‘Authorities’ failure to share details about a man before he murdered a girl in his partner’s care “contributed” to her death.’
BBC News, 5th October 2021
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The “shameful” case of a violent 12-year-old boy who was detained in hospital by 15 police officers illustrates the “systemic failings” in England’s care system, according to the body representing all of England’s directors of children’s services.’
The Guardian, 12th August 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Patrick Gilmore, barrister of Deans Court Chambers, describes how the resolutions approach might assist cases in which a parent denies the harm caused to a child.’
Family Law Week, 10th August 2021
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘Are hundreds of thousands of families being put through unnecessary investigations by unchecked social workers? That’s the suggestion made by a succession of recent news stories, some prompted by the first report of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. Services are ‘too focused on investigating families’, went the BBC; ‘innocent families have been traumatised by groundless investigations’, said The Times as part of a series on the issue, elsewhere reporting that ‘councils … launch abuse investigations based on a single unexplained mark’, and asserting ‘social workers too quick to wade in’, quoting the Review’s chair, Josh Macalister, as saying that social workers are ‘investigating first when [they] should be helping’.’
Transparency Project, 23rd July 2021
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
‘The United Kingdom has been ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to pay damages and legal costs to a social worker who was unfairly accused of professional misconduct by a Family Court judge.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 7th July 2021
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘England is to be divided into integrated care boards and partnerships responsible for bringing together local NHS and local government, such as social care, mental health and public health advice.’
Local Government Lawyer, 8th July 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The European Court of Human Rights has ordered the Government to pay €24,000 for non-pecuniary damage and €60,000 in legal costs to a social worker who was accused of professional misconduct by a Family Court judge in the course of a fact-finding hearing.’
Local Government Lawyer, 23rd June 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘In a significant adverse judgment for child abuse claimants, DFX v Coventry City Council [2021] EWHC 1382 (QB), Mrs Justice Lambert rejected a claim brought by a number of claimants who alleged that the defendant council’s social services negligently delayed in instigating care proceedings and that had they been removed from the family home earlier they would have avoided serial abuse at the hands of their parents.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 14th June 2021
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘A High Court judge has dismissed an application by a mother for a boy (P), who is aged 21 months and in interim care, to be circumcised in accordance with the custom of the Muslim faith before his second birthday.’
Local Government Lawyer, 15th June 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A High Court Master has recently considered whether in ‘failure to remove’ cases where a child has been accommodated under section 20, the accommodation of the child gives rise to a duty of care by way of assumption of responsibility, even if other steps taken by the local authority do not do so. Paul Stagg analyses the ruling.’
Local Government Lawyer, 11th June 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Judges are to investigate the use of urgent hearings in proceedings involving babies, after a study found that 85% of mothers in cases involving newborns being taken into care were given less than seven days’ formal notice.’
Law Society's Gazette, 4th June 2021
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘One in six mothers involved in care proceedings over the last year were given just a day’s notice of a court hearing to decide whether their newborn child would be taken into care, according to research. The vast majority of such women in England and Wales receive less than one week’s notice, new analysis shows.’
The Independent, 5th June 2021
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Care order applications are usually made when social workers decide a mother is unable to look after her child on her own. The baby will probably go into foster care and it may be adopted.’
BBC News, 4th June 2021
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Council care workers can help disabled people meet prostitutes without breaking the law, a judge has confirmed in a landmark ruling. A judge in the Court of Protection – a specialist court which considers issues relating to people who are deemed to lack capacity to make certain decisions – ruled that carers who facilitate adults with learning disabilities to visit sex workers will not be committing a criminal offence.’
Daily Telegraph, 29th April 2021
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘An autistic teenager who threw a six-year-old boy from the Tate Modern was not considered a risk to others at the time, despite previously assaulting police and a restaurant worker and hitting support staff with a brick, a report has found.’
The Guardian, 27th April 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Many have experienced their own Black Lives Matter moment in the last 12 months, a sharp realisation of entrenched prejudices and inequalities that still exist in our society. In the family justice system that moment came last October when a black barrister, Alexandra Wilson, was mistaken for a defendant three times in one day. And yet, more generally there has been surprising little debate about the disproportionate numbers of families from some ethnic minorities in the family justice system and what might lie behind this.’
Family Law, 19th March 2021
Source: www.familylaw.co.uk
‘Paul Stagg analyses an important decision this month on “failure to remove” claims and also summarises the other case law to date, before looking at pending cases and the likely way forward to the higher courts.’
Local Government Lawyer, 26th February 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘When the Care Review was formally announced in January, one of the first actions of its chair, Josh MacAlister, was to ask the Competition and Markets Authority to investigate the children’s social care ‘market’ in England. This was announced even before MacAlister takes up his post, which is not until March.’
Transparency Project, 17th February 2021
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
‘A discharge care plan approach (DCPA) written by the London Borough of Islington and North Central London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was unlawful on nine points, the High Court has found.’
Local Government Lawyer, 18th February 2021
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Safeguarding policies introduced to protect women and girls against female genital mutilation (FGM) are instead eroding trust and alienating African diaspora communities, a study has found.’
The Guardian, 4th February 2021
Source: www.theguardian.com
© Inner Temple Library 2021