23 Dec 2009

Parental Responsibility: Request for Assistance

We are currently compiling our list of “standard” correspondence packs, tailored to individual requirements, that will form the basis of our “self-help” section for Non Resident Parents with Parental Responsibility.  These packs will contain a selection of automatically generated letters that should be sent to various central & local government departments, Non Governmental Organisations and other authorities that we believe will enhance and enforce your rights as a parent with parental responsibility.

The principles behind the wording of these letters comes from existing legislation and regulations and a small section of policy and regulations are listed in our document http://wheresmydadorguk.giving.officelive.com/Documents/Gov%20Policy%20Statements.doc which can be currently used to remind the authorities you can have the information about your child(ren) you’re asking for.

However, as part of this project, we are currently generating a comprehensive knowledge base of legislation, rules, regulations  & policies for both UK and EU Government.  This “simple” task has many, many, many (!) related articles, with incremental changes and branches and we are mapping the relationships for publication 1st quarter 2010.  This map will be automatically updated as new regulations are proposed and enacted.  This project is well progressed, and on schedule.  A small demonstration of the “proof of concept” will be available on our soon to be published new website and we will welcome your suggestions for improvement.

The computer techies out there will recognise the above problem with team-based business system development, and it is analogous to the Change & Configuration Management process.

The next “phase” is the local government regulations and policies, along with upward mapping to UK/EU regulations and polices.  This is where we will be needing your help!  We will, of course, be contacting all the local government bodies within England & Wales, and asking for copies of their interpretations and policy documents. In the meantime, if people could ask their local authority for this information, we can use it should they not want to help us with our project.  An electronic version of any information you can get would be most welcome – please send your contributions to localpolicy.project@wheresmydad.org.uk

1 Dec 2009

Just a quick reminder about our blog address’s

As part of our website (http://www.wheresmydad.org.uk) changes, we have decided on the following internet services:

Our blogging services are:

MS Live Space at http://wheresmydad.spaces.live.com/default.aspx
WordPress at http://wheresmydad.wordpress.com/

we micro-blog using the following services:

Twitter at http://twitter.com/wheresmydad
Brightkite at http://brightkite.com/people/wheresmydad

our Social Network site is

Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/wheresmydad.org.uk

and we publish items to/from the above services via our Google Shared Page at http://www.google.com/reader/shared/wheresmydad

Our website will primarily be based on Joomla.

A new data publishing chart will be published soon, including a list of the applications used.

16 Jul 2009

BBC 2, 11:20pm, 16 July 2009

A BBC programme entitled 'Death of Respect', in which Coleridge J has a part, is being shown tonight at 11.20pm on BBC 2.

The programme, which is about the state of family life in this country, could be well worth watching. It is very unusual for a High Court judge to take part in such a programme.

Is Britain broken, breaking or just fragmenting a bit round the edges?

John Ware asks what has happened to British values and behaviour over the last 50 years. As Britons, we lead Europe in everything from brand awareness and rates of obesity to public drunkenness, drug use, sexually transmitted infections and family breakdown. We also intervene less in acts of public nuisance while mutual mistrust between adults and children is growing. How ever did we get to where we are today? And how do we find our way again?

Family Law Week blog: Applications for leave to revoke placement orders

Family Law Week blog: Applications for leave to revoke placement orders