Corporate parent v birth parent, who makes the final decision?

Can a chlid who is looked after, receive the Covid vaccination without parental consent? An important question that was considered in the case of C(Looked After Child) (Covide-19 Vaccination) [2021] EWHC 2993 (Fam) Summary of the case: The case relates to a child known as C, who is 13 years… Continue reading

Are you up to date with the Domestic Abuse Act 2021?

Do you want to be up to date with legislation bur worried that this may be boring boring? We can help you as our mission at Kingsley Knight Training is to make the law easy to understand so that as social care professionals you are able to support children, families… Continue reading

Judge criticises social worker for poor case records

A recent case highlights the importance of social work case records, in which the Judge advised the local authority to undertake training in gathering, preserving and disclosing evidence. Don’t be left vulnerable to the consequences of poor evidence, read the tips provided by Kingsley Knight on the importance of contemporaneous… Continue reading

SGOs: free training to secure better outcomes in court

The use of special guardianship orders (SGOs) have grown rapidly in recent years. However, the amount of time allowed to carry out thorough and robust assessments is often limited, particularly when the matter is already in court. At times, this has led to very tragic circumstances such as the death… Continue reading

Free court skills training for time-poor social workers

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) reported* an increase in children and adult law applications during 2016. This is likely to be placing even more pressure on social workers because, in addition to more court attendances, you also have greater legal responsibilities in preparation of court documents with shorter timescales. I… Continue reading

Get ahead with the legal update on the Children and Social Work Act

Children Social Work Bill

Children and Social Work Act 2017 The government’s intention with this legislation was to overhaul social work. Read on to see what this means for frontline workers, vulnerable children and care leavers. There were mixed views as to whether this legislation once passed did result in the social work profession’s… Continue reading

Social Work Evidence Template Update

Local authority social workers preparing court statements, are you up to date? Today’s briefing gives an update on the national social work template. Practice areas affected Local Authority children’ social workers from the children’s safeguarding teams, children’s guardians and social workers from the fostering and adoption teams. Introduction The national… Continue reading

Social Workers, beware – no jargon, use plain language

Social worker - beware no jargon

One of the great qualities that a social care worker should possess is the ability to communicate clearly. This skill also needs to be transferrable in any written work that the social care worker produces. The need for clear oral and written communication was recently highlighted in a reported care case {Derbyshire County Council v SH [2015] EWFC B102}. In this case the Judge was highly critical of the social workers and named them personally in the judgement. Continue reading