The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) is to transfer to the Ministry of Justice in April 2014. According to Family Justice Minister Lord McNally, the move will allow the welfare of children and families to be brought to the heart of the court system.
Forty charities, other organisations and academics have joined together to call on the House of Lords to support a once-a-generation chance to change the law so that fostered young people in England can stay with their foster carers until the age of 21.
The important role played by independent social workers (ISWs) in care proceedings should be safeguarded, according to a new report which is based on the views of senior judges.
Adoptive parents will benefit from new funding worth £19.3 million to access the best possible care for children who have often been victims of abuse and neglect.
The Office for National Statistics has released a bulletin giving annual statistics on adoptions which took place following court orders in England and Wales in 2012. Figures on adoption orders apply to adoptions by relatives and step-parents as well as adoptions from care.
The latest figures from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) have revealed that it received a total of 870 applications in July 2013. This is a 13% decrease compared to those received in July 2012, which was the second highest number of applications in a single month ever.
The Local Government Ombudsman has found that Liverpool City Council has been failing to pay around 340 foster carers the correct amount of allowances for a number of years.
New research from Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, has found that the instruction of expert witnesses in cases in family courts involving care applications is decreasing.
Almost ten new child abduction and international custody cases a week are being dealt with by the Foreign Office, according to newly released Government figures.
The government has published ‘Adoption passport: a support guide for adopters’, which sets out the support services adopters can expect from local authorities.
The Office of the Head of International Family Justice for England and Wales (the Office) has published its Annual Report for 2012.
Children’s charity the NSPCC is calling for a new approach to child abuse, focusing more on prevention as well as protection. It says this should help close the gap between the number of children who are abused or neglected at home, and the number who are actually protected by local authorities.
The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) has continued to see high levels of private law cases in March, with 4,001 new applications passed to Cafcass - a 1% increase on March 2012 levels.
A recent members’ survey by Nagalro has found that the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) is making less use of experienced Children’s Guardian practitioners.
Recent research from the Law School at Cardiff University has uncovered threats to the effectiveness of the existing system to deal with international child abduction to England and Wales.
The Government’s plan to introduce a legal presumption of shared parenting has proved to be very controversial.
A recent report from the House of Lords Committee on Adoption Legislation has said that adoptive parents should receive more support to help them care for vulnerable children.
Shared parenting charity, Families Need Fathers, has reported that the Government has published its response to the proposals on enforcing court-ordered child arrangements contained in the ‘Co-operative parenting following family separation’ consultation, which ran from 13th June – 5th September 2012.
The past twelve months have seen the Government place great emphasis on improving adoption processes in England for both children and potential adopters.
The Government’s draft Children and Families Bill has recently come under pre-legislative scrutiny by the UK Parliament’s Justice Committee.