The Care Department

At Brendan Flemings we have one of the largest Care Departments in the country.  In Birmingham is it said that we do about a third of all of the cases currently going through the Birmingham Courts.  We have three dedicated Solicitors who are on a Special Panel called The Children’s Panel. They are Michael Green, Indy Thind and Brendan Fleming.

Indy Thind also has a Higher Rights of Audience Certificate which makes him ideally placed to deal with some of the most complex Children’s Cases currently before the Birmingham Courts. He represents Parents and Children alike in some of the most complex cases before the Birmingham Courts.  Some of these cases involve substance abuse e.g. drugs and alcohol but equally others involve allegations of long-term neglect.  We also handle those cases where there is physical and emotional injuries. We have handled haematomas, head injuries, sexual abuse cases and we are involved in some very complex cases at the moment.

We have even set up a Complex Cases Unit at Brendan Fleming Solicitors and this is headed by Anne Tidmarsh who at anyone time will have only five of the most difficult and sensitive cases that this firm is handling.  Currently she has cases involving parents who have learning disabilities, a case that has been proceeding through the Courts for five years and which is ending up in the Court of Appeal as well as cases involving multiple experts such as Psychologists and Psychiatrists.

At Brendan Flemings we have two separate departments dealing with Care Work.  One department deals exclusively with the adults involved in the process i.e. parents and kinship carers and the other department deals with the representation of children where we take instructions from the Guardians who are appointed by the Court.  We can be representing children and young people of a wide range of ages from babies born today to adolescents. On some occasions we are representing six or seven children in one case!

The work is so varied that we need to be multi-talented and have detailed knowledge about the following:

(a) Criminal Law
(b) Civil Law
(c) Family Law
(d) Substance abuse including alcohol and drugs
(e) Physical injuries to a child
(f) Paediatric issues
(g) Medical issues
(h) Issues concerning long-term neglect
(i) We need to have a very good understanding of psychological issues
(j) We often deal with people who have got mental health problems and so we need to have a good knowledge of psychiatric disorders
(k) We need to have a good working knowledge of the latest testing methods for drugs and alcohol e.g. hair strand testing, saliva tests, blood tests, urine tests
(l) We need to home advocacy skills because we are frequently involved in Courts contesting Emergency Protection Orders some times at the weekends on Saturdays and Sundays or late into the evening and we also have to represent parents at very short notice who wish to oppose the Local Authority taking their children into care.

For this reason the Care Department never stops work literally.  We are open everyday and last year we were involved in a contested case in Telford Court right up until about 9.00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. We are all on call and able to contact each other all the time and we will always turn out for any child or any parent at any time in the day to represent them in the Family Court in an emergency.

We also have a dedicated Family Lounge where we allow contact to take place between parents and their children to facilitate the process and to maintain the bond between the parents and their children.

We are frequently called upon to advise Guardians about attachments to children and so we have to have a good working knowledge of the principles of emotional attachment.  We also have a good knowledge of motivational changes and internalised working models of parenting and other psychological concepts.

We have to attend courses on a frequent basis to update ourselves not just with the law but with the latest medical science relating to subdural haematomas, retinal haemorrhaging, psychological and psychiatric trends as well as keeping up-to-date with the Criminal and Civil Law.

We have to keep abreast of housing issues because frequently we are called upon to advise on housing issues so that clients can re-house with their children and this involves invoking the protocol, understanding the Housing Act and we also have to be very good at understanding how Residential and Community Based Assessments operate and are run.

We have to keep up-to-date with the latest law relating to Social Workers to allow us to understand their part in the process and to keep up-to-date with the good practice for Guardians as well as the latest Legal Aid obligations.  At the end of the day none of us would want to do any other sort of work as doing care work is the greatest privilege that one can undertake in any field of law and the satisfaction at the end of the case by getting the right result is beyond belief.

As part of Brendan Fleming Solicitors culture of acting for the ordinary man in the street, we never, never, never act for the Local Authority as we prefer always to represent children, parents and families and that way we an maintain our complete independence.

If you would like to be involved in this type of work at Brendan Flemings whether you be a Solicitor or budding Solicitor or a Paralegal or just someone who feels that you can make a contribution to this work and make peoples lives better please feel free to apply on line at Brendan Fleming Solicitors.