https://twitter.com/survivecourt/status/864771943731474432 It started before the meeting even began. Emails, phone calls and discussions between you all to synchronise diaries and finalise a time and location that suited everyone. Everyone, of course, except the insignificant mother. My diary was never checked. No-one asked if the time suited me or if the location was convenient. As long … Continue reading The Insignificant Mother
The All Party Parliamentary Group for Children (APPGC) is undertaking a new Inquiry that will explore the causes of different threshold levels for accessing children’s social care services. This follows APPGC's Inquiry in 2016/17 ‘No Good Options’ which found significant variation in the number of children accessing children’s social care services across the country. To … Continue reading Call to action all social workers: please use this opportunity to share your perspective
Source: The Children’s Society Date: 17 August 2017 Unaccompanied and migrant children The Children’s Society in partnership with the University of Bedfordshire has published a report looking at the impact of excluding separated and migrant children from legal aid. The report finds that the safety net Emergency Case Funding is not working, stating that there is … Continue reading New report finds too much discrimination in the ‘system’
This is a helpful piece for IROs to consider - it provides good guidance as to the workings out of the pros and cons of whether to go s20 or care proceedings AND confirms that both are valid options and that neither are the default option to be followed. Source: @suesspiciousminds This is a case in … Continue reading Child refugees – section 20? Care proceedings? Either? – @suesspiciousminds
The Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) published a joint protocol in February 2017 advising court guardians and social workers to work more collaboratively to speed up cases, and where possible divert them from court. The agreement was criticised by the guardians' association … Continue reading A lesson in collaborative working & conflict: ADCS & Cafcass Joint Protocol axed as unlawful
https://twitter.com/IsabelleTrowler/status/895668276541485056 Over the past four years, numerous councils, projects and charities have made bids for funding to the Department for Education’s £200 million Innovation Fund. Many councils, projects and charities have been backed with pots of money, and many others left disappointed. In 2014, Brighton was one such local authority that was unsuccessful in its bid … Continue reading Building a team around the social worker: how a council is reducing demand and supporting staff
New analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents more than 370 councils in England and Wales, reveals that in 2015/16 councils surpassed their children’s social care budgets by £605 million in order to protect children at immediate risk of harm. At least 75% of councils in England have overspent on their children’s services budgets … Continue reading Children’s social care is at breaking point – LGA calls on the Government to close the funding gap
By Ben Ashcroft | Source: Community Care | August 8, 2017 in Children | Twitter: @AshcroftBen Great piece - here Ben Ashcroft looks at the criminalisation of children in care, and what common-sense approaches could be used to help avoid it: Periodically, the issue of ‘the criminalisation of children in care’ arises. In Sir Martin Narey’s review of … Continue reading We need a common-sense approach to keeping children in care out of custody
A flavour of a really important judgement by Sir James Mumby that needs to be read in full please. Read at source: [2017] EWHC 2036 (Fam) Extract: What this case demonstrates, as if further demonstration is still required of what is a well-known scandal, is the disgraceful and utterly shaming lack of proper provision … Continue reading “One of the measures of a civilised society is how well it looks after the most vulnerable members of its society.”
Children and Social Work Act 2017 The Children and Social Work Act 2017 (the Act) is intended to improve support for looked after children and care leavers, promote the welfare and safeguarding of children, and make provisions about the regulation of social workers. The Act sets out corporate parenting principles for the council as a … Continue reading Get in on the Act …
