Family Law Inverness Latest News

The Care Inspectorate has recently published its first report on adoption services in Scotland.

There are 39 services currently in operation in Scotland and the report found that the majority were performing well and had received good grades during their inspections.

The Care Inspectorate has the power to investigate complaints against all care services, including anonymous complaints if necessary. There have been no upheld complaints in the last three years in relation to adoption services. The last upheld complaint against an adoption service was in April 2010.

Single-parent charity Gingerbread has called on English councils to keep child maintenance out of council tax support calculations, claiming that low-income families will be significantly worse off if this is not done.

According to the charity, there are four main reasons why child maintenance should be left out of council tax support calculations. It argues that including maintenance will:

- Increase the risk of child poverty among single parents – whose children are already twice as likely to live in poverty.

Local authorities in the UK should invest in support care schemes as a cost-effective way of supporting families and keeping children out of more expensive full-time care, the Fostering Network has urged.

The charity’s call comes with the publication of new research by Loughborough University showing that support care, including the accompanying support services for families, has a far lower unit cost than the foster care it replaces and aims to avoid longer term.

Support care is short-term preventative foster care aimed at families in crisis with a view to avoiding a child being take into care full time and long term. Support carers look after the child on a part-time basis, for example one night a week or one weekend a month, for a time limited period. At the same time a package of other support services is offered to the family, giving them space, guidance and help to work through their problems.

The minister responsible for child maintenance has hailed the progress that has been made in separated parents accepting financial responsibility for their children. At a key summit on children and young people he said Britain has in recent years “turned an important corner.”

According to Steve Webb, more than four in five separated parents are now paying towards their children through the Child Support Agency (CSA). That’s up from around two in three parents paying towards their children five years ago. He said that the reforms to the child maintenance system are essential to get more parents working together.

The government has embarked on the biggest reform to the child support system in a generation, with a new focus on parental collaboration rather than reliance on the state for assistance.

More than £300 million in maintenance was collected for children from April to June this year, vital support which single parent charity Gingerbread warns is at risk as the Child Support Agency (CSA) prepares for closure.

Existing cases with the CSA will be closed and parents will have to reapply to the new Child Maintenance Service (CMS), once case closure begins next year. Trials of the new scheme have already begun.

To reopen their case, parents will have to pay £20 up front and may face ongoing collection charges if the paying parent fails to pay and the CMS is required to step in.