The latest court reform event, which enables child protection professionals to learn more about the modernisation programme for the family courts in England and Wales, invites people to send in questions about the proposed changes.

But the event invite does not extend to service users, whose input is arguably the most important, and says “the session is aimed at local authorities, legal professionals, professional court users (judges and lawyers) and the third sector”, so this site is encouraging families and children to submit questions instead.

The invitation, which doubles up as a registration portal, explains that the webinar will offer insight into the court system’s work modernising the system so far. The session will also provide updates on the latest changes made, which include tests carried out on a new digital process allowing local authorities to make applications for care and supervision orders online.

The new processes were tested at the start of 2019, with a few local authorities and family courts. The invite says the pilots involved working closely with local authorities, CAFCASS/CAFCASS Cymru, the judiciary and “people involved in the family courts”, though it is not clear whether this group includes families and children with family court experience.

During the event, viewers will be able to submit questions and the presenters will then answer a selection of questions in real time. However, questions can also be emailed in advance, to changesomethingthatmatters@justice.gov.uk.

The services that are being tested are set to be rolled out across the whole of England and Wales in the new year.

For anyone unable to watch the webinar on the day, the session will be recorded.

The online event takes place on Thursday January 23, 2020 from 1pm-2pm.

Register to attend.

The Courts and Tribunals Service has launched an event to showcase its latest updates to the court system and it has opened the conference to the public.

The changes to the system are part of a £1bn reform programme, which covers family, criminal and civil courts as well as tribunals.

According to the invitation for the event, the programme has now reached its halfway point. It is not clear whether the halfway point refers to the amount of work completed or the time period the reform programme has to complete its updates.

The conference itself will include presentations and market stalls, and will also give people the chance to ask questions to individuals who are leading the programme’s development.

The event takes place on Tuesday 5th November, at the Ministry of Justice in London, and runs from 9.15am to 1.30pm.

The invitation says places are limited and registration is required to express an interest in the first instance. The team will then contact you to confirm attendance or to notify you that you’ve been added to a waiting list.

The Eventbrite page can be accessed here.

A free event organised by the Centre for Child and Family Justice (CFJ) and the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (FJO) will look at the preservation of family ties with children inside the care system.

The event, “Children in Care: Preserving Family Connections?” will look at new research from the UK and Australia focusing specifically on questions around family connections for children in care.

The programme includes sessions on trends and patterns relating to children and how they enter the care system in Australia and England; how contact and reunification between birth families and their children are dealt with in both countries; and alternatives to child removal.

There is a session at the end of the day which offers responses from birth parents too.

Attendees will be given a copy of the new rapid evidence review on Special Guardianship, published by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, (which you can download here without having to attend the event).

The CFJ will also share updates on its upcoming events, Nuffield FJO plans and new research projects. (You can follow new projects as they are launched here).

The event is taking place on 19th September from 10am-5pm at Forrest Hills in Lancashire. The venue is located next to Lancaster University, the institution which currently runs the Centre for Child and Family Justice.

You can sign up for the day’s sessions on the CFJ’s Eventbrite page. 

If you have any queries about the event, you can contact Chris Millan at chris.millan@lancaster.ac.uk.

The House of Commons library has published a briefing paper for a debate on youth services in England, Wales and Scotland, being held in parliament today.

The pack is 23 pages long, and includes information on the statutory duties and responsibilities held by local authorities in relation to the provision of youth services; funding for these services; and the impact of reduced council budgets on youth services around the country.

Very interesting questions and comments around youth services asked in the House of Commons by MPs in July are a fascinating addition to this pack, which also confirmed that the Government would review its guidance on the statutory duty for local authorities to provide youth services.

The review was launched on 10th July. 

The questions also confirm that the Prime Minister’s knife crime task force has only met twice, and that the Home Office would be publishing draft guidance on the operation of Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPOs) for public consultation in the near future.

Here are some extracts:

Asked by: Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)

The Home Secretary really should be ashamed of himself. If he comes to a place such as Huddersfield and other towns in West Yorkshire, which my right hon. Friend the Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper) has just mentioned, he will find that it is about not only diverting young people from violence, gangs and crime, but tackling extremist views early on. If the Government dismantle local government youth services, they cannot just pass the responsibility across to community associations and think that is okay.

Answered by: Sajid Javid | Conservative Party | Department: Home Department

The hon. Gentleman should know that we have done a great deal since 2000 to support community projects, including youth community projects. I mentioned earlier the £63 million that we put into the “Building a Stronger Britain Together” programme. That is through the Home Office alone, but much more is going on through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Department for Education and local government. He mentions Huddersfield. Just last week, I had the pleasure of meeting a young man called Jamal, who was the victim of racism, a form of extremism, in the hon. Gentleman’s own constituency. I had the opportunity to welcome him to our great country and to tell him that what happened to him in Huddersfield in no way represents the people of our great nation.

Asked by: Lord Roberts of Llandudno | Party: Liberal Democrats

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support youth services working to deter young people from crime, and violent crime in particular.

Answering member: Lord Ashton of Hyde | Party: Conservative Party | Department: Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Youth services and their strategic partners provide crucial preventative and targeted interventions and are an important partner in the strategy to tackle serious violence. My Department allocated over £863m between 2014/15 and 2018/19 to youth programmes providing positive activities for young people.

The Home Office’s £200m Youth Endowment Fund will deliver a ten-year programme of grants enabling interventions targeted at those who are most at risk of involvement in crime and violence in England and Wales. This follows an investment of £22m by the Home Office between 2018/19 and 2019/20 through the Early Intervention Youth Fund to support community services which deter young people from violent crime.

Her Majesty’s Government will continue to work together closely to implement the Home Office’s Serious Violence Strategy.

You can watch the debate here.