These are the latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Review finds some care plans put in place cause emotional distress to children
• Placing children in state care is not a solution, says President of the Maldives
• Nearly 300 demand South Korea probe their adoptions abroad

Britain’s first parent-led Truth Commission looking at children’s social care is holding its monthly Zoom meeting on Wednesday 14th September from 6pm to 7pm.

Attendees can get involved with the work of the commission and ask its members any questions they wish about the commission during these calls. We’d love you to join us.

This month we’re holding our regular session for families affected by the child protection system, in which we share updates about the Commission’s work and ask for your feedback and suggestions.

In addition to our usual agenda, we will also be offering information and support on how to deal with the impact of the cost of living crisis. The commission understands that this group of families are likely to be among some of the most affected by the crisis, and we want to help.

The commission will answer questions, find resources and offer ideas on how to ease the financial, psychological and emotional burdens associated with the crisis for families.

During the event you will also be able to ask commission lead Michele Simmons, and commission team members Simon Haworth and Natasha Phillips (Researching Reform) questions and provide feedback about the commission’s current projects.

The call will take place on Wednesday 14th September from 6pm to 7pm on Zoom.

If you would like to attend the event, please email the team at truthcommissionuk@gmail.com. The team will also give you information about how to access the conference.

Please confirm you would like to attend the event in your message, and let us know if you are a care-experienced child or parent, social care stakeholder, government affiliate, academic, journalist or member of the public.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Additional links:

• Commission website
• Current available guides
• Free Booklet: Children and their families have rights
• Families’ testimonials

Welcome to another week.

These are the child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Survivor speaks out after Chichester child abuser allowed to visit churches
• Care leavers practical guide to starting university
• Next Children and Families Truth Commission Zoom Chat being held on 14th September

Britain’s first parent-led Truth Commission looking at children’s social care is holding its monthly Zoom meeting on Wednesday 14th September from 6pm to 7pm.

Attendees can get involved with the work of the commission and ask its members any questions they wish about the commission during these calls. We’d love you to join us.

This month we’re holding a session for families looking for information and support on how to deal with the impact of the cost of living crisis for families experiencing the child protection process. The commission understands that this group of families are likely to be among some of the worst affected, and we want to help.

The commission will answer questions, find resources and offer ideas on how to ease the financial, psychological and emotional burdens associated with the crisis for families.

During the event you will also be able to ask commission lead Michele Simmons, and commission team members Simon Haworth and Natasha Phillips (Researching Reform) questions and provide feedback about the commission’s current projects.

The call will take place on Wednesday 14th September from 6pm to 7pm on Zoom.

If you would like to attend the event, please email the team at truthcommissionuk@gmail.com. The team will also give you information about how to access the conference.

Please confirm you would like to attend the event in your message, and let us know if you are a care-experienced child or parent, social care stakeholder, government affiliate, academic, journalist or member of the public.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Additional links:

• Commission website
• Current available guides
• Free Booklet: Children and their families have rights
• Families’ testimonials

These are the latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Kit Malthouse appointed education secretary in first Truss cabinet
• New prime minister urged to boost universal credit to prevent children relying on food banks
• Fuel poverty: Experts warn of ‘humanitarian crisis’ for children stuck in cold homes

These are the latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Global adoption survey gathers more than 200 submissions since launch [Link to Survey]
• People who have been adopted call for changes to protect their human rights (Australia)
• A fifth of adoptees who applied to see birth certificates in 2019 denied access (Ireland)

Welcome to another week.

Following the announcement of an e-petition which asked the government to change the law around parental responsibility (PR), the House of Commons library has published a brief ahead of a debate in Parliament on 12th September about the petition.

The petition asked the government to create an automatic suspension in law of a parent’s rights in relation to their children, if they are found guilty of murdering the other parent. Parliament is required by law to discuss petitions which gather 100,000 signatures or more.

The House of Commons library has offered some helpful information explaining PR, how to acquire it, how it is lost and how it is restricted under certain circumstances.

The brief is added in full below:

“The Children Act 1989 defines parental responsibility as “all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property” (section 3(1)).

Acquiring parental responsibility
Parental responsibility for a child may be acquired in several ways and by a number of different people (including a local authority where a care order has been made).

A child’s biological mother automatically acquires parental responsibility for a child. A child’s biological father also automatically acquires parental responsibility if they were married to, or civil partners of, the mother at the time of the child’s birth. Parents do not lose parental responsibility if they separate or divorce.

A father who is not married to, or a civil partner of, the mother at the time of the birth may acquire parental responsibility in several ways, including:

Subsequently marrying or entering into a civil partnership with the mother.

Being registered as the child’s father on the birth certificate (from 1 December 2003).

Entering into a parental responsibility agreement with the mother.

Successfully applying to the court for an order that they shall have parental responsibility (a parental responsibility order).

In some cases, by being named in a child arrangements order. If the order is for residence, the court must make a separate parental responsibility order at the same time as the child arrangements order. If the order is for contact, the court may do so but does not have to.

Where a child has two female parents (under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008) the parent who did not give birth to the child is treated broadly in the same way as a father in respect of parental responsibility.

