Access to justice by way of a fair trial is being severely restricted by the rising number of estranged couples representing themselves in family court disputes because of inadequate provisions to legal aid.
...Family Law News
Forcing someone to marry against their will is now a criminal offence in England and Wales, the Government has announced.
...The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) has recently released figures on its case work for the month of May.
...A coalition of organisations campaigning for changes in the law to protect women from domestic violence has criticised the Government for failing to include the issue in the Queen’s speech.
...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.
...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.
...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 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.
A recent Office for National Statistics publication has given details on the number of children in need in England during 2011-12.
A recent statistical release from the Office for National Statistics on trends in family structure has revealed that;
Barnardo's has launched the Government’s first Charter for Care Leavers.
A recently published report has revealed that levels of demand for child protection and care services continue to rise nationally, and a majority of directors fear that pressures will continue to rise in future years. Local authorities are having variable amounts of success in using early help services to reduce demand on child protection social workers.
Members of the House of Lords have debated the key principles and purpose of the Inheritance (Cohabitants) Bill, which is a private members' bill aimed at making significant changes to the rights of a cohabitant in the event of their partner’s death.
Recent data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed that there were 723,913 live births in England and Wales in 2011, increasing slightly (by 0.1%) from 723,165 in 2010.
Children from single parent families are growing up in poverty as successive governments fail to make work pay and tackle single parent unemployment, reports Gingerbread. The charity has launched a three-year campaign calling on the government to take action to help single parents escape unemployment and working poverty.
The Family Law Bar Association has issued a comment on the retirement of Sir Nicholas Wall as President of the Family Division and Head of Family Justice for England and Wales on the 1st December.
Eight charities have joined forces to launch an inquiry into how best to provide stable and permanent homes for children in England who cannot live with their birth families.
Figures published by the Department for Education this week have revealed there are now more than 50,000 children living with foster families in England on any given day.