment could also open up the site and its managers to a defamation law suit.

As for Researching Reform, the site alleges the following:

” [Natasha] Runs the Researching Reform Website. Has connections with Hemming and at one point made Sabine McNeil her ‘star commentator’. As the comments on her web posts shows, she continues to interact largely with those who are identified ‘players’ on the conspiracy scene.”

Sabine was never earmarked or set apart from the many thousand commentators who have left thoughts on the site, and was never given star status. We consider all of our posters equal in discussion, and because we believe in freedom of expression we allow everyone to have their say.

While we haven’t engaged with John Hemming for quite some time, we did create, organise and execute all of his APPG meetings on family law. You can take a look at a summary of one of the meetings over on Family Law Week.

As for ‘players on the conspiracy scene’, once again, we allow all points of view on the site. That, of course, does not mean that we automatically condone them.

Researching Reform engages with every voice inside the system, from members of the House of Lords and House of Commons, who we have briefed for over a decade on child welfare issues, to families, charities and perpetrators of abuse, including offending paedophiles.

It is part of our remit to engage with as many voices as we can, and of fundamental importance in trying to understand the dynamics inside the child welfare sector.

The blog is at best garbled gibberish, and it’s a shame that the collective behind Child Protection Resource approved the post.

Despite the silliness of this effort, we will continue to signpost people to the project’s website, as it offers often, interesting and informative content about the child welfare sector.

Many thanks to Legal Action for Women for alerting us to this post.