Further information, including on the acquisition by a step parent or another person, is provided in section 3 of the Library briefing: Children: parental responsibility – how it’s gained and lost, and restrictions (England and Wales).

Losing parental responsibility
The only circumstances where a child’s mother can lose parental responsibility is as a result of the making of an adoption order or a parental order (in respect of a surrogate child that the mother gave birth to). This is the same where a father or other parent was married to, or civil partners, of the mother.

Where a child’s father or other parent acquired parental responsibility through one of the other means outlined above (eg, by being named on the child’s birth certificate), they can lose parental responsibility through an order of the court to that effect.

Any person with parental responsibility, or the child themselves if they have sufficient understanding, may apply to the court to terminate a parent’s parental responsibility. The principles to be applied when a court is considering whether to revoke parental responsibility were summarised in a 2017 family court judgement. They include:

It should be rare for a father not to be afforded the status of having parental responsibility for their child.

When considering whether to revoke a person’s parental responsibility, the court’s paramount consideration must be the welfare of the child.

There is no requirement for the court to consider the factors set out in section 1(3) of the Children Act 1989 (the ”welfare checklist”) but the court is not prevented from doing so.

The principle that the court should not make an order unless it considers that doing so would be better for the child than making no order at all applies.

There are very limited cases where a court has allowed an application to terminate a father’s parental responsibility. They include:

In a 1995 case, the court terminated the parental responsibility (acquired by a parental responsibility agreement) of a father who had been sent to prison for causing serious injuries to his child.

In a 2013 case, the court removed the parental responsibility of a father who had been imprisoned for sexual abuse of his child’s half-sisters.

In a further case in 2013, the court terminated the parental responsibility of a father who was serving a prison sentence for a violent attack on the child’s mother.

In a 2021 case, the court terminated the parental responsibility of a father who had a significant offending history, including sexual offences against children.

Limiting parental responsibility
The court can also restrict a person’s parental responsibility by making an order that in some way restricts their rights in relation to the child (eg, a prohibited steps order under section 8 of the Children Act 1989).

This applies also to people who cannot have their parental responsibility removed by the court (eg, mothers). In the 2017 case cited above, for example, the court made an order prohibiting a married father from taking any steps in the exercise of any aspect of his parental responsibility in relation to his children.

In addition, when a child is in the care of a local authority (as a result of a care order) the local authority has the power to determine the extent to which the child’s parents may meet their parental responsibility.

References
Hersham and McFarlane, Children Law and Practice, Division A, Section 3.

Commons Library briefing CBP-8760, Children: parental responsibility – how it’s gained and lost, and restrictions (England and Wales).

Children Act 1989, particularly sections 1-4A.”

The petition was created by Edwin John Robert Duggan and has collected more than 129,000 signatures. It will be debated in Parliament on 12th September from 4.30pm, and will be broadcast on Parliament’s YouTube channel. The petition remains open until 19th October, 2022, meaning it can still be signed until then.

Duggan is a law graduate and a close friend of Jade Ward,  a 27-year-old mother-of-four, who was murdered by her estranged husband at her home on August 25, 2021. Russell Marsh was found guilty of murdering Jade this year and received a life sentence. However, he is still legally allowed to receive updates on the children, ask for school reports, and have a say in his children’s upbringing while serving his sentence in prison. Duggan has called the legal proposal “Jade’s Law”.

The government failed to respond to the petition within the accepted timeframe and to address the request directly. These failures were criticised by Petitions Committee Chair Catherine McKinnell MP, in a letter to the Ministry of Justice.

For those interested in the topic, you can watch the debate live or read a transcript of the debate:

Watch the debate (from 4.30pm, Monday 12 September)
Read the debate transcript (available a few hours after the debate has ended)

These are the latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:

• Dozens of the most vulnerable English and Welsh children sent to Scotland
• The little-known rule that means children don’t have to start school when they turn four (Wales)
• Free school meals: Welsh councils reveal which children will be offered them from the start of term

The House of Commons will debate an e-petition asking the government to create an automatic suspension in law of a parent’s rights in relation to their children, if they are found guilty of murdering the other parent. Parliament is required by law to discuss petitions which gather 100,000 signatures or more.

Parental Responsibility is defined in section 3(1) of the Children Act 1989 as being, “all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property”.

The term places an emphasis on parents’ duties towards their child rather than any rights they have over their child.

The petition, which was created by Edwin John Robert Duggan and which has collected more than 129,000 signatures, will be debated in Parliament on 12th September from 4.30pm, and will be broadcast on Parliament’s YouTube channel. The petition remains open until 19th October, 2022, meaning it can still be signed until then.

Duggan is a law graduate and a close friend of Jade Ward,  a 27-year-old mother-of-four, who was murdered by her estranged husband at her home on August 25, 2021. Russell Marsh was found guilty of murdering Jade this year and received a life sentence. However, he is still legally allowed to receive updates on the children, ask for school reports, and have a say in his children’s upbringing while serving his sentence in prison. Duggan has called the legal proposal “Jade’s Law”.

