CHILDREN WHO are caught up in a case in the family courts and who want to be present in court should be given permission by the judge (unless there are exceptional circumstances). So said the President of the Family Division, Sir Mark Potter, at the launch of an expanded information pack produced by the NSPCC for youngsters with learning difficulties and disabilities (www.nspcc.org.uk/inform).
The Power Pack easy-read version and DVD, with sign language and subtitles, takes children through their rights, through legal procedures and introduces them to the people they will meet, such as the judge, children’s guardian and solicitor.
Sir Mark said: “It is very important for children to realise that the courts needn’t be a frightening experience.”
After hearing some of those behind the project comment that some judges and other professionals did not want to embrace change and engage with the children, Sir Mark said: “As far as I am concerned, any judge who receives a request from a child to be in court should, unless there are exceptional circumstances, allow them to attend because the proceedings are all about them.”
One of the young people involved in the Power Pack project, Ammanda Walsh, now 20, was 13 when she became the subject of care proceedings. “It was really hard to understand what was happening. It was the local authority against my parents and I was in the middle.”
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A year later, she saw a children’s rights officer who helped her to find a solicitor to advise her on regaining contact with her brothers and sisters. “I felt more in control because I had a good guardian and solicitor, but you still have no experience of what is going to happen. You think it is going to be like the TV but it isn’t. Power Pack helps break down that barrier by giving you an idea of what really happens.”
Anthony Douglas, chief executive of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), welcomed the way children’s voices were starting to be heard as a “sign of hope” for the future.