‘Children’s rights charity Article 39 has threatened the Department for Education with legal action if it does not withdraw regulations aimed at assisting the children’s care sector during the COVID-19 crisis.’
Local Government Lawyer, 12th May 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘On Friday 24 April 2020, the Government passed a statutory instrument making potentially significant changes to the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review Regulations 2010, and the obligations on local authorities imposed by those regulations. In addition to the amendments to the 2010 Regulations, other regulations were amended including the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005, and the Fostering Services Regulations 2011. This briefing note summarises the main changes to the requirements for local authorities.’
Spire Barristers, 28th April 2020
Source: spirebarristers.co.uk
‘The Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, has sharply criticised the government’s relaxation of regulations relating to children’s social care, saying she does not believe that they are necessary except in one limited case.’
Local Government Lawyer, 1st May 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The regulations make changes to the duties that local authorities have with regards to safeguarding children. These are temporary changes and the regulations give a date in September 2020 for them to lapse. This date can be extended, reviewed or simply removed. They were simply made by virtue of the Coronavirus Act 2020. Parliament did not need to approve them first.’
Transparency Project, 3rd May 2020
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has handed down rulings in the first two appeals relating to the welfare of children to have reached the court on the issue of remote hearings during the COVID-19 pandemic.’
Local Government Lawyer, 30th April 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The government has amended several sets of regulations with a view to assisting the children’s social care sector during the coronavirus pandemic but the move has been strongly criticised by a children’s rights charity.’
Local Government Lawyer, 28th April 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The High Court has been asked to make an unprecedented order to allow a journalist to see all court papers in a flawed adoption case. The application comes as the family justice system faces heightened pressure to be more transparent.’
Law Society's Gazette, 9th March 2020
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘Judith Pepper has delivered presentations with Professor Daniel Monk to the Judicial College on the issue of siblings in care proceedings and adoption.’
Family Law Week, 26th February 2020
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘In this unusual case, Re W (A child: leave to oppose adoption) [2020] EWCA (Civ) 16, the Court of Appeal has given birth parents leave to oppose an adoption order being made. The child is nearly three years old and has been living with his prospective adopters since he was aged 17 months, in November 2018, after care and placement orders had been made in March of that year. He has never lived with his parents and has not had any contact with them since October 2018.’
Transparency Project, 23rd February 2020
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
‘The appellant is the great-aunt of J, a child who was the focus of care proceedings that began in 2017. J’s mother accepted early on that she could not care for him and the proceedings focused on assessment of his great-aunt instead. Throughout the care proceedings the great-aunt was unrepresented (and for most of it, not a party). She is a formidable woman.’
Transparency Project, 13th February 2020
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
‘Guidance from the Court of Appeal on how to decide whether or not to notify a putative father or a relative of the existence of the child or legal proceedings?’
Parklane Plowden Chambers, 29th January 2020
Source: www.parklaneplowden.co.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has set out the principles governing decisions – whether by local authorities as adoption agencies or by the court – as to whether a putative father or a relative should be informed of the existence of a child who might be adopted.’
Local Government Lawyer, 29th January 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
A recent podcast on BBC sounds by ‘File on 4’ focused on separated siblings in the care system.
One of the stories is from a woman who explains that she was split from her sister and wasn’t allowed to see her despite her living just five minutes away. She recalls that between their respective foster families’ homes there was a park where she would see her younger sister playing with her foster sister. Breaking down into tears, she explains that she felt hurt, angry, annoyed, sad and “thought it was really, really cruel”.
5 SAH, 20th January 2020
Source: www.5sah.co.uk
‘Adoption practices are set to be reviewed amid concerns that prospective parents are wrongfully being turned away in the wake of a landmark discrimination case.’
Daily Telegraph, 16th January 2020
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Bamber was found guilty of murdering his adoptive parents, sister and her twin sons after all five were found with gunshot wounds at their Georgian farmhouse in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex, on 7 August 1985, when he was 24.’
BBC News, 8th January 2020
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Sandeep and Reena Mander are of Sikh heritage and were born and brought up in the UK. They identify as part of the wider Sikh community but are not religious:
“They go to Temple a few times a year much as, they say, some of their non-practising Christian friends go to church at Christmas or Easter. They consider themselves culturally British, whilst acknowledging their Indian heritage”.’
Law & Religion UK, 10th December 2019
Source: www.lawandreligionuk.com
‘A British couple have won nearly £120,000 in damages following a landmark discrimination case after they were told they could not adopt a “white child” because of their Indian heritage.’
Daily Telegraph, 6th December 2019
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal brought by a great-aunt from care and placement orders made by a judge at the conclusion of proceedings concerning a two-year-old boy, J.’
Local Government Lawyer, 19th November 2019
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Many people believe that we do not pay enough attention to the rights of children in care to stay with, or at least stay in touch with, their brothers and sisters. Our relationships with our brothers and sisters can be the longest and most valuable in our lives but, for a range of reasons, these relationships can be disrupted when children are taken into care – or adopted – and are arguably overlooked by the law.’
Transparency Project, 17th November 2019
Source: www.transparencyproject.org.uk
‘An application for an inter-country adoption should not fail because of inconsequential errors made by the intending adopter, a High Court Family Division judge has ruled.’
Local Government Lawyer, 14th November 2019
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
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