The government failed to respond to the petition within the accepted timeframe and to address the request directly. These failures were criticised by Petitions Committee Chair Catherine McKinnell MP, in a letter to the Ministry of Justice.

In her letter to Lord Chancellor Dominic Raab, she said:

“As I’m sure you are aware, the Government has agreed to provide clear and direct responses to every e-petition that receives over 10,000 signatures. While your department’s response to this petition sets out existing provisions for the exercise of parental responsibility to be limited by the courts, it does not directly respond to the request for the Government to automatically suspend parental responsibility of parents found guilty of murdering the other parent, for the duration of their sentence. The Government’s response to this petition is, therefore, not consistent with the standards that have been agreed between the Committee and the Leader of the House of Commons. It is particularly disappointing that the Government’s response does not directly respond to the request of the petition, as it was almost four weeks late.”

The petition asks the government to:

“Provide a mechanism within existing legislation whereupon a person with parental responsibility (PR) is found guilty of murdering the other parent with PR, has PR automatically suspended throughout the duration of the term of imprisonment of the aforesaid person convicted.

It is acknowledged that there is scope to restrict parental responsibility from a parent through existing legislation, however, this can often be time consuming and for some expensive. The automatic removal of PR will save those, who now care for the surviving children, the added burden of attending numerous court cases to restrict the person holding PR, who would often use these cases as an opportunity to aggravate the process and in so doing cause further distress to the family.”

The government’s response, which was written by the Ministry of Justice and published on June 16, said:

“The court can limit the exercise of parental responsibility, if in the best interests of the child. In the most serious cases this can effectively amount to removing all parental powers and authority.

The Government recognises that in situations where one parent is convicted of the murder of the other parent, the process for restricting parental responsibility from a parent who is imprisoned can be time consuming, and that making or responding to court applications, and attending multiple court hearings on related issues of parental responsibility can often be onerous for those involved.

Current provisions
Under the Children Act 1989, the exercise of parental responsibility held by one or more individuals can already be limited by the court, where to do so is deemed to be in the best interests of the child. The Act also enables the court to prevent individuals bringing multiple unwarranted applications before the court, which can be burdensome and distressing to family members.

Where a child does not have a parent to care for them on a day-to-day basis, members of the family can apply for court orders in private law proceedings, or a local authority might initiate public law care proceedings, with a view to providing for the child’s upbringing. In making such orders the welfare of the child is always the paramount consideration of the court.

In cases where one parent has been convicted of murdering the other, the responsible local authority will have a duty to protect that child and ensure they are safeguarded from harm. This may include initiating care proceedings to provide the child with a permanent or interim care arrangement. A care arrangement can include family members, such as grandparents, aunts or uncles, being granted parental responsibility for the child. Alternatively, a local authority will acquire parental responsibility of the child where the court deems this to be in the best interests of the child.

The court can already exercise powers to effectively remove all parental powers and authority in appropriate cases. The extent to which, and the time period during which such parental rights and powers are limited, are matters for the judge to decide based on the facts of the case.

The court can also exercise powers to prevent an individual attempting to repeatedly bring issues back before the court. Section 91(14) of the Children Act 1989 allows family courts to bar individuals from making further specified applications under the Children Act 1989 without permission of the court. These orders are known as section 91(14) orders. The court can make such an order of its own motion or following an application by one of the parties involved in the private law case.

Once a section 91(14) order is in place, if an applicant subsequently seeks permission to make a relevant Children Act application, the court will generally consider whether the circumstances that gave rise to the barring order have changed. This offers protection to those persons caring for the child, removing the burden and associated distress to family members of having to go back to court multiple times.”

McKinnell will open the debate, and a Minister from the Ministry of Justice will respond on behalf of the Government.

For those interested in the topic, you can watch the debate live or read a transcript of the debate:

• Watch the debate (from 4.30pm, Monday 12 September)
• Read the debate transcript (available a few hours after the debate has ended)

We thought we’d share a little toolkit for families experiencing child protection proceedings through the family courts in England and Wales, as we do from time to time.

While the Researching Reform (RR) site is filled with these resources, sometimes it’s handy not to have to fish around for things.

Below are a few links we think may be of use to families and children:

• The Children and Families Truth Commission, which RR is a member of, and which is the first parent-led commission in the UK looking at the child protection system, offers a range of guides for families including:
  • Children and Their Families Have Rights – all your rights and how to enforce them in a bitesize booklet
  • The Commission’s Guides page, which includes guides on how to make a Subject Access Request, and a booklet on how to make the most of supervised contact if you have had to agree to this form of contact, all written by family court experienced parents
• Finding free or affordable legal help – a useful summary by the Citizens Advice Bureau
• Contact with children in care: what parents should know – an RR post on how to secure your contact and how to make sure contact is not unjustly reduced or stopped
• British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII)- a database with every published family law case, ideal for parents researching their own cases and putting arguments together in court
• Modern law reports and legal cases – The British Library has since been awarded funding to offer cases and law in the same way BAILII has done.

Are you looking for a specific kind of resource or help? Let us know in the comments section and we will add them to this post for you.