Child Protection

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Regional Care Cooperatives: a path found

Regional Care Cooperatives: a path found

Following the valuable pathfinding trial of the new Regional Care Cooperative (RCC) model in Greater Manchester and the South East, the Government has announced that it is to establish six new RCCs. Precious Mealia and Mark Cook look at what they involve.

May 20, 2026

Regional Care Cooperatives: a path found

42Br Child

News

Children’s Homes Association calls for “national plan” to ensure illegal homes for children designed out of system by 2030

May 22, 2026

Government age assessment plans risk children being sent to unsuitable settings: social workers

May 21, 2026

Local authorities will have new statutory duties in relation to Family Group Decision Making from summer 2026, Government announces

May 21, 2026

High Court Judge raises concerns over litigants in person, AI-generated arguments and “substantial and increasing” workload of public law cases

May 20, 2026

Judges allow appeal by council over adoption order after it emerged that mother was dating prisoner

May 11, 2026

Children’s Commissioner “disappointed” by Government decision not to add schools as safeguarding ‘fourth partner’

May 08, 2026

Child safeguarding panel calls for clarification of legal definitions of neglect

May 08, 2026

Family Court judge takes rare step of making care orders for children remaining at home with mother

May 08, 2026

Charity calls for funding of advocacy services if children are to exercise rights under Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act

May 06, 2026

High Court considers application by foster parents for injunction pursuant to Human Rights Act to prevent council from removing children from their care

Apr 29, 2026

Family Presiding Judge provides list of considerations relevant to applications to deprive young people of liberty in unregulated placements

Apr 27, 2026

42BR Barristers to be joined by 4 Brick Court in summer 2026

Apr 23, 2026

Lord Justice Cobb named new President of Family Division

Apr 23, 2026

High Court rejects age assessment challenge against city council

Apr 23, 2026

Supreme Court hands down landmark ruling on jurisdiction to revoke adoption orders

Apr 22, 2026

Local authorities should have a "fully operational" Family Group Decision Making service by March 2027, says DfE

Apr 22, 2026

Confirmed cases of unregistered children’s homes rose by more than 372% between 2020/21 and 2024/25: report

Apr 20, 2026

Supreme Court to rule next week on power of court to revoke adoption orders

Apr 17, 2026

Government to examine deaths of care leavers following 91 notifications in 2024–25

Apr 16, 2026

New ADCS president highlights importance of developing practice of safeguarding “in and across places”

Apr 15, 2026

Southport inquiry finds “fundamental failure” by any organisation or multi agency arrangement to take ownership of risk that perpetrator posed

Apr 15, 2026

Rise in public law cases is “no justification” for councils to step back from applying pre-application strictures: Family President

Apr 08, 2026

Judge rejects application by father for injunction over plan of foster carers to move and send daughter to new school

Apr 07, 2026

Judges dismiss appeal by council over making of section 26 order

Mar 31, 2026

Public law specialist joins 1GC Family Law

Mar 30, 2026

Applications to High Court for deprivation of liberty order for children rose 12.5% in 2025

Mar 27, 2026

Children and young people in care system across England to gain new legal rights to contact with their siblings

Mar 26, 2026

Court of Appeal rules on what it means to be “father” of a child under Children Act 1989

Mar 24, 2026

High Court judge describes detention of teenage girl in room without windows on A&E ward for two-and-a-half months as “intolerable”

Mar 24, 2026

Judges grant council permission to appeal in deprivation of liberty case involving 17 year old

Mar 23, 2026

Ofsted updates framework for local authority inspections including removal of headline judgements

Mar 20, 2026

New court model to “bolster coordination” between family court and agencies such as councils and police when dealing with allegations of domestic abuse

Mar 18, 2026

Court of Appeal dismisses appeal that psychologist acted “outside limits of his expertise”

Mar 16, 2026

Council wrongly stopped allowance payments after agreeing to provide adoption support for two sisters for life, Ombudsman finds

Mar 10, 2026

New platform to give care-experienced and adopted people better access to their records to be launched later in 2026

