Source: Daily Mail Published: 24/06/2006

By Benedict Brogan, Political Editor



THE secrecy surrounding the family justice system will be shattered next month under plans to give children who are removed from their parents the right to know why.

Judges and social workers will have to provide a written 'life story' to be handed over when a child in care reaches 18.

It will set out the details of their case and explain the decision to put them up for adoption.
It raises the prospect of teenagers discovering for the first time the harrowing details of their childhood and the truth about their parents.

A radical package of measures to be unveiled by the Government will also open around 400,000 cases a year in the Family Courts to the media and the public.

Ministers are debating going further by giving social workers and courts inspectors the right to scrutinise the way decisions about the future of children are taken.

Frustrated parents have compared the family courts system to Guantanamo Bay for the way it works behind closed doors and with stringent secrecy requirements

They say it is one of the 'dark corners' of British justice that is dominated by unaccountable social workers and is in desperate need of an overhaul.

Campaigners say rules set up to defend a child's privacy are being used to cover up miscarriages of justice.

And they claim that in some cases mothers have been driven to suicide by the impact of having a child removed against their will.

The system handles everything from divorce to settlements to crucial decisions about the future of children, including what contact they should have with their parents.

Its decisions are covered by complex reporting bans that make it a contempt of court to report proceedings or decisions.

Family Law Minister Harriet Harman will announce next month measures to open the courts to public scrutiny.

Questions which they need answered
She will outline plans for a pilot scheme to begin later this year that will see family proceedings in the High Court opened to the public under controlled conditions. Legislation will follow.

Openness will be offset by measures - including a criminal offence - to protect the anonymity of those involved. This gives judges the right to exclude "nosy neighbours'.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs warns to force the courts and social workers to explain their decisions in writing.

What Miss Harman describes as a 'life story' would be handed to the child on its 18th birthday, in an attempt to set the record straight. She argues that a written statement would help to dispel potential family myths, and that the court is the 'most impartial and objective source' to explain the decisions to a young adult.

"For some adopted children, finding their birth parents leaves them with even more questions which they need answered,' she said. They need to know what the court did that changed their life so profoundly and why.'

She added: 'Public confidence depends on public scrutiny. It has to be seen to be believed and justice not only has to be done it has to be seen to be done - including in the family courts.

I think, in this day and age, it is hard for people to value what they cannot see. It is hard for people to have confidence in something which is closed. It is impossible to defend a system from accusations of bias and discrimination if it operates behind closed doors.'

By Benedict Brogan, Political Editor