Kamena Dorling, head of policy and public affairs at Coram Children's Legal Centre, looks at calls for changes to special guardianship orders to ensure that carers are adequately prepared and supported.
Emily Blackshaw, lead quantitative analyst and Max Stanford, head of impact and evaluation at Coram outline findings from an evaluation of the use of FGCs at the pre-proceedings stage.
Slough will become the second local authority to have its children's services transferred to an independent trust after children's minister Edward Timpson dismissed council proposals for alternative arrangements.
The head of children's services for Kirklees has been announced as the vice president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services for 2014/15.