Children Act 2006

Further to my post on bloody relations , this question was tabled and answered in the House of Commons on Monday.

Children and Adoption Act 2006
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when he plans to implement the provisions relating to parenting in the Children and Adoption Act 2006. [204244]

Kevin Brennan: The provisions of part 1 of the Children and Adoption Act 2006 relating to Family Assistance Orders and risk assessments were implemented in October 2007. The time scale for implementing the remaining provisions in part 1 of the Act is subject to completion of a number of tasks, including preparing for the provision of ‘contact activities’, making necessary changes to the court rules, putting new administrative systems for court staff in place and staff training. The Ministry of Justice published a consultation paper on draft rules on 7 May. The Government will shortly be making a written ministerial statement (WMS), outlining the timetable for implementation of the remaining provisions in part 1 of the Act.


I think this is now the third time in over a year that a written ministerial statement has been promised shortly.

Ward LJ on the court's powerlessness in contact cases

The Times reports on Ward LJ's remarks in a contact case as he agreed with a father in a contact case that the law was "sterile, impotent and utterly useless".

In-court conciliation: not quite a roaring success?

New research by Liz Trinder & Joanne Kellett from UEA shows that 40% of agreements reached at court through Cafcass & similar intervention needed further litigation. For further comment see this piece on Community Care . Conciliation does seem at least to ensure that contact happens but this report suggests there is still a long way to go. I trust the researchers will now do some work in which they identify the reasons for their conclusions. It clearly could not possibly imply any superiority in court based contact resolution, could it?