‘Essex County Council social workers moved a vulnerable teenager from her aunt and uncle’s care without warning, and then failed to follow the statutory children’s complaints process, the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) has said.’
Local Government Lawyer, 15th March 2017
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/
‘The last five years have brought important reforms to care proceedings. The Judiciary made proposals for modernising family justice with a focus on strong judicial leadership, judicial continuity and better case management.2 The Family Justice Review3 recommended that the duration of care proceedings should be limited to 26 weeks, that fewer experts should be instructed in proceedings and there should be more limited scrutiny of the care plan, with the court considering only the plan for permanency (care by the parents(s), placement in the extended family, long-term fostering, or adoption) and not matters such as services for the child and contact arrangements. The Review’s recommendations were enacted in the Children and Families Act 2014, supplemented by new procedural rules (the PLO 2014) and implemented on April 22, 2014. This date also marked the opening of the Family Court, replacing the triple jurisdiction of the Family Proceedings Court, the County Court and the High Court. ‘
Family Law Week, 17th February 2017
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘Peterborough City Council has reached an out of court settlement with a woman who accused it of failing to protect her when she was in its care as a child.’
Local Government Lawyer, 19th January 2017
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Two children who were kept in care for too long have been awarded damages from a police force and council.’
BBC News, 21st December 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘John Tughan QC of 4 Paper Buildings reviews recent important judgments in the field of public children law.’
Family Law Week, 7th December 2016
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘A husband and wife are fighting against their foster children’s adoption by two gay men because they “need a mother and father”.’
The Independent, 8th November 2016
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘A couple have been blocked from adopting their two foster children after expressing concerns about them being raised by a gay couple.’
Daily Telegraph, 6th October 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘John Tughan QC, 4 Paper Buildings, reviews recent decisions relevant to public children lawyers, including two important recent decisions of the Court of Appeal.’
Family Law Week, 11th August 2016
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
In re A (A Child) (Baby Relinquished for Adoption: Case Management) [2016] EWFC 25
‘A, a baby born in England to Latvian parents, was relinquished at birth for adoption and quickly placed with foster parents who were approved to adopt. On the understanding that there was no one within the extended natural family, either in England or in Latvia, in a position to care for A, and with the consent of the birth parents given in accordance with sections 19 and 20 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, the local authority proceeded to convert A’s short-term arrangements to an adoptive placement and notified the Latvian central authority of A’s situation. The foster parents, with whom A had lived for much of his life, applied to adopt him. The Latvian central authority, having made its own enquiries of relatives in Latvia, identified the maternal grandmother as a potential long-term carer for A, had completed a favourable preliminary suitability assessment and commissioned a full suitability assessment. The central authority opposed the adoption of A in England and submitted its concerns that the approach of the English courts towards adoption cases placed insufficient weight on the rights of a child to grow up in his inherited culture and was therefore potentially contrary to articles 36 and 37 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 and a breach of articles 8 and 20 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989. The birth mother, who had deliberately not informed her wider family in Latvia of the proposed adoption, continued to support adoption by the foster parents, maintaining her opinion that an education and upbringing in England would be in A’s best interests and that her mother would find it difficult physically and financially to care for A. At a case management hearing, the children’s guardian appointed for A recommended an adjournment to enable completion of the grandmother’s assessment. In circumstances where the prospective adopters, the birth parents and the local authority all supported the adoption, where factors from the welfare checklist in section 1(4) of the 2002 Act pointed towards adoption, and where a delay in making a decision was likely to prejudice A’s welfare, the issue before the judge was whether he should make an adoption order without having considered the substantial assessment of the suitability of the maternal grandmother in Latvia as A’s long-term carer.’
WLR Daily, 6th May 2016
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a key case on the liability of councils for foster care abuse, it has emerged.’
Local Government Lawyer, 27th may 2016
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A foster mother who battered an 18-month-old baby to death just months after becoming her guardian has been jailed for life.’
The Independent, 4th May 2016
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Social services are facing questions after a “barbaric” woman beat an 18-month-old girl in her care to death, inflicting 200 injuries on her and trying to blame her eldest son for the child’s death.’
Daily Telegraph, 3rd May 2016
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Finding a permanent loving home for a baby approved for adoption can take take several months. In 2012, the government said it would change the law to allow potential adopters to foster a baby while the courts were deciding on its future. So what has the Foster to Adopt experience been like for those taking this route?’
BBC News, 19th February 2016
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘A family court judge has come under fire after refusing to name a council that violated a man’s parental rights by taking his four-year-old daughter into care without a proper investigation.’
The Guardian, 10th January 2016
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has handed down a key ruling on the liability of councils for foster care abuse, concluding that local authorities do not owe a child in such care a non-delegable duty.’
Local Government Lawyer, 12th November 2015
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A judge has ordered a London council to pay £20,000 in damages for breaching the claimant parents’ human rights when it unlawfully continued to keep their eight children in foster care.’
Local Government Lawyer, 24th September 2015
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A husband and wife have won £10,000 each in damages from a local authority that wrongly kept their eight children in foster care. A deputy high court judge Sir Robert Francis said that if ever there was a case illustrating the challenges that faced children, parents, public authorities and the courts when concerns were raised about the safety and welfare of children, it was this one.’
The Guardian, 17th September 2015
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘A white British foster carer who has looked after a two-year-old boy of black African heritage since he was less than six months old has been named his “special guardian” by the family court.’
The Guardian, 5th April 2015
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘In December the High Court gave judgment in NA v Nottinghamshire County Council [2014] EWHC 4005 (QB). The claimant (who was born in 1977) said that while in her mother’s care she had suffered physical and emotional abuse, and that the defendant local authority had failed in their common law duty of care by failing either to remove her or protect her from the abuse.’
Full story
Law Society’s Gazette, 23rd February 2015
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
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