Emma Hitchings

‘More Adoptions, More Quickly’: A Study of Social Workers' Responses to the Adoption and Children Act 2002

This article draws on findings from a small pilot study seeking an early indication, from the social worker perspective, of the impact of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 on the adoption process. The article discusses several issues. These issues include government targets, recruitment drives, training, disruptions and post‐adoption support. We found that some social workers in the field of adoption harbour grave concerns regarding New Labours ‘more adoptions more quickly’ approach. The findings suggest that it can be very difficult for social workers to communicate effectively to prospective adopters the type of child that is available for adoption. This difficulty may be exacerbated by the new, quicker approach to adoption approval. Furthermore, whilst social workers may welcome the provision of increased post‐adoption support, the article points to the importance that social workers attach to post‐qualifying training for tackling communication problems between social workers and prospective adopters. They also attach importance to the provision of improved training for prospective adopters, in order that such adopters are appropriately prepared to parent a looked after child.

Mediation, financial remedies, information provision and legal advice: the post-LASPO conundrum*

Abstract The near-total collapse in numbers of solicitors providing legal advice and assistance to publicly-funded clients attempting to settle private family law issues through mediation since the legal aid reforms implemented in 2013 raises important questions about how, if at all, clients in mediation can receive legal information and advice other than from lawyers in financial cases following divorce. This article explores, in a preliminary way, this aspect of mediation practice, drawing on small-scale qualitative data from a study conducted shortly prior to the legal aid reforms concerning the settlement of such cases. It explores how mediators then approached their (permissible) function of providing clients with legal information and how they dealt with cases where they felt that the proposed outcome was particularly unfair to one party or unlikely to be endorsed by a court, and asks how mediation practice – and legal practice – may come under pressure to change in this brave new world.

Family mediation (3rd ed.)

than income and Chapter 19 (Pension Orders and Periodical Payments: Attachment, Sharing and Interaction) addresses the use and value of seeking an order for periodical payments attached to a pension as against a pension sharing order which distributes the pension rights between the parties on divorce. The book also deals with some of the other more common “externalities” surrounding or affecting periodical payments made between spouses and partners such as bankruptcy (Chapter 13), orders for the benefit of children of the family (Chapter 20) and nuptial agreements (Chapter 21). The author makes clear from the outset that his target audience is “a wide range of readers, from law students, through to solicitors, barristers, mediators and finance professionals, whether generalists or specializing in family law.” And while the book reads as a coherent and largely self-contained text, it might be questioned whether professional advisers, and especially those who practice family law, might have found the book of greater practical value if it had dealt equally with all types of financial provision on divorce, rather than focusing on periodical payments between spouses and civil partners. That said, the book is enlightening for those not already familiar with the topic and offers perspectives and advice which even well-informed family law professionals are likely to find engaging and valuable.