The complexity of child care cases

The protection of children from abuse and neglect is an issue that has generated extensive public debate and a series of detailed inquiries in recent years.

Just a fortnight ago, the full gaze of the national media was focused on removal of children from Roma families due to (unfounded) concerns about their identity.

Yet in spite of all of this documentation and discussion, society has known little or nothing to date about the court proceedings that determine whether (and how) the State intervenes in family life to protect children at risk.