20 Friday Mar 2020
Posted in Researching Reform, The Buzz
The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:
19 Thursday Mar 2020
Posted in Researching Reform, Voice of the Child Podcast
For our seventh Voice of the Child podcast we investigate whether councils and adoption and fostering agencies are breaking the law when they advertise children online.
Despite legislation which makes it clear that birth mums and dads with parental responsibility should be consulted on every significant decision relating to their child, local authorities and agencies are routinely failing to involve parents in the advertising process.
Whether through a lack of understanding, or a desire to ensure birth parents don’t cause difficulties during the placement process, most parents are never consulted about their children being advertised online.
And no one is asking those children how they feel about being exposed on the internet.
Simon Haworth, an expert and lecturer on social work, speaks to the Voice of the Child about the law and process behind this policy and why he feels adoption and fostering placements need to be reformed.
You can listen to the Voice of the Child here.
Let us know what you think of the podcast in our comments section, Facebook page, or on Twitter using the hash tag #VOTC.
From the podcast:
Adoption Agency Marketing Children On Facebook Sparks Public Fury
Ombudsman Decision: London Borough of Bromley (18 015 715)
17 Tuesday Mar 2020
Posted in News, Researching Reform
The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:
16 Monday Mar 2020
Posted in Family Law, Researching Reform
Family proceedings being heard in the Court of Appeal will be broadcast online so the public can watch, in a legal first for such cases.
However, the proceedings will be streamed with a 90 second time delay to allow court clerks to stop the transmission, so that the hearings will not be streamed in real-time.
The reason given for the transmission lag is to ensure any ‘disruptions’, or reporting regulations breached during the broadcast are caught before they are streamed online.
Furthermore, the cameras will only face the Judges’ Bench and the Bar, obscuring parties from view, limiting the scope and context of the transmission.
The initiative was announced on March 12 by the government, and is a joint initiative by the Ministry of Justice and HM Courts & Tribunals Service. The press release says the project has been deigned to boost transparency inside the system.
It is not clear whether the project, which places discretionary powers in the hands of the judiciary to decide wether or not to allow a case to be live streamed for public viewing, will feature those cases which involve serious miscarriages of justice by children professionals, lawyers and even judges.
These cases have become increasingly of concern, as this site and others continue to investigate and expose a worrying number of proceedings which involve malpractice and law-breaking by professionals inside the family courts.
In a statement included in the press release, Terence Etherton, The Master of the Rolls, and Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division issued a joint statement which said:
“Many of our most significant cases come from the family jurisdiction. It is only right that cases of such wide public importance are made open to the public. Recent examples of cases looking at issues such as Islamic faith marriage, access to fertility records, or transgender identity are of interest to the public and it is important for the public to see how the court approaches these issues.
We are of course mindful that in some cases, full public access would not be appropriate, we will ensure that those involved in such cases remain protected.”
Where families request their privacy, those requests will be considered. They will receive a written notification ahead of the video transmission to inform them they have been selected and will then have the chance to raise any objections, either by phone or in writing.
Before any live coverage of these cases can be watched, which could potentially encompass both private law (divorce and child contact cases) and public law (care proceedings), legislation will have to be implemented.
The press release explains that a statutory instrument has been put before Parliament to enable the project to launch.
Nominated cases will be streamed on the judiciary website, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
You can access the full press release here.
13 Friday Mar 2020
Posted in Researching Reform, The Buzz
The latest child welfare items that should be right on your radar:
12 Thursday Mar 2020
Posted in Researching Reform, Voice of the Child Podcast
This week’s podcast looks at what life is like for children in care in the UK, with Ed Nixon, a senior social worker and former care home manager who co-founded Every Child Leaving Care Matters, a movement which aims to ensure that all children in care are properly supported until they turn twenty-one.
In this episode, we discuss life for children in care, unregulated care homes and why Ed believes the UK government doesn’t understand children.
On social care for children as a concept, Ed said during the programme, “Care is a bad thing, why would anybody suggest it was anything other than a bad thing? Much of my life has been trying to make it the best it can possibly be, but it’s not as good as living with your own family, happily and safely.”
You can listen to the podcast here.
What do you think of our podcasts? Let us know in the comment box below, or reach out on social media, using the hashtag #VOTC
11 Wednesday Mar 2020
Posted in News, Researching Reform
The latest items on child welfare:
10 Tuesday Mar 2020
Posted in Consultation, Researching Reform
A consultation launched by the Family Procedure Rule Committee wants to look at people’s views on legal bloggers attending family court hearings.
The Committee is headed up by the President of the Family Division Andrew McFarlane, and consists of seven additional judges, one lay magistrate, one justices’ clerk, two barristers, two solicitors and a Cafcass officer.
The consultation has been launched two years after a pilot allowing bloggers into family courts was implemented, and aims to get a better understanding of how people feel about legal bloggers entering these courts and reporting on children proceedings.
The pilot was designed after several Presidents of the Family Division acknowledged a need to increase transparency inside the family courts. The consultation document echoes that same sentiment and says, “where appropriate and possible, there is need to increase transparency in the family court to improve public understanding of the court system. Few judgments are made available to the public and the idea behind giving access to legal bloggers is to allow increased openness whilst maintaining anonymity.”
The consultation invites responses to the following four questions:
Question 1
Do you think accredited legal bloggers should be permitted in to attend hearings in family proceedings?
Question 2
Are there any restrictions that should be put on them alongside any existing restrictions?
Question 3
Under the pilot scheme, the blogger must show evidence that they belong to a professional legal group and sign a declaration that attendance is for “journalistic, research or public legal educational purposes”. Do you think that this provides the necessary safeguards to protect the needs of children and families who are parties to, or subject of, family proceedings?
Question 4
The need to protect the individual who is the party to, or subject of, proceedings, even from inadvertent reporting on social media is paramount. Do you think that the proposals in place under the pilot go far enough in doing so and have you any concerns or suggestions for improving this area?
Submissions should be sent to Simon Qasim at FPRCSecretariat@justice.gsi.gov, or by post at the address below, by 5pm on Friday 20 April 2020:
Simon Qasim
Family Justice Policy
Post Point 7.17
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ
You can access the consultation document here.
The Committee’s About Us page is also worth a read, as it contains the Committee’s agendas, members’ interests and Minutes of its meetings.
09 Monday Mar 2020
Posted in Question It, Researching Reform
Welcome to another week.
As we continue on with our newly launched Voice of the Child Podcasts, we’d like to hear your thoughts on the programme.
The series focuses on law and policy which affect children, including forced adoption, foster care, child protection proceedings and a wide range of current affairs.
What would you like us to cover?
Do you have a tip?
How can we make the programme better?
If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the Voice of the Child, you can catch the current episodes on Sound Cloud.
06 Friday Mar 2020
Posted in Researching Reform, The Buzz
The latest child welfare stories that should be right on your radar:
