One year as Justice First Fellow at Family Rights Group

What led me to pursuing a career as a children law solicitor?

Becoming a solicitor was not always the obvious choice for me. It was only at the age of 24 that I decided to pursue a legal career. I had studied International Relations and undertaken internships at the UN and in two NGOs, before really considering that I might like to become a solicitor. A Masters Degree in International Human Rights Law, and a period working as a paralegal within a law centre made things clearer – I wanted to become a social justice lawyer.

Work within the social justice sector

My interest in family and children law followed my time as a paralegal in a regional firm where I focused on private children law work. It was the small number of matters which involved children’s services, or families that need support from the state that sparked my interest.  So, whilst I was all set to become a trainee solicitor within the firm, I knew I wanted to work within the social justice sector.

In Autumn 2022, I decided to apply to the Justice First Fellowship (JFF) programme. This was set up by the Legal Education Foundation with the aim to create the next generation of social justice lawyers by providing training contracts in a variety of organisations, including those in the voluntary sector. I had heard about the amazing training, support, and networking opportunities the programme offers.

Why Family Rights Group?

I had heard about Family Rights Group before, as their advice service, including online resources for families about the child welfare and family justice systems are well known by family lawyers. I realised training at Family Rights Group meant I could focus on children law, but also apply my legal skills to broader policy work, which I was really keen to do.

I was particularly impressed by the reputation they had as leading legal and policy authority on anything to do with kinship care policy. At the law centre I had worked with kinship carers, and had already been struck by the limited support and advice they were able to get. I could tell that with Family Rights Group I would receive excellent legal training, whilst also doing what I wanted to do all along: using my knowledge of the law to help families and promote their rights. I was delighted to join the Family Rights Group legal team in April 2023.

Getting started – the first six months

I had not done a lot of children public law work before arriving at Family Rights Group so I was worried about being out of my depth. I knew that the child welfare and family justice systems are complex, and that social care practice varies significantly across the country. From learning about the underlying principles of the Children Act 1989 to understanding the system issues underlying the record numbers of children being looked after in the care system. To learning how critical the expertise of families is in helping to understand how national policies and laws play out and are experienced at local level. This was daunting at first, but my team gave me the time and support to be able to fully comprehend the context of the work we do, and why our work is so important.

Myriam Naoual, left, supporting a session of the Family Rights Group facilitated All Party Parliamentary Group on Kinship Care.

Operating on many fronts

I was also able to meet with members of each team across the organisation to get a better understanding of their roles and the projects they work on. One aspect of Family Rights Group’s work that makes my training quite different to some other children lawyers, is that we work very closely with our social work team, to understand how both areas of expertise can be drawn on, when supporting families.

I also quickly realised that Family Rights Group operates on many fronts. We are a small organisation, but we do a lot!  The work we do sometimes feels like a gigantic web with many strands which are all connected. This means that I did a variety of work in my first six months. One day I would be reviewing and summarising case law relevant to our work. The next I would be drafting a response to a government consultation, and then on a third day I would be writing advice for parents or kinship carers who are involved with children’s services. This is a unique experience which I do not think I could have had with a traditional law firm training contract. The charity combines legal, social work, policy, public affairs and families’ expertise to successfully influence for legal, policy and practice change at national and local level.

Onto secondment – back to private practice!

In October 2023, I started my secondment at Goodman Ray Solicitors. I gained invaluable practical experience of public children law work, including advising parents involved in care proceedings, and family members looking to take on the care of a young relative in their family. I learned that working in publicly funded children law can be fast-paced and demanding. I felt proud to be supporting families through these difficult processes and it is not an overstatement to say I was learning something new every day on my secondment.

On a typical week I would draft applications to the Family Court, take instructions from clients either face to face or over the phone, draft statements on their behalf and attend hearings with barristers at the Royal Courts of Justice. My time in court was of real value, and I enjoyed collaborating with barristers to ensure the client gets the best advice and representation possible. I speak French, Spanish and Arabic, and realised during my secondment how useful it is to be able to speak several languages when interacting with a variety of clients!

Working directly on care proceedings cases

This secondment was my first experience of working directly on cases where children’s services had issued care proceedings. I learned a lot by seeing how different social work practitioners interact with families, and how families sometimes need a lot more support than they are receiving.

An example that has stayed with me was a mother who did not speak English well – she needed to communicate in Spanish. We quickly built a rapport, and she was relieved to be able to give me her instructions in her language. I soon learned that, despite being involved with her family for some months, children’s services had not provided her with an interpreter for any meetings with the social worker. Nor had important documents relating to her child been translated for her. This had led to a lot of miscommunication and an understandably difficult working relationship. As soon as we started representing the mother, we were able to ensure that children’s services would always provide an interpreter when interacting with her.  This case made very clear to me the importance of parents receiving basic, practical support early on.

Back from secondment – what’s next?

As I am now back from my secondment, the next part of my training will be to fully focus on developing my project. The Justice First Fellowship offers trainee solicitors a chance to work on a project which fits the strategic priorities of their organisation, but also advances access to justice for the wider community.

Young parent legal advice project

I will be working on a project which focuses on providing legal advice to young care-experienced parents. I am very excited to say that this is Family Rights Group’s first legal casework project in recent years, and something that our legal team is delighted to be able to offer. Access to legal aid is severely limited for parents at the early stages of children’s services involvement. Currently,  it is very difficult for parents to get legal advice until children’s services start the formal pre-proceedings process. This is the stage where children’s services are considering starting care proceedings – so a really late point in time to get initial advice.

We know that supporting families to understand their rights and options early on can help difficulties from escalating. This is even more important with young people who are care-experienced, as they often have prior negative experiences of children’s services which may make it more difficult for them to trust and want to engage with practitioners and services.

Throughout our work with our young parent clients, we plan to evaluate the impact that advice and representation can have when we support parents early on, even before the pre-proceedings process.

A well-rounded training experience

Reflecting on my journey as a Justice First Fellow at Family Rights Group, I am grateful for the diverse experiences and opportunities that have shaped my first year as a trainee solicitor. The combination of direct client work, legal research and policy planning has provided me with a well-rounded training experience. I have gained invaluable insights into public children law, and have seen firsthand the profound impact that timely legal support can have on families. As I now turn my focus to developing our new project, I am excited to contribute further to promoting access to justice and supporting young parents.

July 2024