Family Rights Group’s Campaign Goals

The charity campaigns for reforms to improve the lives of children and families including:

• Access to effective preventative services and support for families to help children.
• A right to independent legal advice and advocacy for all families whose children are subject to child protection enquiries or other compulsory interventions within the child welfare or family justice system, including through extending legal aid.
• A right for all families to be offered a family group conference before their child enters the care system (except in emergencies) so that the family’s knowledge and strengths inform and enhance decision-making and planning about their child and all efforts are made to enable the child to remain safely within the family network.
• Where the plan is for a child to return home from care, there is a duty on the local authority and other public agencies to provide (or once the child has returned home continue to offer) such support to the child and family as necessary to safeguard the child and promote their welfare.
• Kinship care households are properly supported and resourced to maximise the chances of positive outcomes for the children, and that kinship carers are not plunged into poverty or discriminated against for taking on the children.
• A duty on local authorities to offer therapeutic support and counselling to mothers and fathers whose children are removed, to help them deal with their grief and to address the reasons why their child was removed.
• That the law is changed to require local authorities to allow a looked after child reasonable contact with their brothers and sisters.
• Every child in care has the opportunity of Lifelong Links, to help build and maintain a support network that they can turn to in child and adulthood.

And that the above services and duties are adequately funded by Government.