Family Rights Group in response to Mr Justice Ryder's proposal for the modernisation of family justice

No-one involved in child welfare could question the intention of reducing harmful delay for children in the family justice system. But there are unintended dangers to the proposed six month time limit in the forthcoming Children and Families Bill for all care proceedings save in exceptional cases. The timescale will reduce the time available for parents to demonstrate their parenting abilities and will potentially squeeze out wider family members who want to take on the care of a child who cannot live with their parents because there may simply not be enough time for them to be assessed and considered once proceedings are underway. At a time when care order applications are at a record high and there is a severe shortage of foster carers there is a risk that some children will therefore end up subject to a series of temporary unrelated placements in many cases split up even from their siblings when they could have lived securely within their family network.

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