This is the fourth and final volume of reports we are publishing in 2015. The themes identified in previous volumes continue to feature strongly: cognitive disability, alcohol and drug abuse, mental illness, membership of ethnic minorities, including the Travelling community. We also publish a number of cases from the High Court, which reveal the continuing difficulty of finding appropriate secure places for young people with psychological and behavioural problems.
This volume also brings to an end this phase of the work of the Child Care Law Reporting Project. We will continue to publish reports of cases, but we will be reporting less on routine hearings and focusing instead on more protracted and difficult cases. This reporting will combined with qualitative research into the reasons why certain cases become very difficult and protracted, which can adversely affect the children at the heart of the proceedings.
