In February 2013, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) received a total of 3,998 new private law cases. This is a 5% increase on February 2012 levels.
...Family Law News
A number of recent studies have looked into the impact of marital status on a person’s health. The findings from these studies have led researchers to draw a number of interesting conclusions.
...Latest statistics from the Forced Marriage Unit suggest young people aged between 16 and 25 are most at risk of being forced into marriage.
...Separating couples are being urged to use mediation instead of ending up in courtroom battles after a list of England and Wales divorce hot spots was revealed.
New figures from the Fostering Network show that at least 9,000 new foster families are needed across the UK during 2013 to look after the record numbers of children in care who need to be fostered.
TACT, the fostering and adoption charity, has responded to the publication of the Children and Families Bill, seeing it as a missed opportunity.
Representatives of children and young people in England and Wales have spoken out about their experiences of the family justice system, and given suggestions on how the system can ensure its operations are as child-centred as possible.
The Government has announced the introduction of new measures aimed at reducing delays in family court proceedings.
A Government commitment to open up marriage to same-sex couples has taken an important step forward with the publication of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill.
Relate, the relationship support organisation, has launched a national awareness campaign targeting men. The campaign is aimed at encouraging men to seek support when they are going through divorce or separation, or other relationship breakdowns.
Would-be adopters can now access a new map showing the areas with the highest number of children waiting for new homes.
New measures are being put in place to support separating couples at the time of year when the number of people considering separation and divorce is at its peak.
The imposition of six month targets for placing children in care for adoption will lead to rushed and inadequate assessments, potentially making the process too fast for would-be adopters and open to abuse by predatory child abusers.
Same-sex couples in England and Wales are set to be allowed to marry, under plans unveiled by Minister for Women and Equalities Maria Miller.
Councils must do more to ensure children awaiting adoption are not deprived of a loving permanent family because of council delays, children’s minister Edward Timpson has said.
An estimated 27,900 women affected by domestic violence have had to be turned away by the first refuge service that they approached in the last year, because there was no space, according to new figures from Women’s Aid.
Millions of people across the UK have savings, investments, debts and income that they choose to keep hidden from their partners, according to new research from Prudential.
A recent report has described the Government’s plans to amend the 1989 Children Act by introducing a presumption of shared parenting as well-intentioned but misguided.
A new research report by national charity CAADA has found that ‘high risk' domestic abuse services are saving lives and a significant amount of public money, despite being seriously under-resourced.
Secretary of State Michael Gove has called on more people to adopt children. The call comes as it has emerged that more than 4200 children are ready for adoption but have not yet been able to move in with a family – a figure that has grown by 650 in each of the last two years.