Contact the Family Team
Exeter Office
Tel: 01392 210700 Email us
St Austell Office
Tel: 01726 74433 Email us
Truro Office
Tel: 01872 265100 Email us
One of the fundamental principles in cases concerning children is that delay is considered to be prejudicial to the child / children involved and therefore should be avoided wherever possible, unless there is a good reason for the delay.
There is of course a balance to be found between conducting a Children Act case as expeditiously as possible whilst at the same time ensuring that all issues, whether they be legal / personal to the family, are given the appropriate consideration - it is crucial for clients not to feel as if they have been run roughshod over. An area of family law where this is potentially more important than ever are care and supervision proceedings. These are Court proceedings where the local authority has intervened in arrangements for children because of child protection concerns.
The role played by local authorities to seek to protect the children in their area is something that is often the subject of media attention - you would probably be hard pressed to find someone who hasn't at some point heard a media piece about difficulties / shortcomings encountered in the field of child protection. Indeed, the media has recently focussed on whether more could have been done to protect the two children made pregnant by their father, the seven-year girl starved to death by her mother and step-father and, of course, the aftermath of the Baby Peter case still resonates.
In addition to the clear and obvious child protection duties that fall upon a local authority it must be remembered that the local authority (and the other professionals involved in this area of family law) also have a duty to ensure that any care or supervision proceedings that follow as a result of them meeting their child protection duties are handled as efficiently as possible.
In an effort to reduce unnecessary delay in care and supervision proceedings there are a number of regional conferences being held throughout March 2010 to discuss a new inter-agency approach. This event is aimed at all professionals involved in the care proceedings system, including local authorities, children's Guardians, Court administrative representatives and legal advisers, members of the judiciary, magistracy and legal professionals. The intention is that these regional conferences will cover the recommendations that have been made by Lord Laming in the wake of the Baby Peter case and important changes to the Public Law Outline Practice Direction.
We wait with great anticipation to see what positive factors stem from this regional analysis.
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