A crossbencher is a minor party or independent member of some legislatures,such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches,between and perpendicular to the government and opposition benches,where crossbenchers sit in the chamber.
Victoria Adjo Climbié was an eight-year-old Ivorian girl who was tortured and murdered by her great-aunt and her great-aunt's boyfriend. Her death led to a public inquiry,and produced major changes in child protection policies in the United Kingdom.
ContactPoint was a government database in England that provided a way for those working with children and young people to find out who else is working with the same child or young person,making it easier to deliver more coordinated support. It was created in response to the abuse and death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbiéin 2000 in England. Various agencies involved in her care had failed to prevent her death,in particular by individually never realising other agencies had been in contact with Victoria.
Dame Janet Hilary Smith,,styled The Rt Hon. Lady Justice Smith,is an English barrister and former High Court Judge and President of the Council of The Inns of Court. She was the judge who prepared The Shipman Inquiry and the Dame Janet Smith Review,.
Norman Reginald Warner,Baron Warner,,is a British former civil servant and member of the House of Lords. A career civil servant from 1960,he was created a life peer in 1998. He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department of Health from 2003 to 2007,and Minister of State at the Department of Health from 2005 to 2007. He has also been an adviser to a number of consulting companies. In October 2015,Warner resigned the Labour whip and became a non-affiliated and then crossbench member of the House of Lords,serving until his retirement in 2024.
Nuala Patricia O'Loan,Baroness O'Loan,,is a public figure in Northern Ireland. From 1999 to 2007,she was the first Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. In July 2009,it was announced that she was to be appointed to the House of Lords and she was so appointed in September 2009. In December 2010,National University of Ireland,Maynooth,appointed her as the chairman of its governing authority. She is a columnist with The Irish Catholic.
The Orkney child abuse scandal began on 27 February 1991,when social workers and police removed children—five boys and four girls,aged eight to fifteen and all from the families of English "incomers"—from their homes on the island of South Ronaldsay in Orkney,Scotland,because of allegations of child abuse. The children denied that any abuse had occurred,and medical examinations did not reveal any evidence of abuse.
Kamlesh Kumar Patel,Baron Patel of Bradford,is a member of the House of Lords. Having been appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours,he was created a life peer as Baron Patel of Bradford,of Bradford in the County of West Yorkshire on 8 June 2006. He currently sits as a non-affiliated peer,as of 20 March 2018,but has previously sat as a crossbench (2006–2008),Labour (2008–2012) and Labour and Co-operative (2012–2018) peer.
The Children Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
The Office of theChildren's Commissioner for England is a non-departmental public body in England responsible for promoting and protecting the rights of children as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,as well as other human rights legislation,such as the Human Rights Act 1998. The Children's Commissioner was established under the Children Act 2004 to "represent the views and interests of children",and the office was further strengthened by the Children and Families Act 2014 providing a legal mandate to promote and protect the rights of children. According to the Commissioner's website,the role's purpose is to facilitate long-term improvements for all children,and in particular for the most vulnerable,and involves “being the eyes and ears of children within the system and the country as a whole",as well as acting with political independence from government,children's agencies and the voluntary and private sectors. The Children's Commissioner also has a duty to speak on behalf of all children in the United Kingdom on non-devolved issues,which include immigration,and youth justice in Wales.
Maria Ann Colwell was a British child who was killed by her stepfather in January 1973. The case was widely reported at the time and resulted in a public enquiry:Committee of Inquiry into the Care and Supervision Provided in Relation to Maria Colwell (1974). Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Care and Supervision provided by local authorities and other agencies in Relation to Maria Colwell and the co-ordination between them.
Children have been accused of witchcraft,both historically and in contemporary times,in societies that harbor beliefs about the existence of witches and black magic. These accusations have led to punishment,imprisonment,torture,and execution of children.
The timeline of children's rights in the United Kingdom includes a variety of events that are both political and grassroots in nature.
The Shipman Inquiry was the report produced by a British governmental investigation into the activities of general practitioner and serial killer Harold Shipman. Shipman was arrested in September 1998 and the inquiry commenced shortly after he was found guilty of 15 murders in January 2000. It released its findings in various stages,with its sixth and final report being released on 27 January 2005 –by which time Shipman had died by suicide in prison. It was chaired by Dame Janet Smith DBE.
Peter Connelly was a 17-month-old British boy who was killed in London in 2007 after suffering more than fifty injuries over an eight-month period,during which he was repeatedly seen by the London Borough of Haringey Children's services and National Health Service (NHS) health professionals. Baby P's real first name was revealed as "Peter" on the conclusion of a subsequent trial of Peter's mother's boyfriend on a charge of raping a two-year-old. His full identity was revealed when his killers were named after the expiry of a court anonymity order on 10 August 2009.
Frank Beck was an English convicted child sex offender. He was employed by the Leicestershire County Council as the officer-in-charge of several children's homes in Leicestershire,between 1973 and 1986. Though holding only a 'middle management' grade within the hierarchy of Leicestershire Social Services,Beck quickly established an esteemed reputation among his professional peers as an innovative,dynamic and extraordinarily effective practitioner in dealing with the emotional and behavioural complexities of troubled young people placed in his charge. Beck was later at the centre of Britain's biggest investigation into institutional child abuse,between 1989 and 1991.
Forced adoption in Australia was the practice of taking babies from unmarried mothers,against their will,and placing them for adoption. In 2012 the Australian Senate Inquiry Report into Forced Adoption Practices found that babies were taken illegally by doctors,nurses,social workers and religious figures,sometimes with the assistance of adoption agencies or other authorities,and adopted to married couples. Some mothers were coerced,drugged and illegally had their consent taken. Many of these adoptions occurred after the mothers were sent away by their families 'due to the stigma associated with being pregnant and unmarried'. The removals occurred predominantly in the second half of the twentieth century. According to Sydney Morning Herald journalist,Marissa Calligeros,it was a practice which has been described as 'institutionalised baby farming'. In evidence given to the New South Wales Parliamentary Inquiry into Adoption,Centrecare's Chief Social Researcher was quoted as admitting to "a stolen white generation."
Forced adoption is the practice of removing children permanently from their parents and the subsequent adoption of those children,following intervention by the Children's Services department of a Local Authority in the United Kingdom.
Public service interpreting in the UK is used by police,courts,immigration services,solicitors,local government,health providers and every other part of the public services that has a language need.
Charles William Harley Hay,16th Earl of Kinnoull,styled Viscount Dupplin until 2013,is a Scottish hereditary peer and Crossbench member of the House of Lords,who serves as Convenor of the Crossbench Peers.
