Children & Child Custody

The Government has committed to giving children a greater voice in the family justice system.

New enforcement fees for people using the Child Maintenance Service Collect and Pay system came into effect on 11th August this year.

The Government is spending £300 million a year as a result of the breakdown of children's return home from care, according to new research commissioned by the NSPCC.

Fostering and adoption charity TACT has expressed concern over a sharp rise in the use of Special Guardianship Orders (SGOs) in England.

A new law came into force on 22nd October that reinforces the importance of children having relationships with each parent following family breakdown.

Over the past few years there has a rise in adoption to record levels, with an increase of 63% in just three years, charity Adoption UK has said. This means thousands more children have found permanent and loving homes through a faster adoption system.

UK charity reunite International Child Abduction Centre has welcomed a recommendation by the Law Commission that parental child abduction by retention should be criminalised.

A new survey by charity Grandparents Plus has found that many kinship carers and the children they look after are discriminated against by public officials and other parents.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) has recently come together with charity Reunite to help raise awareness of the issue of international parental child abduction.

The latest figures from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) show that in December 2014, it received a total of 918 care applications. This figure represents a 13% increase compared to the number received in December 2013.

The number of non-resident parents who pay towards the cost of their children through the Child Support Agency (CSA) has hit an all-time high, according to the Government.

Researchers at Northumbria University have recently studied the impact of Family Court Advisers on the duration of court cases involving adoption or care proceedings.

The Government has recently announced that from September all family court judges in England will be able to order DNA tests to determine a child’s parentage.

New Government proposals will mean that children involved in any type of family case - whether to remove them into care or disputes about child arrangements following divorce or separation - will be able to have their views heard when decisions are made that will affect them.

A High Court judge has ruled that a one-year-old girl should live with her father and his male partner instead of her mother, reports the BBC.

The Queen’s Speech has outlined further improvements to the adoption system that aim to benefit children awaiting adoption by enabling them to be placed with a family far quicker.

A new study has found no evidence that family courts in England and Wales are discriminating against fathers because of gender bias.

New Government funding worth £4.5 million is to be available to regional adoption agencies to help place children with new permanent families faster than ever before.

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) has seen a rise in both care applications and private law applications during July this year, compared to the same period last year.

New research from America has revealed that the stability of a couple’s relationship will have an impact on how much a new father is encouraged to be involved in the raising of his child.