Please note that this year’s Leicester Family Justice Day will be on Friday 28th October 2016, at Stamford Court, Oadby.
This is the same venue as last year. Speakers will be confirmed shortly, but please save the date and register your interest.
Practitioners are reminded of the invaluable resources available on The Advocate’s Gateway.
Particularly helpful are the toolkits, aimed to provide best practice guidance and assistance for advocates questioning witnesses who may be vulnerable for some reason or have difficulty communicating.
Read MoreChild protection practitioners of all backgrounds may be interested in the upcoming multi-disciplinary conference being held by The Transparency Project at the Priory Rooms, Birmingham on Friday 3rd June 2016.
Entitled “Where do we go from here?”, the conference features diverse and prominent speakers, with the intention of encouraging open discussion about the child protection system and how we can improve it.
The cost is only £60 for lawyers and £30 for non-lawyers, and is CPD accredited.
Further details, including the itinerary and booking can be found here.
Read MoreResolution have published a Female Genital Mutilation Toolkit to enable lawyers to identify women and girls who may be at risk of being made subject to the criminal practice of FGM.
The toolkit is available to download from our INFORMATION CENTRE. It is an incredibly helpful guide to best practice in assisting clients – in the most sensitive way possible – to be able to disclose that they feel at risk of this happening to themselves or a child. It signposts other sources of information and some of the signs to look out for as potential indicators of risk. The toolkit also gives good examples of questioning techniques which could in fact be applied by practitioners to other situations where a person may feel unable to make a disclosure due to certain cultural or religious reasons; for example, forced marriage or honour-based violence.
Read MoreIn the recent case of DB v DLJ [2016] EWHC 324 (Fam) Mostyn J considered the merits of an attempt by a wife to set aside an award made at an arbitration hearing on the basis of what she alleged to be a subsequent change of circumstances which vitiated the award. Mostyn J considered various strands of previous case law and practice guidance and summarised the grounds of challenge of such an award. The test is stringent and it will only be in exceptional circumstances that the court will interfere.
An incredibly helpful summary by Alex Chandler of 1 King’s Bench Walk can be found at Family Law Online here.
Read MoreThe Association of Directors of Children’s Services and CAFCASS have – following consultation – issued revised social work evidence templates (SWET).
The use of the SWET is endorsed by the President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby. Practitioners will note that the templates are slightly simplified and incorporate the guidance and relevant “Welfare Checklists” within the documents themselves.
Further details can be found at the ADCS website and the FLBA website. You can download the templates below and from the PUBLIC LAW section of our INFORMATION CENTRE.
Read More
Following from the Section 20 Practice Guidance issued by Leicester DFJ HHJ Bellamy, The Transparency Project have issued their own comprehensive Guidance on the use of voluntary accommodation for children by local authorities.
The Guidance was accompanied by this press release:
PRESS RELEASE
Family Court Transparency Charity publish guidance on use of “voluntary” accommodation of children.
The Transparency Project* has today published guidance** relating to voluntary accommodation of children by local authorities. Under section 20 of the Children Act 1989, local authorities may provide accommodation for children who do not have somewhere suitable to live, where their parents consent. Section 20 is not just about housing, but involves taking a child into the care system by agreement rather than by court order. There is thus no judicial scrutiny of what is happening to the child and no court timetable by when final decisions must be made about the child.
The use (and misuse) of section 20 accommodation has been the subject of recent significant judicial criticism and media comment. It is clear that problems arise when children ‘drift’ in the care system under section 20 without proper plans being made for their future, or when parents feel they were under pressure to agree to section 20 accommodation without fully understanding the consequences.
In light of this recent interest in and concern about the use of section 20, The Transparency Project has published guidance about its use. The guidance relates to children under the age of 16.
Sarah Phillimore, trustee of the Project and lead author of the guidance, said
“The issue of ‘parental responsibility’ and who can make decisions for children under section 20 also has the potential to cause serious difficulties as it seems many parents (and some social workers) are not always clear about the impact of section 20 on their ability to exercise parental responsibility for the children.”
The Transparency Project hope that this guidance will be useful for parents, carers and professionals who are unsure about what section 20 accommodation is, when it should be used and what safeguards should be in place to make sure that parents and carers are fully informed.
The Guidance can be downloaded from The Transparency Project website and can be found in the PUBLIC LAW section of our INFORMATION CENTRE.
Read MoreHis Honour Judge Bellamy, Designated Family Judge, has issued a Judicial Guidance document in relation to the case management of care proceedings heard before Lay Justices and Legal Advisors.
All care practitioners are strongly invited to read this Guidance.
Read MoreThe President of the Family Division has issued a statement announcing the release of new standard orders to be used under the Child Arrangements Programme with immediate effect. The intention is to shorten the orders and make them easier and more accessible for court users.
The orders replace the previous CAP forms. A Master Copy tick box form is being made available to all court staff to complete the orders and can be used to complete orders at court by hand.
For ease of use, we have also produced the three forms in a template format that can easily be downloaded and completed electronically. They are also available for download from the PRIVATE LAW section of our Information Centre.
CAP Allocation and Gatekeeping
Read MoreWednesday 3rd February is a chance to get some early CPD points in this year with the Birmingham Local Family Justice Board annual conference.
The packed programme features many prominent local speakers covering the issues of the day, including FGM, CSE and direct testimony from children in care.
The programme and booking form can be found below and downloaded here.
