By Sharon Martin, Chair of the National IRO Managers Partnership (NIROMP) I recently revisited Keith Fraser, YJB Chair and Board Champion for Over-Represented Children analysis of the latest youth justice system data. The data speaks for itself and should demand little description because the stats are stark. Keith points to the raft of statistics which … Continue reading The Human Rights Act, the marginalised and the minoritised
BE PART OF THE SOLUTION THAT CREATES THE CHANGE WE ALL WANT TO SEE More than 2000 organisations including the National IRO Managers Partnership took part in the first Race Equality Week in February 2021, building on their own race activity and/or accessing and implementing the solutions, tools and resources have co-created with those with … Continue reading Race Equality will only be achieved when we all play a part #RaceEqualityWeek 7th – 13th February 2022 #actionnotjustwords
Sharon Martin, NIROMP chair said: Race Equality Week unites employees, focuses senior leaders, and unites organisations. It also encourages them to continue their activity and drive race equality all year long. Whatever your role, be the change. This years theme is #actionnotjustwords.We are proud to join forces with others to celebrate Race Equality Week, which calls … Continue reading #RaceEqualityWeek 7th – 13th February 2022 #actionnotjustwords
Hard cases make bad law. This adage has been rattling around in my head recently, prompted by the debate about whether our child protection system is fit for purpose. Practitioners grapple daily with uncertainty, ambiguity and transient risk: there is no handbook to give them definitive and lasting solutions to family problems. If every decision … Continue reading Child deaths highlight the case for doing better
Article 39 respond to the Scottish Government's proposals to make it administratively easier for children from England (and Wales) to be deprived of their liberty in Scotland. In short, they urge for the withdrawal of the proposals. The fact of the matter is that there is a grave, and now scandalous, shortage of suitable establishments in … Continue reading Article 39’s response to Scottish Government’s Cross-border placements of children and young people into residential care in Scotland: policy position paperÂ
The care placement Regulations and the courts: too many holes in the net of parliamentary scrutiny? A forthcoming judicial review on children-in-care highlights parliamentarians’ inability to challenge only certain aspects, rather than the whole, of a Statutory Instrument. Courts can and do provide an important backstop against unlawful use of delegated powers, but this does … Continue reading Too many holes in the net of parliamentary scrutiny?Â
By Millie Kerr It is uncomfortable to have uncomfortable conversations about race, but we need to sit with this discomfort if we are to effect change. That means challenging our own fears, beliefs and biases to enhance our social work practice, when working with communities, cultures, customs and religions different from our own. My role … Continue reading ‘My role as England’s first anti-racist lead practitioner’ By Millie Kerr
Source: Independent Review of Children's Social Care Newsletter: January 2022 You can sign up to receive the Independent Social Care Review Newsletter: HERE Introduction from Josh MacAlister, review chair Welcome to the first update of the year on the work of the independent review of children’s social care. As promised before Christmas, we are now … Continue reading Independent review of children’s social care newsletter: January 2022
Home Office guidance for social workers assessing the age of young people arriving in Kent is unlawful, the High Court has ruled. The guidance, for practitioners employed by the Home Office at the Kent intake unit (KIU), did not provide for age assessments to be carried out with adequate safeguards for the unaccompanied claimants concerned. … Continue reading Home Office social worker guidance unlawful, High Court rules
Secondary legislation which allowed children in prison to be locked in cells for up to 22 hours a day at the height of the pandemic will end in March, it has been confirmed. “While the rest of the country responded to the first lockdown in 2020 by holding our children close and trying to make … Continue reading ‘Disgraceful’ Covid-19 restrictions on children in prison to end in March
