Openness and Children's Views

The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) is seeking children's views on:

• judges speaking to children involved in their parents' separation cases or in care proceedings to ask their views, and tell them the court's decision;
• new guidelines for giving children their own legal representation in their parents' separation case;
• when they reach adulthood, giving children full information about the court's judgment in cases where decisions about them have been made.

The online discussion forum for young people (www.ofcf.net) was launched on 1 September and will run until 9 October 2006. The consultation paper Confidence and Confidentiality: Improving Transparency and Privacy in Family Courts is available from the DCA website www.dca.gov.uk/consult/courttransparencey1106/cp1106.htm. The consultation paper was published on 11 July 2006 and ends on 30 October 2006. For further details see [2006] Fam Law 620.

The Separate Representation of Children consultation paper was published on 1 September and the consultation closes on 8 December 2006. The paper is available on the DCA website at www.dca.gov.uk/consult/separate_representation/cp2006.htm. See further Newswatch above. See October [2006] Fam Law for the full news article.