On 2 March 2023, the Department for Education (DfE), after much anticipation, issued its SEND Improvement Plan: An initial overview. The plan is a follow-up to the March 2022 green paper SEND Review; Right Support, Right Place, Right Time and explains what the Government intends to do to make sure more children and young people…
Leading children’s organisations and charities have written to the Home Secretary to express concern at plans in the Illegal Migration Bill to reintroduce child detention. They have condemned the child detention proposals in the Bill as ‘immoral’ and in breach of international law. Reneging on ban on child detention The coalition government committed to end…
The UK’s commitment to the Refugee Convention was undermined last year with the Nationality and Borders Act, and this new proposal goes further. It effectively puts a fence up around the UK’s asylum system, with no way in for children and young people seeking safety. Children who come to the UK with their families will…
The Justice and Home Affairs Committee recently published its report All families matter: An inquiry into family migration following its inquiry into family migration in the UK. The aim of the inquiry was to approach family migration policies in the widest possible sense, looking at general trends in the design of family immigration pathways, as well…
CCLC is concerned that the government may change child protection law to become the corporate parent of an unaccompanied asylum-seeking child
We are devastated by the loss of a formidable young campaigner, Aisha Hamzat, who passed away suddenly at the end of 2022. As well as studying at university and working with several different organisations and youth representative bodies, Aisha was employed by CCLC as a Youth Rights Trainer and policy ambassador. Aisha campaigned for the…
The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, today met with staff from Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC) and Coram Family and Childcare (CFC) at CCLC’s Leeds office, to hear about Coram’s work to support families in a number of key areas. Rachel Reeves, the MP for Leeds West, was welcomed by Coram CEO Dr…
The House of Lords Children and Families Act 2014 Committee recently published their report ”Children and Families Act 2014: A failure of implementation”, in which Coram’s evidence features strongly. The report found that vulnerable children and families are being failed by inadequate implementation of this legislation and makes a number of recommendations on how the…
Qaisar Sheikh, head of Education Law at CCLC, has been named Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year in the category of public law at the Legal Aid Practitioner Group’s 20th Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year awards which took place on the 12th of July. Qaisar received the award from Baroness Helena Kennedy and said:…
Coram Children’s Legal Centre has strongly opposed, in both legal and moral terms, the UK government’s plan to permanently remove people trying to claim asylum in the UK to Rwanda. There have recently been serious concerns raised over children – who have been incorrectly age assessed as adults – being caught up under the policy.…
On 26th May the Home Office published new guidance to allow a fee waiver for the registration of some children as British Citizens. After years of campaigning and organising on this, Coram Children’s Legal Centre and Citizens UK welcome this important step. This announcement, following legal challenge by the Project for the Registration of Children as…
CCLC successfully defends taking a holistic approach to section 9 of the Education Act 1996, in an important decision on Education, Health and Care plans (EHC plans). Qaisar Sheikh, Head of Education Law at CCLC, was instructed by the parent of a boy with complex needs in the case of London Borough of Croydon v…