26/4/2007 | Demand for under 18s to have veto on leaving care |
Community Care |
Campaigners have urged the governemnt to prioritise raising the leaving care age in the children in care white paper. Education secretary Alan Johnson confirmed last week that a white paper setting out reform of the care system will be published this year, following last Autumn's consultative green paper, Care Matters.
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28/3/2007 | Charity attacks 'disgrace of child poverty can trick' |
The Times, p2 |
The number of children living below the breadline rose by 100,000 last year, according to official data – a blow to Gordon Brown, who wants to halve child poverty by 2010. The increase was branded a moral disgrace by a leading children’s charity.
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26/3/2007 | The media's role in our family courts |
The Guardian, p35 |
Two letters on the subject of opening up the family courts.
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22/3/2007 | Ministers rethinking plan to open family courts in media |
Guardian, p7 |
The government is having second thoughts about its proposal to open family courts to the media, in the face of strong opposition from children's groups and others, the lord chancellor signalled last night. A consultation paper last July proposed the media should be allowed into the family courts as of right, with reporting restrictions to protect families' confidentiality. But Lord Falconer said that more than 200 children who had given their views during consultation "overwhelmingly rejected the idea, with the clear support of key third-party organisations speaking up for the interests of children".
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1/11/2006 | You can’t silence justice |
Daily Mail, p18 a |
The secrecy surrounding the proceedings of the family court has long been a blot on the face of English justice.
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3/8/2006 | Efficiency drive 'will hit courts' |
Community Care (3-9 August), p9 |
Proposals to improve efficiency in the legal aid in the legal aid system will undermine the representation of children in care cases, solicitors' and court guardians' leaders have warned.
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3/8/2006 | Inquiry may feed into Green Paper |
Community Care (3-9 August), p12 |
A government fact finding mission looking at the impact of the Every Child Matters agenda could feed into the forthcoming green paper on looked-after children, according to a leading services director.
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12/7/2006 | Young people to be given access to family court files |
The Times, p22 |
Children whose futures are determined by the courts will eventually have access to the records of what happened, under plans outlined yesterday to end the secrecy of family proceedings. When such children reached 18 they would be allowed to see details of disputes between parents over contact, or of decisions to remove them from their families and place them in care. Article quotes Anthony Douglas.
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12/7/2006 | Press may face fines in family court shake-up |
The Telegraph (In brief), p6 |
Reporters could be fined for identifying people involved in family hearings under proposals to open up the family courts
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11/7/2006 | Opening up the family courts |
The Times (Law section), p3 |
senior family judge recently called for the media to be admitted to family courts to shake off the “canard of secret justice”. Lord Justice Wall’s remarks reflect the views of senior judges that the time has come for more openness in the family justice system — if only to counter accusations that the system is secretive and unfair. Proposals expected today therefore from the Department for Constitutional Affairs already have the broad backing of many judges: as Lord Justice Wall put it: “We need to have a system that is understood by and accountable to the public.” And the public, he added, “need to be fully and properly informed”.
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7/7/2006 | Comment piece on child poverty |
The Guardian, p31 |
Comment: We will never abolish child poverty in a society shaped like this one
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6/7/2006 | Cost of ending child poverty put at £30bn |
The Guardian, p7 |
The government will today announce a fresh initiative to help parents find work as a new report says the price tag for meeting Tony Blair's ambitious target of eradicating child poverty in a generation would be more than £30bn.
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30/6/2006 | Scandal of CSA reforms that cost £1bn and made it worse |
The Times, p22 |
Attempts to reform the troubled Child Support Agency have been a “complete disaster”, costing more than £1 billion and ranking “among the worst public administration scandals in modern times”, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee said last night.
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30/6/2006 | Childhood watch |
The Telegraph, p23 |
Two responses to Beverley Hughes’s letter about the new national database of children (Letter, June 28).
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28/6/2006 | Children's right to anonymity ended for family courts |
The Times, p2 |
A landmark Court of Appeal ruling yesterday ended the automatic ban on identifying children involved in family court cases, even after proceedings have ended. The blanket of silence that prevents public discussion of decisions to take children from their families, or to reunite them, was lifted. The Court of Appeal ruled that Simon Clayton, who spent more than three years in dispute with his former wife Aneta over contact with their daughter, Estelle, 10, should have the right to talk openly about his case.
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23/1/2006 | Child protection laws fast-tracked |
ic Lothian |
New laws to strengthen inspections of child protection services have been fast-tracked through the Scottish Parliament. MSPs unanimously passed the Joint Inspection of Children's Services and Inspection of Social Work Services (Scotland) Bill less than three months after it was introduced at Holyrood.
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13/12/2005 | Society Guardian |
Child database: will not preve |
The children's minister, Beverley Hughes, today warned that the planned electronic database of all 11 million children in England was not a "technological magic wand" that would prevent further child abuse tragedies.
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15/6/5 | Courts offer tough love to drug-addict mothers |
The Times |
A FAMILY judge is hoping to begin a US-style drug dependency court to help the growing number of babies and children who are being taken into care because their parents are misusing drugs or alcohol.
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8/3/5 | Delay is the price of getting adoption guidance right |
Care & Health, p12 |
Implementation of key provisions of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 have been delayed.
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10/1/5 | It is time to open up family courts to public scrutiny |
The Times |
Recent high-profile campaigns from Fathers 4 Justice have highlighted the secrecy of the family courts and, that group claims, their unfairness.
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10/1/5 | Fathers winning battle to have custody hearings in public |
The Times, p6 |
Judges are ready to end secrecy to prove that there is no bias.
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