This is the text of a presentation at the St Johns Private Law conference on 14th June 2023 To have or not to have a finding of fact hearing is a key decision in proceedings. Relationships that are ending up in court have ended badly. The adversarial process is undoubtedly harmful to parties and finding […]
We have oppressive system that purports to be about child protection – but parents and children are frightened of us #cpchange2016 — CPResource (@C_P_Resource) February 19, 2016 We all know the care system isn’t working. Conference after conference, review after review over the last 20 years tells us so. In 2014 I helped to set […]
This is a post by Sarah Phillimore Am I a ‘troll’ or a ‘leading professional’? The answer seems to depend on whether or not I am agreeing with someone’s particular narrative at a particular time, rather than on the quality of my arguments and the state of my evidence. I have been distracted from the […]
Re W and Re Z (EU Settled Status for Looked After Children) [2021] EWHC 783 (Fam) This is an interesting decision which looks closely at the ambit of section 33 of the Children Act 1989 and how local authorities may exercise PR for children subject to care orders. It concludes that there are only a small […]
This is a post by Sarah Phillimore I was delighted to be asked to speak on July 27th 2019 by Make More Noise. As the organisers say: There has been a surge of Feminist activism across the UK in the past year. Women are agitated and organised. We are finding our voice and our voice […]
I first became aware of the case of Victoria Haigh in about 2013, when my concern about the activities of the then MP John Hemming began to mount up. In 2018 I noticed Victoria Haigh on Twitter. She was supported by a number of self styled campaigners who were linked by their shared belief that […]
This is a post by Sarah Philimore On 30th March I was really pleased to travel to Huddersfield University with Lucy Reed at the invitation of Jenny Molloy AKA Hackney Child to have a go at ‘training’ social work students in cross examination skills. This is something we have often discussed and thought would be […]
This exchange began after I read a press release for the documentary The Stolen Children of England (Les Enfants Voles D’Angleterre), that was shown on French TV Canal 5 on 15 November 2016. I commented about how uneasy that made me here. I was then sent a English language version of the documentary which I […]
These are the notes of a talk given by Sarah Phillimore to the London Resolution group on 3rd October 2016. Further notes of the contributions given by Lucy Reed and Andrew Pack, along with discussion with the audience, will be available shortly on the Transparency Project website. Sarah concludes that we all need to be […]
This is a post by Sarah Phillimore The fact that this is number seven in a series of posts about the dangerous debasement of public discussion about the family justice system and issues of child protection, should be a clue that I think we are in a very parlous state indeed. What makes this particular […]