Family Justice Narratives : No. 6

This is the sixth of the Family Justice Narratives. You can find out what the Family Justice Narratives are all about and how to get involved here. This narrative is in the format of an email addressed to me, and comes from Brian, a social worker. NARRATIVE NO 5 : SOCIAL WORK PERSPECTIVE Familoo, Started reading [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Family Justice Narratives : No. 4

This is the fourth of the Family Justice Narratives. You can find out what the Family Justice Narratives are all about and how to get involved here. NARRATIVE NO 4 : Anonymous Guardian   Naturally, it has taken some time to get down to writing this, despite my best intentions. It’s an excellent idea and I look [...]

Family Justice Narratives : No. 2

This is the second of the Family Justice Narratives. You can find out what the Family Justice Narratives are all about and how to get involved here. Narrative No 2 : ANONYMOUS SOCIAL WORKER Tell us where you fit in (solicitor, barrister, social worker, guardian, judge, researcher, court staff, something else) I’m a Social Worker (not that [...]

Multi-Disciplinary Conference to Debate Family Justice Review

St John’s Chambers (my chambers) is hosting a multi-disciplinary conference on 23 March to debate the Family Justice Review and the Government’s response. The conference will take place at Taunton Rugby Club and is to be chaired by the Honourable Mr Justice Ryder. The event is open to professionals of all disciplines working within the [...]

Smacks of hypocrisy

Not so long ago David Lammy was criticised for suggesting a relaxation of smacking laws, it was said he had sought to blame the summer riots upon the disempowerment of parents embodied in laws preventing the exercise of parental discipline. I’ve long since lost the original article I had read, but what had struck me [...]

Protecting Our Children

Episode 2 of Protecting Our Children aired on BBC2 tonight. And if it didn’t bring a tear in Episode One, Episode Two will definitely do it for you. I only caught the second half of Episode 1 last week, and was left wondering whether there might be some gaps in coverage (above and beyond the [...]

Guest Post: Social media – our master or our servant?

This is a guest post written by Sarah Phillimore (@svphillimore), a barrister at St John’s Chambers. It arises from a discussion Sarah, myself and other colleagues had last weekend about the difficulty in obtaining s26 contact orders in placement proceedings and the spate of media reports of teenagers tracked down on Facebook by their biological [...]