The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (NFJO) has highlighted the “important” role of advocates and intermediaries in enabling parents with learning disabilities to engage fully in court proceedings, after warning that family justice and social care systems are paying “insufficient attention” to ensuring that their rights under disability, equality and human rights legislation are upheld.

The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal brought by two journalists against a judge’s decision to order the anonymisation of the names of the circuit judges that had decided historic care proceedings relating to Sara Sharif, who was murdered by her father and step-mother in 2023.

The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has described the extension of open reporting provisions to all family courts in England and Wales as a “watershed moment for family justice”.

The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has issued practice guidance on the use of intermediaries, lay advocates and cognitive assessments in the Family Court.

The Supreme Court will next week (29 January) hand down its judgment on a father’s application for a writ of habeas corpus in respect of his children, who are being raised in a local authority’s care.

Proposals in the Law Commission’s review of legislation on disabled children’s social care risk damaging unintended consequences and maintain an ineffective tribunal system, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) and the Local Government Association (LGA) have said.

The Family Court has dismissed a council’s application for care and placement orders, finding that the authority failed to properly apply the principle that adoption should only be sanctioned where “nothing else will do”, and that it failed to apply the relevant welfare checklist.

The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has issued updated guidance on obtaining information from other jurisdictions for public law children cases which have an international element.

The Court of Appeal has rejected a young man’s appeal against a local authority’s failure to determine him to be a “child in need” within the meaning of s.17 of the Children Act 1989, when carrying out a child and family assessment in 2021.

The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, has highlighted a number of areas in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that need strengthening, while acknowledging that it lays a “strong foundation for change”.

Courts have no power to rescind adoption orders on welfare grounds as Parliament intended such orders to be final, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has published new guidance around the transition of matters from the national DoL list to the Court of Protection (CoP) – for cases where the child is 16 or 17 years old and a decision is taken that further consideration should be undertaken.

The Family Court reporting pilot is to be rolled out nationally from Monday 27 January through changes to the Family Procedure Rules.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has said it is “disappointed” that the education system will not be made a statutory safeguarding partner through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is to have its second reading in Parliament today (8 Jan).

A large number of 16 and 17-year-olds who become homeless are not assessed or are housed under the wrong legislation, with no practical or financial support from children’s social care services until the age of 25, according to new research by the Coram Institute for Children.

A High Court Judge has rejected an application by a father who sought to revoke placement orders made in respect of his two children, on the basis of his 11-month period of abstinence from alcohol.

A Family Court judge has criticised a local authority’s failure to understand its statutory obligations in respect of adoption support and to properly assess a family for that support, leading to three applications for adoption taking over 18 months to conclude.

Two journalists have been given permission to appeal an order which prevents the media reporting the names of the judges who were involved in historic family proceedings that related to Sara Sharif.

The Court of Appeal has criticised litigation between two councils over which of them is responsible for the care of a baby.

The Court of Appeal has ruled against granting a judicial review of Essex County Council over whether a teenager who might have become homeless was entitled to ‘former relevant child’ status.

The Upper Tribunal has allowed a Sudanese national’s claim for judicial review and declared him to be a child of 17 years of age, after his age was disputed by the Home Office on the basis of an assessment of his “physical appearance and demeanour”.

The President of the Family Division has rejected a local authority’s application to change the expert witnesses instructed in an injury case, in which a young child sustained a suspected fracture in a context which had “no other indicators” of child abuse.

The first annual report recording activity and developments in the Family Court has revealed that the number of outstanding public law cases reduced by 2,247 from 2023 to 2024, following the relaunch of the Public Law Outline (PLO).

The High Court has refused permission to challenge by way of judicial review an age assessment carried out by social workers employed by a Welsh council, which concluded that the claimant was an adult.

The Family Presiding Judge for London has issued a practice note on adhering to the Public Law Outline in London.

Richard Harrison KC of 1KBW has been appointed a High Court judge, assigned to the Family Division.

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has called on the Government to put in place “urgently” a national action plan to protect and support children at risk of sexual abuse, and has urged the President of the Family Division and Cafcass to consider the findings of its independent review.

The lead judge for the Family Drug and Alcohol Courts (FDACs), Lord Justice Peter Jackson, has called for their expansion, suggesting that it must move to the point where it is “not a sign of merit to have an FDAC, but an embarrassment not to have one”.