Family courts in England and Wales ‘not good enough’ for women and children, minister says

Family courts are “not good enough” and have treated women and children unfairly for decades, a government minister has said.Announcing a major overhaul of the family justice system in England and Wales that will play a central role in “rebalancing” the family courts, Alison Levitt said often brutal legal showdowns will be replaced with a “problem-solving”, child-focused model.Part of a move across the Ministry of Justice to tackle court backlogs, the department said child focused courts – which centre on child welfare and seeks out-of-court resolutions – have reduced child trauma, cut a backlog of cases and reduced waiting times.They will now become the standard model for all section 8 cases, which involve child arrangements including where that child lives, who they have contact with and how long they spend with each parent.The Labour peer, who was Keir Starmer’s principal legal adviser when he was the director of public prosecutions, said that she had been repeatedly accused of sexism since she became a minister last autumn, including as a result of the proposed repeal of the legal presumption that both parents should be involved in their children’s lives in the Courts and Tribunal bill, which passed its second reading earlier this month

HMRC anti-fraud scheme that wrongly cut child benefits to resume

A controversial government anti-fraud scheme that incorrectly stripped thousands of parents of their child benefit is to resume, despite ongoing concerns about inaccurate Home Office travel data on which the crackdown is based.HMRC used flawed Home Office travel records to deduce that thousands of parents who went on holiday or work trips abroad were fraudsters, with 23,800 families having child benefit payments stopped late last year.It was later discovered that the Home Office failed to record their return journeys and, in some cases, had incorrectly recorded people as leaving the country even though they had not boarded flights they had booked.These included a woman whose child became ill at the departure gate, and other people who made business trip bookings but then changed their plans without cancelling the outward journey.About 13,800 households were later found to have had their benefits suspended incorrectly, with 40% of families found to be ineligible for their benefit

Experts consider expanding meningitis vaccine eligibility after Kent outbreak

Experts are considering the case for routinely vaccinating more people against meningitis B in response to the fatal outbreak in Kent.The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s review was announced after the health secretary, Wes Streeting, asked it to “re-examine eligibility for meningitis vaccines” for a wider range of people than those who now qualify.Health officials in Kent, where there have been two fatalities, said cases could spread outside the county as students return home for Easter. On Friday the UK Health Security Agency said there were 18 confirmed cases, and 11 more under investigation.The Guardian understands the JCVI started a review of the outbreak in Kent and is considering a wider review of eligibility for routine meningitis B vaccinations

Ambulance delays during power cut possibly contributed to man’s death, coroner rules

A family has welcomed a coroner’s conclusion that ambulance delays possibly contributed to a man’s death in 2019 after enduring “years of distress trying to pursue answers”.The family of Peter Coates said they had been met with “delays and resistance” from a regional ambulance service as they tried to discover the full circumstances of his final minutes.Kellie Coates, the daughter of Peter, said: “This process for us has not just been about managing grief it has been about challenging a system that seems to be more focused on protecting itself than it is on acknowledging and learning from mistakes in its processes.”Coates died aged 62 in the early hours of 14 March 2019 after a power cut stopped the mains-operated equipment he needed at home to breathe from working.An inquest in Middlesbrough heard Coates, of Redcar, rang 999 and an ambulance was dispatched by the North East ambulance service (NEAS)

Volunteers in the UK: what happened when your local charity shut down?

Across the UK, many small charities face increasing financial pressures, forcing some to shut their doors. When this happens, it can leave the people who relied on those services without support - and volunteers and communities trying to step in and keep things going.We’d like to hear from volunteers who have experienced a charity closing. Have you or others tried to continue the work informally and what were the challenges of doing that? Did you try to keep it going - and what difficulties did you face? What happened to the people who depended on the service?You can share your experience using this form.Please include as much detail as possible

‘It all feels very natural’: Britain’s sauna boom heats up as people seek warmth of human connection

From fields to floating pontoons, in horseboxes, barrels and beach huts, saunas are springing up across Britain. The British Sauna Society now lists about 640 saunas – up from 540 at the start of the year – while a recent report predicted that the UK could become the world’s largest sauna market by 2033, outpacing even Finland and Germany.“The continuing growth suggests that the peak has still yet to come – if there is one,” said Gabrielle Reason, the society’s director. But are saunas a tonic for the nation’s health – or a wellness fad with hidden risks?When it comes to measurable health effects, the strongest evidence relates to the cardiovascular benefits of sauna use. These are “substantial”, said Prof Setor Kunutsor, the Evelyn Wyrzykowski research chair in cardiology at the University of Manitoba in Canada