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Sir James Munby interviewed in Tortoise Case File: “We are operating in the dark”

Sir James Munby, Chair of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, met with Tortoise Media writer Polly Curtis to discuss rates of family separation, the “postcode lottery” and the increase in care cases in England. 

From the editor of the article, David Taylor: 

The number of children being separated from their parents and put into care is higher than at any point since the 1980s.

After six months investigating the reasons why more children are going into care, we’ve examined a range of factors: failures such as the death of Baby P have made social work more risk adverse; there has been the double blow of deprivation putting parents under pressure at the precise moment that the government was cutting support services to them; importantly, how we judge abuse and neglect of children has changed from detecting physical bruises to assessing risk of neglect and emotional harm.

But we wanted to ask someone in a unique position to know: the man who was responsible for running the family courts in England and Wales. 

David Taylor

You can read the full article here

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