In Harm’s Way cover art

In Harm’s Way

The Memoir of a Child Protection Lawyer from the Most Secretive Court in England and Wales – the Family Court

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In Harm’s Way

By: Teresa Thornhill
Narrated by: Emma Spurgin Hussey
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About this listen

‘Should be required reading for those who care about how society treats our most vulnerable citizens.’ Louise Allen

When the system fails the parents, how can it protect the children?

Welcome to the secretive world of the Family Court.

What's it like to act for a father who has recently overcome his drug problem but risks losing his beloved son to foster care?

Or to represent a young mother whose abusive childhood has left her depressed and struggling to cope, to the point where the local authority is seeking to persuade the Family Court to place her small children for adoption?

The Family Court makes life-changing decisions about the most vulnerable children in England and Wales behind closed doors. It's an institution tasked with protecting the youngers most at risk, but how often does it make the right decisions?

In this hard-hitting account of her work representing parents in care proceedings in the Family Court, child protection lawyer Teresa Thornhill conveys the dilemmas inherent in the job and shows how our under-resourced system of child protection – in both its social work and legal aspects – often fails to provide support that could enable the most vulnerable parents to continue to care for their children.

‘A vivid account of all the terrible things that can happen to children and all the challenges facing lawyers and social workers in our child protection system which is meant to help and protect them but which struggles to do so. It doesn’t have to be this way so what can be done about it?’ – Rt Hon Lady Hale DBE, Formerly President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

‘This timely book resonated with my experiences as a children’s social worker and probation officer; it’s a refreshingly honest account of our dysfunctional child protection system.’ – Joanna Hughes, former children’s social worker and probation officer.

©2024 Teresa Thornhill (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers
Judicial Systems Law Memoir Adoption

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Most relevant  
on procedures for bringing child protection cases to court and of some individual cases. A clear insight into the failings of the ‘care’ services who are under extreme stress from overwork and underfunding. I found the book heavy going at times. It is very well read and the narrator never flags, even when the text gets long winded and a bit overwhelming.

Very exhaustively detailed

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It gave a great insight into the difficulties faced by our society and especially children.

The honesty of the author

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....interesting insight into another failing and troubling arena of justice. Very informative and engrossing

Eye opening truth

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This book sheds light on a world that is so hidden from the public due to reporting restrictions in family courts, so it give powerful and heartfelt insight into the cases this lawyer may of come across...... the underlying message I took from this is..... social care has zero funds to do proactive work with families who may need some additional support because all the funds are going into the placements of children, I am a care leaver myself so I do understand the system..... but what I fail to understand is why they don't take the approach ok it's (for example) £90 an hour to get the mother with mental health issues specialist trauma counselling and it's on average £5k a week to have a child in a placement for a very basic non specialised placement, why do they not put the work in first before it gets to that, wouldn't they see a shift in the amount of cases that they have to place a child? Who knows......

Informative and listened start to finish

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I learnt so much about children’s law, care proceedings and the local authority’s role regarding children in our communities. I never knew you could be a barrister and join a local authority as a solicitor. It was interesting hearing about cases before the children’s act 1989.

I loved this book

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