The local government and social care ombudsman investigates 400-plus complaints each year relating to how councils deliver children’s social care services. Most involve the children’s statutory complaints procedure. Children lawyers will find useful a new publication from the ombudsman, which sets out how LAs should deal with statutory complaints made by children, particularly how they …
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Temporary measures to assist the children’s social care sector during the ongoing pandemic came into force on 30 March 2021. The Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 regulations: reduce certain fees payable under Parts 2, 3 and 4 of those Regulations, eg the fees payable to the Chief Inspector in respect of registration of …
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The judge had not been wrong in deciding it was too late for further evidence to be adduced by the parties. In this case, the CA said that the parties should not expect a judge to allow further evidence at a late stage. Among the many grounds of W’s appeal, there was an attempt to …
Continue reading “Financial remedies – conduct”
A decision not to place a 15-year-old (C) at an Orthodox Jewish residential placement for 12 weeks infringed Art 9 ECHR. A JR was brought after the LA offered respite placement accommodation for C in a residential home instead of an exclusively Orthodox Jewish residential home. A similar claim in respect of his brother was …
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F unsuccessfully applied for a return order, Mostyn J finding on the facts that the Hague Convention had not been invoked and F had acquiesced. F had made an application under the 1980 Hague Convention for the return of the two children to Australia after M brought them to the UK. The children have dual …
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Practitioners may value this interesting article from the Transparency Project on deprivation of liberty (DOL) involving children. The author begins with a look at the purpose of secure accommodation and the fact that demand far outstrips supply. DOL matters, states Jack Harris, because everybody has a right to liberty and security of person. Nobody can …
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A court order for a child’s return cannot be enforced or implemented until the conclusion of associated asylum applications, the SC ruled in a landmark decision. In this case, M had breached F’s custody rights and his efforts to bring the eight-year-old child home to South Africa, where she been resident her whole life, by …
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Family practitioners will welcome a new publication on family litigation funding targeted at lawyers. The guide, from legal financing company Ampla Finance, has been produced to help practitioners in discussions with clients around borrowing to fund cases, to ensure continued compliance with regulatory requirements. Litigation funding in family cases: A practitioners’ guide is the work …
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Family practitioners are keenly awaiting an imminent CA ruling in a landmark case involving four linked appeals relating to family proceedings where the welfare of children were concerned. Readers are likely to have read in the legal media that the CA heard submissions in relation to Scott schedules (tables setting out the allegations and the …
Continue reading “Coercive control – Scott schedules”
A recent appeal ruling is notable because it unusually considered maintenance pending suit (MPS). Family practitioners would do well to note the practical guidance given by Moylan LJ in the ruling, though the case itself was not particularly complex. M appealed an order allowing H’s appeal from an MSP order granting her monthly payments of …
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