News Archive For March, 2012

For reliable news and information, current issues and topical subjects read more at http://www.nfm.org.uk/news.

These news items are brought to us courtesy of National Family Mediation (NFM), which is the umbrella organisation for its charitable member services in England and Wales including us here at Surrey Family & Mediation Services.

The government has suffered a further two House of Lords defeats over its plans to reduce the cost of legal aid.

Peers voted to protect payments for children in civil cases and in clinical negligence cases.

The reversals take the total number on the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill up to 11.… Read more

The biological father of a two-year-old boy living with his lesbian mother and her partner has won the right to be involved in his life.

The judgment of the Court of Appeal in A v B and C [2012] EWCA Civ 285 has been heralded as a landmark decision in the court’s approach to ‘alternative … Read more

Men found guilty of domestic violence are being returned home, free to continue abusing their victims amid “dangerous trends” in the provision of community programmes designed to rehabilitate abusers, the probation and family court union has warned.

The first comprehensive survey of courses for perpetrators of domestic abuse, released exclusively to the Guardian, has discovered … Read more

BBC’s “Law in Action” programme has examined the innovative approach and impact of the FDAC in children cases involving parental substance abuse.

The programme features the groundbreaking work pioneered by District Judge Nicholas Crichton and the Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) team piloted at Wells Street’s Family Proceedings Court in central London.

Read more in … Read more

The quality of psychological experts and their reports, presented at family court proceedings in the UK, show some inconsistencies according to new research carried out by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).

Evaluating Expert Witness Psychological Reports: Exploring Quality (report downloadable below), was part funded by the Family Justice Council as part of their … Read more

The Department for Education’s children, young people and families directorate will receive a 13 per cent blow to its budget in 2012/13 and lose 106 full-time posts, a leaked email has revealed.

The email, signed by the department’s directors including Ann Gross, head of early years, and Jeanette Pugh, head of safeguarding, reveals the directorate’s budget … Read more

The government has promised to “champion” marriage and families in an effort to reduce social breakdown. Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said policy had “cloaked neglect of the family under the veil of neutrality”. He pledged investment to ensure troubled households get more support, rather than “shrugging our shoulders”. Mr Duncan Smith is … Read more

Charities faced a “toxic mix of circumstances” over the past year, with increased demand for services, rising costs and an unprecedented fall in income, the chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations will said this week.

New figures from the NCVO depicts a charity sector struggling with the worst recession for fifty years.… Read more

Men are more likely than women to marry someone they feel is not quite right for them, debunking the myth that women will do anything for a ring – and that men, on the other hand, will do anything to shun commitment. The recent Singles in America survey by Match.com – which also drew attention … Read more