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The Family Justice Knowledge Hub. Sounds modern dunnit? It’s not really. It’s a newsletter in word format with a boxy design, which collates details of recent and current research bearing upon matters of family justice. Boxy but useful. Like a volvo. You can subscribe to it by emailing knowledgehub@justice.gsi.gov.uk. Not that you’d know because there [...]

Family Justice Modernisation Programme Update No. Nine and Three Quarters

This press release just in from Mr Justice Schrodinger, Family Justice Modernisator: Family Justice Modernisation Programme Update No 9 3/4  I am pleased to announce that, in furtherance of the prime objective of efficiency and pace, all care cases issued after 1 January 2013 will be cascaded through the new algorithmic family justice hyper-rationalisation drive, [...]

Teenage Parents Project

The Hartcliffe and Withywood Teenage Parents Project provides practical, emotional and mentoring support to teenage parents and their children in the BS13 area (that’s Bristol for those not frum rownd yur). They provide open access sessions across the estate and deliver an in-house training programme all with creche provision. They aim to promote inclusion, participation, [...]

Frontline cuts in Cafcass……just one big question to answer

This is a guest blog post written by Ian Merry. Ian is a qualified and registered social worker who washed up on Cafcass’ shore in 2007 as a Family Support Worker in the Newcastle upon Tyne region. Prior to this he worked with vulnerable children and young people for over 37 years. Ian found the direct work [...]

Free ain’t easy

Lawontheweb describe themselves as “the UK’s legal information website”. They are a referral website. They also offer free legal advice. Which is nice of them. There has been a certain amount of scrutiny of the quality of that legal advice recently, most notably in the area of housing law, by Nearly Legal. I had briefly perused [...]

Kamikaze – you’re all thinking it, but I’ll say it out loud

I recently berated unnamed colleagues for their failure to pipe up, albeit gently. This prompted one heartfelt response from another blogger (although he need not have felt my poke was aimed at him since he had already made his views publicly known here). That post was my way of saying “Don’t rely on me to [...]

I suppose I should blog sommat…

From the wilds of centerparcs our intrepid reporter has this… Look you. I’ve been up to my eyeballs for weeks and it’s been dull as ditchwater around yur. Sorry. I feel I should oblige with a post. I’m not feeling mad inspired though. I had a whole host of things I was desperate to write [...]

Use of Independent Social Workers in Care Proceedings

This is a guest blog post by Noel Arnold. Noel is a partner at Philcox Gray & Co in London and sits on the Law Society’s Children Law Sub-committee and the Association of Lawyers for Children’s Executive Committee. The views expressed here are his own and do not purport to reflect the views of any other [...]

STUDY DISPUTES INDEPENDENT SOCIAL WORKERS CAUSE DELAYS IN FAMILY COURTS

Some important new research is being launched today, conducted by Dr Julia Brophy at Oxford. It’s not yet visible on the Oxford website but Family Law say the following: New research published today from Oxford University claims that delays could be reduced in family courts by the earlier appointment of independent social work experts (ISWs). The [...]

Out On A Technicality

I complain often enough about the LSC finding pathetic technicalities upon which to base the rejection of my claims for payment for work done (most recently a five figure sum which relates to work between 6 and 18 months ago on a single case, but more frequently the rejection of a smaller claim because I [...]