An evaluation of the Government’s Troubled Families Programme has shown that it has reduced the number of children in care. Troubled Families is a programme of targeted intervention for families with multiple problems, including crime, anti-social behaviour, truancy, unemployment, mental health problems and domestic abuse. Local authorities identify ‘troubled families’ in their area and usually […]

The Home Office has announced that up to £1 million will be given to organisations that support men and boys who are victims of gender-based violence. The announcement is part of a series of measures set out in a ‘position statement’ on male victims of crimes. The statement sets out twelve commitments to assist victims […]

A sick 13-month-old girl who was born with kidney failure should receive medical treatment against the wishes of her parents, the High Court has ruled. Specialists at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, where the girl is being treated, said that her one chance for “ongoing survival” was hemodialysis, a process of purifying the blood of […]

The four children’s commissioners for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have warned that children’s safety could be put at risk if the UK leaves the EU without proper plans for child protection. In a letter to Stephen Barclay MP, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, the commissioners sought assurances on some […]

A young girl whose parents cannot care for her should be brought up by a stranger rather than by her grandparents, a court has ruled. In the case C (A child : care and a placement order), District Judge Graham Keating decided that the girl, who was born in 2017, would be better placed in […]

It has been reported that the Justice Secretary, David Gauke, has confirmed that he will introduce legislation enacting the no-fault divorce in the next session of Parliament. Nigel Shepherd, former chairman of the family law organisation Resolution, which has long campaigned for the introduction of no-fault divorce, said he was pleased that the government are […]

Husband who was seeking a lump sum payment or other capital provision from his ex-wife has failed in his claim. A new study has found that children’s wellbeing is not negatively affected by living in single parent households. A High Court judge has used Twitter to urge a mother who vanished with her three-year-old son to return home. And finally, The Independent has reported that the number of parents forced to represent themselves in child disputes in family courts has more than doubled in six years, as a result of the legal aid cuts in 2013.

A Family Court judge has been praised for writing a judgment without legal jargon, so that it could be more easily understood. Her Honour Judge Lynch, sitting in the Family Court at Leeds, was handing down the judgment in a case in which the local authority were seeking care and adoption orders in relation to […]

A mother involved in long-running care proceedings concerning her teenaged son has been spared jail for accepting an invitation to attend a parents’ evening at his school. The court had ordered that the mother should not contact the boy, but there was an exemption in the order to the effect that she could “attend parents’ […]

The number of children taken into care has pushed 88% of councils over budget in the last financial year, according to analysis by the Guardian newspaper and the Local Government Association (‘LGA’). The analysis found that 133 out of 152 councils responsible for children’s services overspent in 2017-18. Local authorities went over budget on children’s […]