Blogs/Articles

A service manager at the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), John Mellor, has reported seeing an increase in the number of international child custody cases involving British couples abroad, reports the Guardian.

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected a claim that the Official Solicitor’s decision to place a woman’s child into care, and subsequently for adoption, was in breach of the woman’s human rights.

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) has commented on recent claims that families who move to England from Slovakia and Russia are being unfairly targeted to satisfy demand from prospective British adopters.

Adoption UK has commented on the recent release by the Department of Education of statistics relating to children in care.

Barnardo's has issued a statement welcoming the announcement that the Government is to consult over changes to fostering and adoption procedures.

The Law Commission has published a supplementary consultation paper as part of its project examining a number of different aspects of the law relating to the financial consequences of divorce and of the dissolution of civil partnership.

A recent study from Portugal has found that men are more likely to divorce because of a lack of love, whereas women find lack of communication to be a greater cause of marital breakdown, reports the Portugal News. Other reasons given included infidelity and domestic violence.

The Government has published draft legislation to implement its proposed changes to the family justice system following David Norgrove’s Family Justice Review.

The Russian Federation and Lesotho have deposited their instruments of accession to the 1996 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children.

A research study in America has found that couples that have gone through a bitter divorce don't always continue to retain the same level of hostility to each other.

The educational attainment of looked after children and young people is improving slowly but there is too much variation in attainment, inconsistent support and a lack of clearly defined outcomes against which progress can be assessed. These are the findings of a report published by the Auditor General for Wales.

Four sisters caught up in an international custody dispute have been allowed to remain with their mother in Australia for a further month after a Family Court judge agreed to another hearing, reports the Brisbane Times.

The High Court has ruled that social workers were wrong to obtain consent from a woman to take her new-born baby into care when she was still under the affects of drugs administered during a difficult birth, reports the Daily Mail.

We live in an increasingly globalised and fast-paced society. It is more common than ever for us to move overseas to work, and marriages between partners of different nationalities are on the increase. This creates obvious problems where children are concerned. While me may hope that our moves abroad, and our marriages, are permanent, often our work situation changes or our relationships break down. In these types of situation, children can become the subject of custody disputes of a transnational (or perhaps even just trans-regional) character. One partner may wish to return to their native land (or indeed remain in an adopted homeland) when a relationship breaks down.

The case, reported in the Telegraph, concerned a Canadian divorcee who had been living in the UK with her former husband and two children. The woman wished to return to her native Canada after her divorce, and take her young children, aged two and four, with her. The mother complained of feeling 'lonely' and 'isolated' in Britain. She applied to the court for permission to take the children with her and was initially successful. However, her former husband, and father to the children appealed and the Court of Appeal struck the first ruling down. It did this on the basis that the father had been playing a 'major role' in the lives of the children since the couple had separated, seven months before the divorce. The father looked after the children for two nights per week (35% of the time, as the Telegraph point out).

Adoption UK has issued a statement in response to recent figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which show that there has been a 6% increase in the overall level of adoptions in England and Wales.

The latest Lord Chief Justice’s Report has been laid before the House of Lords.

Mr Justice Ryder’s report into the modernisation of Family Justice has now been published.

A new report from think tank the Centre for Social Justice has called for a widening of the offence of domestic abuse to include cruel mind games.