A few very interesting publications have popped up, so while we were initially going to write a post about one of them today, we have decided to share all three at once, instead.

The rights of children and young people as family members of prisoners, and as prisoners with family members

Oxford University’s law department website has a good blog post on the topic of children’s rights in relation to imprisoned family members, and their rights as prisoners themselves. The post is a summary of a conference given by Scottish charity Families Outside, and is written by Kirsty Deacon, a post doctoral researcher at the University of Strathclyde. The piece is packed with useful links and the names of organisation offering help and support in this area.

You can access the blog post here.

Coronavirus: Separated Families and Contact with Children in Care FAQs (UK)

By far our favourite government-commissioned series at the moment, the House of Commons Library team’s publications on what the law and policy are for children and families experiencing separation should be core reading for anyone working with families in social care. This latest update offers some interesting reminders, including a good summary of what happens when one parent withholds contact, which now advises that anyone seeking to breach a child contact order on “reasonable excuse” grounds should get legal advice before doing so.

You can access the latest briefing here.

HMCTS event on digital family public law service

An online event launched on 4 November by the courts and tribunals service to update the public on the family courts’ reform programme has been recorded and made available to view. The dedicated page for the event on the Gov. website also includes a PDF summary of the Q&A session. The blurb on the page says, “This event provided detail around the digital service for family public law professionals; explaining how the service works, how to subscribe and how it can help local authorities and legal professionals involved in care and supervision proceedings.”

You can watch the session and read the document here.