Adoption – A vision for Change? The Response from Nagalro

The Response from Nagalro in response to the policy paper Adoption: A vision for change (Department of Education, March 2016) 11 May 2016 This is an open response from Nagalro, produced here with permission, thanks and total agreement – Sarah Phillimore. We are concerned that despite the intention to ‘strengthen families’, no more is said on […]

Adoption: A vision for change?

  This is a post by Sarah Phillimore On 27th March 2016 – Easter Sunday – the Department of Education released its policy paper setting out its vision for improving adoption rates. Broadly, it sets out progress re adoption since 2010, current challenges and how they will be met and the government’s vision for the adoption system […]

Time for Climate Change in the Family Justice System

The Family Justice Council held its annual Bridget Lindley Memorial Lecture and conference in Bristol on April 6th 2022. Helen Adam gave the keynote address. She is a mediator and Chair of the Family Solutions Working Group who published in October 2020 ‘What about Me? Reframing Support for Families following Parental Separation, capturing a range […]

Special Guardian Orders and Supervision Orders – is it ever right these go together?

On 13th October 2016 a group of local practitioners – barristers, solicitors, guardians and local authority managers – met to discuss the growing concerns over the practice of making special guardianship orders alongside supervision orders. Those present agreed that this should not be  as commonplace as the statistics suggest (about 30% of SGO have a […]

Care and Supervision Orders

When can the court make these orders? And what is the impact? Care and Supervision orders were created by Part IV of the Children Act 1989. See also Chapter 3 of the Guidance from the Department of Eduction. On the application of the LA or the NSPCC the court can make a care or supervision order […]

Placement and Adoption Orders

The relevant statute is the Adoption and Children Act 2002. The relevant regulations are The Adoption Agency Regulations 2005 (AAR). See this post for discussion of the case law which discusses when adoption is necessary. If you want to appeal against the making of an adoption order see this post. See also Part 1 of […]

Getting information from foreign countries in care proceedings

Resources The information set out here, is a summary from the three documents below. The President’s Guidance from 2014 The International Child Abduction and Contact Unit (ICACU) (judiciary.uk) The ICACU’s guidance on completing the request form icacu_request-for-co-operation-guide.docx (live.com) Protecting Children and Families Across Boarders [CFAB] Kinship assessment guidance CFAB | International Kinship Care Guide. This […]

Fact finding in private law proceedings – where are we now?

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 […]

CAFCASS Guidance on working with Children and Gender Identity

The CAFCASS Guidance Working with Children and Gender Identity January 2023 is guidance for children who are not in care. It links to guidance for children who are in care – Trans Youth in Care; a Toolkit for Caring Professionals – but this is dated 2017 and refers to Mermaids and the often ridiculed ‘Genderbread […]