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Child Care Solicitors

A week in the life of a Childcare Solicitor (8 August 2012)

Date: 08/08/2012
Duncan Lewis, Child Care Solicitors, A week in the life of a Childcare Solicitor

By Laila BhunnooMonday

As a childcare solicitor, you give an undertaking that you will attend all of your hearings. I try and do this although sometimes this isn’t possible due to double booking.

Today, I was representing a 6 year old girl, Sandra whose parents had drug and alcohol dependencies and so had been ruled out as carers. Fortunately, Sandra was able to stay within the family as her uncle and aunty had been successfully assessed to look after her.

The parents were opposing the level of contact that was suggested to take place after the final order had been made however, neither of them had attended.

After a few phone calls, we understood that the parents had checked in to a detoxification/rehabilitation unit and had successfully weaned themselves off from methadone and today was their first day free of any drug substances.

The parents were able to provide instructions by telephone to their solicitor, that they were trying to concentrate on themselves and understood why, for the time being, they would see Sandra 6 times a year, whilst also being able to send letters, cards and photographs in between.

This is a successful outcome for this little girl who will be moving out of London to join her full-sibling, with whom she hadn’t lived with for the last 3 years.

Tuesday

One of my favourite aspects of my job is visiting children whether they are just a few hours old in a hospital, or teenagers with very strong opinions. Today, I am visiting a 10 year old girl called Zoubeda, who was born in Northern Africa. She is the subject of a dispute between her parents and she currently lives with her father and two younger brothers.

Her mother has made an application for contact having not seen her children for 2 years.

Zoubeda is very excited about moving to a new home and also having her own solicitor, having already met her Guardian. She is quite the hostess offering drinks and cakes her father has made. She happily talks about school and shows me all of her jewellery and beautiful outfits.


Wednesday


A teenage child whom I represent, kept absconding from her placement in London and so a recovery order was made by the court. Sara was collected by the police from her mother’s home. Social services then placed her in a residential placement outside of London.

I am going to visit Sara and my day starts very early, to take the train to Carlisle, to visit her.

She is finding it difficult to adjust to being there, especially as Carlisle is a very monocultural area. However, she is pleased that she will be travelling to Birmingham to buy hair-styling products, for her specific type of hair, which is not available on the borders of Scotland.

Thursday

Part of my role as Head of Department, is holding regular meetings with my teams, when we will go through the diary, to make sure that all hearings have someone attending from the home. Each member of the team also speaks about any new cases they may have.

Internal training is also organised, giving junior members of the teams the opportunity to deliver training about developments in the law and break-through decisions made in cases.

I supervise the childcare department in Hackney, Shepherds Bush and the family and childcare department in Tooting and so it is nice for everyone to get together once a month and share experiences, which might continue over cocktails/tea and cakes/dinner.

Friday

Family and Childcare Directors meetings are held once a month with the Board of Directors to go through what has been happening with the whole of the department.

Performance tables are reviewed and the needs of each team are discussed, which may include recruitment, marketing and ways of networking.

It is a useful way of reviewing what is going on in the whole department, looking at the bigger picture and progressing matters forward.

Although the meetings are usually held in Harrow, by the time they conclude, it is time for me to indulge in my other passion, which is teaching meditation. There is no doubt that this keeps me calm and reflective in every day life especially with the work that I do.


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