Article 39 director wins award over campaign to scrap children’s social care exemptions
Fiona Simpson
Thursday, October 1, 2020
A children’s rights campaigner who launched legal action against the government over children’s social care exemptions has been recognised with a national awards.
Carolyne Willow, director of children’s rights charity Article 39, was awarded the Outstanding Leadership prize at the Sheila McKechnie National Campaigner Awards.
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Willow won the award through ensuring the government kept in place long-standing statutory social care duties to children, judges said.
Most recently, Article 39 launched a judicial review over the introduction of exemptions to children’s social care in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite a High Court judge ruling that the Department for Education did not act unlawfully by introducing the Adoption and Children (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, Willow is now awaiting the results of a Court of Appeal hearing on the issue.
In 2016, a parliamentary Bill was introduced that would have allowed councils in England to opt-out of their children’s social care statutory duties for up to six years.
In response to the Bill, Willow established the coalition Together for Children to challenge the clauses.
A campaign petition attracted more than 108,000 signatures and the House of Lords voted to delete the clauses, with peers accusing the government of subverting Parliament’s constitutional position.
A revised set of clauses was voted into the Bill when it reached the Commons but following further campaigning they were dropped altogether. In March 2017, the campaign achieved its aims and the amendments were dropped.
Willow said: “What Together for Children has shown is that there is a large and growing body of organisations and individuals ready to publicly defend children’s rights and stand up to successive government attempts to dismantle the statutory framework for children’s social care.
"Together for Children’s shared values and commitment, alongside first-hand knowledge of the importance of legal protections, have given us strength and momentum. We all want the rights of children and young people, and their families, to be respected and upheld – we’ve shown that collective action really does work.”