Mar 10, 2026

Judge praises framework for post-adoption contact agreed in Family Court case

Mar 09, 2026

High Court rejects local authority plan to remove three-year-old from long term foster carers to place for adoption alongside half-sister

Mar 04, 2026

Grooming gangs whistleblower pursues judicial review over failure by government to implement recommendations of independent inquiry

Mar 03, 2026

Updated guide issued for Litigants in Person on preparing court bundles for family proceedings

Mar 02, 2026

Social Work England launches procurement of legal advisers for ‘Fitness to Practise’ cases

Mar 02, 2026

Government launches pilot of seven new “Kinship Zones” across England providing additional financial support

Feb 27, 2026

Approach in parental alienation case was “fundamentally flawed” and every agency was at fault, Family President rules

Feb 27, 2026

CIPFA warns of potential instability if cost-capping introduced in children’s residential care market

Feb 26, 2026

Features

The care leavers deaths review

The care leavers deaths review

May 20, 2026

Naomi De Silva looks at what the care leaver deaths review means for local authorities and what they should do now.

Post-placement contact

Post-placement contact

May 08, 2026

Alexandra Vivona analyses a significant Court of Appeal decision concerning post‑placement contact under section 26 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002.

Care proceedings, time estimates and parental vulnerabilities

Care proceedings, time estimates and parental vulnerabilities

May 01, 2026

A recent Family Court case highlights the importance of the provision of adequate time estimates for final hearings, write Sarah Buxton and Beth Armitage.

Older children and deprivations of liberty

Older children and deprivations of liberty

April 23, 2026

Graeme Bentley sets out the key points of practice from a High Court ruling on an local authority's application for permission to invoke the inherent jurisdiction and for an order authorising it to deprive a 17 year old of her liberty.

Expert evidence in children proceedings: principles for practice and better outcomes

Expert evidence in children proceedings: principles for practice and better outcomes

Apr 16, 2026

Children law update - Easter 2026

Children law update - Easter 2026

Apr 15, 2026

Good practice in post-adoption contact

Good practice in post-adoption contact

Apr 15, 2026

An ‘intolerable’ deprivation of liberty – and the need for reasons

An ‘intolerable’ deprivation of liberty – and the need for reasons

Apr 15, 2026

Dispensing with notice to father

Dispensing with notice to father

Apr 02, 2026

The new PD27A: a step change in Family Court bundle and document management

Apr 02, 2026

DOLS and Under 16s: Insights from Medway Council v A Father

Mar 19, 2026

Removal from kinship care

Mar 18, 2026

Navigating the expansion of foster care

Mar 18, 2026

Adoption vs long-term fostering

Mar 13, 2026

Care leavers and redaction of records

Mar 13, 2026

“Unusual facts and procedural irregularities”

Mar 13, 2026

Disclosure to the DBS

Mar 06, 2026

Transparency in FII cases

Feb 26, 2026

Withdrawing applications for care orders

Feb 19, 2026

Children under 16 and deprivation of liberty

Feb 18, 2026

Threshold findings and final orders at Issues Resolution Hearings

Feb 06, 2026

Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Family Courts

Feb 06, 2026

Cross-border placements of children

Jan 30, 2026

Transparency and the scope of PD12R FPR 2010

Jan 30, 2026

Sponsored articles

How Finders International Supports Council Officers

Councils across the UK face a growing number of complex cases involving deceased individuals with no known next of kin, unclaimed estates,…

How hair strand testing should be instructed for family court proceedings

For years, FTS, a drug, alcohol and DNA lab in Yorkshire, has been advocating for an end to the use of Society of Hair Testing (SoHT)…

Webinars

Family Law Week Webinar - Financial Remedies Update

In this webinar for Family Law Week, Siân Smith explores the most recent developments in financial remedies case law and procedure over the last 12 months.

Putting Children First: the Evolving Role of the Family Law Professional

Lessons learned in 2025 - a public law update

Leaving care provisions demystified!

Interveners in financial remedy proceedings

Standish 18 months on

Pathfinder and the Sunflowers