Children & Child Custody

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.

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 Economic and Social Research Council has reported on recent research that suggests children's parties or activity days, where prospective adopters meet children awaiting adoption, could be part of the solution to the current adoption crisis.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC) cannot threaten two men with imprisonment if they continue to fail to pay child maintenance arrears, reports the Telegraph.

Children from the UK will now have international protection if they move to another country outside the European Union.

A care proceedings pilot launched between three London councils in April is already proving it is possible to dramatically speed up the majority of children’s care cases, including adoption, to hit the government’s target of six months.

People in London are in favour of better financial and practical help for grandparents raising children because their parents can’t look after them, according to a new poll commissioned by charities Grandparents Plus, the Family and Parenting Institute and Family Lives.

National membership organisation and support charity, Adoption UK, has been awarded the contract for the National Gateway for Adoption, in partnership with Coram and Coram Children’s Legal Centre.

Government plans to amend the 1989 Children Act by introducing a presumption of shared parenting are well-intentioned but misguided, say the authors of new research into childhood experience of family break-ups.

The following is an article with advice on the matter of discussing divorce with your children.  Prepare yourself and use the resources that are available, many of which are listed in this article below.

In December 2012, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) received a total of 847 applications.

The Government’s draft Children and Families Bill has recently come under pre-legislative scrutiny by the UK Parliament’s Justice Committee.

The past twelve months have seen the Government place great emphasis on improving adoption processes in England for both children and potential adopters.

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.

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.

The Government’s plan to introduce a legal presumption of shared parenting has proved to be very controversial.

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.

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.

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.

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.