February 8, 2010 by familoo
Not social workers apparently. At least so says the British Association of Social Workers which offers representation from non-lawyers as a perk of its membership. Barristers (incorrectly referred to by BASW as solicitors) offering their services for free via FRU or the Bar Pro Bono Unit may not have the necessary expertise in social work practice and regulation to better their own service it seems from a piece in Community Care.
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This view of course rather overlooks the fact that this is what barristers DO – take our legal training and advocacy and evidential skills and apply them to specific sets of facts or niche areas. It overlooks also of course the fact that many of the lawyers offering services via FRU and particularly the Bar Pro Bono Unit will have vast prior experience of tribunals of this kind or of social work practice (for example as care practitioners). And it overlooks the fact that it would be professional misconduct for a barrister to hold herself out as competent to handle a case if she were not equipped to do it justice.
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On closer reading what this storm in a teacup appears to be about is the fact that the General Social Care Council are sending out material to those who are involved in conduct hearings relating to FRU and BPU representation but are not presently sending out equivalent material from the BASW. Of course there may be issues for the GSCC about appearing to endorse a particular union (and indeed conversely for the BASW in appearing as independent from the GSCC), but I can’t see any reasoned objection to sending a straightforward list of sources of representation available to social workers who are in hot water.
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It’s unfortunate that in pursuing the broader marketing of its member services the BASW has seen it as necessary to run down the services offered by barristers for free. Whilst any representative dealing with a conduct hearing will need to understand something about social work practice, this is information which barristers are quite able to elicit from clients (or indeed from a supportive trade union), whereas the specific expertise of the bar qua lawyers should not be underestimated. If the BASW really wants to assert that the services offered by the bar are substandard or inferior to those it offers itself it should publish comparative success rates and make the point properly. At present this has the unfortunate impression of being more of a territorial spat than a demonstration of the BASW’s interest in ensuring that social workers are afforded proper representation from whatever source. A constructive approach would be for the BASW to offer to share its expertise in social work good practice to FRU and the Bar Pro Bono Unit by working collaboratively with them.
Posted in stuff | Tagged misconduct, representation, social work, tribunals | Leave a Comment »
February 8, 2010 by familoo
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February 2, 2010 by familoo
A couple of tweets from @woolleyandco alerted me to some interesting posts on their blog: Andrew Woolley has it spot on about Baroness Deech’s curiously reality-detached approach to humiliating divorce settlements (I think she means demeaning, but anyway). “You say humiliating, I say equality…”. Doesn’t scan but you get the point. And as for the post on Baroness Deech’s remarks about grandparents’ entitlement to financial recompense for their gratis childcare – well I’ve posted previously about the political expediency of pandering to grandparents rights organisations, and all I have to add is this observation: do we really want to go down this road? If grandparents are entitled to claim maintenance from their children who ‘take advantage’ of free childcare, will the parents be able to recoup that in later years for the care they will give the elderly grandparents? Or perhaps parents should be able to recoup their childcare costs from their children’s earnings in years to come? We could all do with acknowledging how much grandparents offer their children and their grandchildren, but their contribution is more than one dimensional – financial support, childcare, time and love. And isn’t the essence of (grand)parental love that it is voluntary?
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My own parents routinely take our son for a day a week, but whilst for them they are pleased to feel they have helped us out with childcare, we are pleased to ensure that they have some quality time with their grandson. We try not to rely on it as failsafe childcare, being sensitive to when they have something else they need to do that day, but we would want to keep up this special time with grandma and granddad even when we aren’t at work. For my son Monday is Ga-mma day. It’s not a transaction we could quantify with money. That would be demeaning. I do see the arguments for being able to claim working tax credits childcare element if a grandparent is giving up a large chunk of their week and is prevented from earning money through other work (although I also see the difficulties with it), but to create maintenance obligations between different tiers of family members just undercuts the whole notion of family helping family – politicians are obsessed with trying to strengthen the family and ‘mend’ society, reducing the family to a set of financial obligations or contracts is not going to help cement our society together or make our children happier.
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As a footnote, its heartening to see that what I would call a ‘marketing blog’ can still be an interesting read, and can contain some real and insightful opinion. If a blog is worth doing it has to contain some human input and not just be an endless stream of advertorial. Whilst Woolley and Co have clearly invested heavily in their online media marketing strategy, they are doing it well. So many other firms are doing it badly.
Posted in stuff | Tagged ancillary relief, childcare, divorce, family, maintenance | Leave a Comment »
February 2, 2010 by familoo
A colleague is off in Kenya working on a project promoting equality in the law and through legal process in Kenya. It sounds like he is working very hard and also having a life changing time. If you’d like to read about what he’s up to you can see his blog here, or if you want to find out more about the organisation he’s volunteering for click on the link to the FIDA website here.
Posted in stuff | Tagged access to justice, equality, legal profession, volunteering | Leave a Comment »
January 27, 2010 by familoo
OK, so I lied – no big boobies here. But as they say in the playground: ‘Made you look, made you stare, made you lose your underwear’…
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I’m a little puzzled by this article by Martin Evans at The Telegraph, entitled ‘Lesbian Mother Appeals Court Decision After Daughter Removed’. Having seen this re-tweeted on twitter (thanks @johnbolch), I was expecting (reasonably I thought) that the subject of the appeal might relate to how same sex relationships are correctly to be treated by the family courts, that one of the grounds might raise some discrimination point etc – and so I clicked through. So naive…In fact the reference to the sexuality of the Appellant appears to be 100% gratuitous because there is absolutely no reference to the Mother’s sexuality anywhere in the article. Either that or the author has omitted to include some crucial information, because from the information provided this appears to be a relatively unremarkable appeal where the parents’ sexuality is nothing to do with anything. I despair at the state of journalism sometimes.
Posted in stuff | Tagged discrimination, family courts, parenthood, parenting, sexuality | Leave a Comment »
January 22, 2010 by familoo
So the Government has published its Families & Relationships Green Paper in which it proposes a fundamental review of the Family Justice System and a number of other reforms. Like John Bolch at Family Lore I’m not sure what this really adds up to. There are a number of press releases from the relevant departments: DCSF and MoJ. So what does it all mean for the family justice system?
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Primarily, there’s a review which we won’t know the outcome of until 2011, and right now we don’t even know who will conduct it. Judging from the press releases it seems to be predicated upon the assertion that the problem is the adversarial nature of court proceedings and the fact that they heighten conflict. Jack Straw says:
‘We know that for many families the current family justice system is proving far too complicated, and its adversarial nature can lead to bitter, lengthy court hearings, prolonging what is already a stressful and emotionally draining experience. ’
So in summary, the Courts make it worse. Of course it’s a no brainer that the adversarial nature of proceedings can increase the temperature but that does rather dance over the fact that it is only the most highly conflicted cases that end up in court at all. Most couples do find other ways to sort things out, and even those that end up in the system must pass through a barrage of non-adversarial processes designed at resolution (in court conciliation, lawyer assisted negotiation etc.) before they ever get to an old fashioned trial. And in the current circumstances its not the court system per se which worsens conflict, and it’s not because it’s all too complicated – it’s the lack of resources available to properly run the court system that leads to delay, frustration and despondency, and perpetuates or exacerbates conflict.
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Posted in stuff | Tagged children, family court system, family justice system, public funding, reform | 2 Comments »
