Chapter 11 Resource bank

Chapter 11 Resource bank

Public law protection

Legislation

The key pieces of domestic English and Welsh legislation addressing this topic are the Children Act 1989, Children Act 2004 and Children and Families Act 2014. As with all legislation, we recommend that you avoid legislation.gov.uk, and instead refer to a subscription database such a Lexis or Westlaw. This will ensure that you are working with an up-to-date version.

 

Television documentaries

You may have access to a resource called Box of Broadcasts via your college or university. This is provided by the British Universities and Colleges Film and Video Council and gives on demand access to many television and radio programmes going back years, for educational purposes. Some programmes also include transcripts. There are many documentaries about care proceedings available. These include:

Panorama: Please Don’t Take Our Child (BBC1, 2010)

Addicted Parents: Last Chance to Keep My Children (BBC2, 2017)

Protecting Our Foster Kids (BBC2, 2015)

You're Killing My Son: The Mum Who Went on the Run (Channel 4, 2013)

Baby P: The Untold Story (BBC1, 2014)

Briefings - UK Supreme Court: Charlie Gard Judgment (BBC Parliament, 2017)

https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand

 

Louise Tickle, ‘Are We Failing Parents Whose Children Are Taken into Care?’ (The Guardian, 25 April 2015)

Article about parents who have each child taken into care as they are born, and the lack of support available to help them stop losing each successive child.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/25/are-we-failing-parents-whose-children-are-taken-into-care

 

Surviving Safeguarding

Website belonging to ‘Annie’, a mother who lost her children to care – and then eventually got them back. The site tells her story and provides advice for parents in a similar position. Annie also now provides training to professionals in the child protection system.

http://survivingsafeguarding.co.uk/author/safeguardingsurvivor/

 

Child Protection Resource

Website by barrister Sarah Phillimore which contains articles and guides to the child protection process.

http://childprotectionresource.online/

 

Family Rights Group videos

There are some videos on YouTube designed to assist parents whose children are in the care system. We recommend Anne and Terry’s Story, a two-part series covering a child protection conference. These are produced by the Family Rights Group and although the parents are actors, the other people at the conference are professionals in their genuine roles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjRX38_P5HU&feature=youtu.be

 

Children looked after in England (including adoption), year ending 31 March 2017

Statistics on children under local authority care at national and local authority level. Includes all looked after children, but the different graphs cover legal status, reason, and leaving ‘looked after’ status.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2016-to-2017

 

NSPCC, Returning Home from Care: What’s Best for Children (2012)

Report addressing preparing for a child to return home from care, and the support that needs to be provided to children and their families.

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/globalassets/documents/research-reports/returning-home-from-care-best-children.pdf

 

Lord Laming, Report of the Victoria Climbié Inquiry (Cmd 5730, 2003)

Victoria Climbié was a young child who died as a result of awful abuse by her great-aunt and the great-aunt’s partner. The independent statutory inquiry into her death identifies many failings between agencies. It is a difficult read, emotionally, but an influential report.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-victoria-climbie-inquiry-report-of-an-inquiry-by-lord-laming

 

HM Government, Working Together to Safeguard Children (HMSO, 2018)

Guidance for all agencies and organisations that have statutory functions relating to children, such as local authorities, schools, the police, and Public Health England. It covers sharing of information in order to safeguard children and the core legal requirements on these bodies and the people who work in them.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2

 

Department for Education, ‘Court Orders and Pre-Proceedings for Local Authorities’ (2014)

Guidelines for local authorities on the key principles of the Children Act 1989 as subsequently amended. Very clear to read.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/306282/Statutory_guidance_on_court_orders_and_pre-proceedings.pdf

 

Practice Direction 12A: Public Law Outline (2014)

This Practice Direction supplements Part 12 of the Family Procedure Rules, and sets out the court process (including pre-action work) for care and supervision proceedings.

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/family/practice_directions/pd_part_12a

 

Judith Masson, ‘Questioning the Use of s20’ (Family Law Week, 2015)

Professor Masson’s article about s20 Children Act 1989, including best practice. Note that this now has to be read in light of Williams and another v London Borough of Hackney [2018] UKSC 37

http://www.familylawweek.co.uk/site.aspx?i=ed151621

 

Williams and another v London Borough of Hackney [2018] UKSC 37

Supreme Court case that post-dates your textbook. The appeal concerned the limits of a local authority's powers and duties to provide accommodation for children in need under s20 and returning children home when a person with parental responsibility objects to continued accommodation of the children.

https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2017-0037.html

 

Supreme Court Justices’ Speeches

Lady Hale, ‘What Are Care Proceedings For?’

https://www.supremecourt.uk/news/speeches.html

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