The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Accountability session on sexual abuse in schools and colleges with Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate – Education Committee Session starts at 10am today
• NHS England to launch Long COVID services for children
• UK immigration ‘snooping’ fears in schools

The President of the Family Division, Andrew McFarlane, has launched a two week consultation looking at the types of family court hearings currently being used to hear family cases.

The consultation is open to anyone with experience of the family court or court of protection during the pandemic. This includes public and private family law proceedings, and financial remedy proceedings in divorce and separation cases.

The research will look at remote, hybrid and in-person hearings in the family courts in England and Wales.

The survey will be the third of its kind since the first remote hearings were launched 15 months ago in response to the pandemic and social distancing measures.

The research, which is being carried out by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, aims to “glean insights that will inform how the courts should operate during the ‘recovery’ period,” following the relaxation of social distancing measures in England and Wales.

The press release can be accessed here.

The survey can be accessed here.

The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• DfE extends pupil premium to children with ‘no recourse to public funds’ after legal threat
• Sexual abuse being missed as CSA recording drops to lowest level in 20 years, charity warns
• Petition launched to extend the support children in care receive until they are 18

Provisions in the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 will not go live at the end of the year as planned, following the need to streamline the online divorce platform and give the courts and tribunals service time to implement the legal changes.

The Act simplifies language used in divorce proceedings, removes an immediate requirement to demonstrate fault in divorce petitions and bars the opposing spouse from contesting divorce proceedings.

The pushed back timeline was confirmed following a written question tabled on May 25 and put to the Ministry of Justice about the commencement of the Act’s provisions, by Conservative MP Jane Stevenson.

Replying to the question, Chris Philp MP said:

“The Ministry of Justice is committed to ensuring that the amended digital service allows for a smooth transition from the existing service which has reformed the way divorce is administered in the courts and improved the service received by divorcing couples at a traumatic point in their lives. Following detailed design work, it is now clear that these amendments, along with the full and rigorous testing of the new system ahead of implementation, will not conclude before the end of the year.

The Government recognises the need for clarity on when these important reforms will come into force. This will now be on the common commencement date of 6 April 2022. While this delay is unfortunate it is essential that we take the time to get this right. The new divorce process will work to reduce conflict, which is especially damaging for children, and will reflect work the Government are undertaking through the Reducing Parental Conflict programme. That programme will build the evidence on what works to reduce harmful levels of parental conflict below the threshold of domestic abuse, working with local areas to help them embed support in their local services for families. We will also use this opportunity to strengthen signposting to family mediation as a means to resolve arrangements for children and the division of assets on divorce.”

A helpful summary of the current law, and the new Act can be found in this article by law firm Streathers.

The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• New survey asks UK adoptees if they want to revoke their adoption orders
• Child poverty by constituency
• How to opt out of the NHS data grab

Welcome to another week.

The  Family Procedure Rule Committee – a body which makes operational rules for the family courts in England and Wales – has appointed five new members, and reappointed another.

Two barristers and two solicitors are now on the committee, and one social worker has also been appointed. The head of Cafcass’ legal department has been reappointed. The term runs for three years until the committee elects or reelects its members.

The announcement on the government’s website says the committee’s aim is “to make clear, easily understandable rules to create an accessible, fair and efficient family justice system.”

You can access the press release here.

The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Going through hell as a child in the care system made me want to help young people in need – Chris Wild
• Schools Catch-Up Tsar Quits Saying Gavin Williamson ‘Failing’ Children
• Women and children ‘to suffer the most’ under Priti Patel’s asylum reforms

Several important family law judgments have been published, including a case which overturned established precedent on discharging care orders, and proceedings which resulted in a step-parent adoption being upheld – despite significant failures by the judge to apply the correct laws to the issues.

In a judgment handed down in TT (Children) [2021], last week, the judge held that the discharge of care orders must be made according to the Children Act 1989’s welfare principle (that the child’s welfare must be the court’s paramount consideration), and not the tests that had been applied in a previous case. There is a very good summary of the case on Community Care, which also explains how evidence about attachment theory should be considered.

A judgment published in April, offered guidance on the use of special guardianship orders and care orders together. The children to whom the SGO applies are twin sisters. Their special guardian is their former step-father, K. The appellant was the girls’ mother. The judgment can be accessed on Bailii.

And a judge who failed entirely to apply the relevant case law and provisions within s 46(6) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, had his decision upheld by the Court of Appeal (Civil Division), because he had, unwittingly, come to what the Court of Appeal believed was the correct conclusion. The case featured a forced adoption, applied for by a step-parent. There is a very helpful summary of this case on LexisNexis, and for those who do not have access to the resource, the judgment can be found on the Judiciary UK website.

The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Evidence-based child abuse screening tool trialled (US) – calls for routine screening for child abuse in clinical practice
• Three men, four women accused of sexually abusing three children go on trial (Ireland)
• Houthis using waves of children in assaults on Marib front line (Yemen)