I managed to get away from court early today. No stringing things out just to earn an extra bob or two for me. No, common sense and good counsel prevailed and the public purse has been saved a pretty penny and justice done etc etc. But as always there is much to do back in chambers. So whilst there is no time to hone the following into some compelling piece of art or pop-journalism, here are some interesting bits and bobs I’ve collected this week:
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Wall of Brick’s excellent observations on Martin Narey of Barnardos (and ex Probation Service) recent expounding of views on the family courts. I agree with Brick, and I think it best if I let him express my views through the link to his blog post, otherwise I might vent my spleen inappropriately – there are so many people with so many views on how to fix the family courts – Barnardos, LSC, solicitors organisations, CAFCASS, children’s organisations and slightly informed journalists… Every time I have turned on the radio I have heard a different element of the system being blamed for the totality of the current or impending catastrophe. I’m glad that the crisis is reaching a wider audience but there is an awful lot of balone out there.
Barnardo’s press release is worth reading in full. The headlines sound sensible – why not aspire to a 30 week longstop, even if we all know it won’t happen? But then you read that Barnardos want to have a a tiered, fast track target of 12 weeks for children under 18 months. Don’t get me started on why that’s *not good* idea. Quite apart from the fact that I hadn’t even worked out which end of my baby was up by the time he was 12 weeks, its astonishing to hear the suggestion that we can deal with quite the most difficult and sensitive of cases in the shortest period of time. Maybe we should just brand parents ‘bad mother’ across their forehead when their first child is taken away so that we can fast track them through to adoption when they deliver their next child? You see what churlish mood I’m in? I’ll stop now before I say what I really think.
Also worth a read are Law Society Gazette’s interview with Carolyn Downs (interesting take), and Catherine Baksi’s summary of the same.
I’m off to do some work. And some deep breathing.
Thanks for the kind words. I’m afraid that in a later post I sucummed to temptation and added my two pennyworth about how to fix the family court system. By the way, isn’t it baloney that there is a lot of?
Oh yes baloney. Thought it looked odd!
[…] in the prison service, subsequently probation (NOMS) and latterly Barnardos. In the latter role he expressed forthright and often controversial views about the fast tracking of routes to adoption. Having left Barnardos in January 2011 he was available for work. Perfect candidate for the […]
[…] on the capacity of parents to do a good enough job. It was under Martin Narey’s stewardship remember that Barnardos proposed a timescale for the completion of an entire set of proceedings (12 weeks) […]
[…] on the capacity of parents to do a good enough job. It was under Martin Narey’s stewardship remember that Barnardos proposed a timescale for the completion of an entire set of proceedings (12 […]