In this week’s NLJ, Max Konarek, partner and joint head of the family and childcare department, GT Stewart Solicitors, explains what is causing such controversy and why the SIHIS, which is already being piloted in some courts, needs a major rethink.
SIHIS uses a template document to provide a single comprehensive report from expert clinicians. However, Konarek writes: ‘The cross examination of medical experts in [cases where medical experts are against your client in the reports they have written] by specialist and highly skilled advocates can lead you down a path that was not expected or anticipated, resulting in a child going back to their family rather than being placed outside of it, either in foster care or adoption.’
Moreover, Konarek says, ‘this is not as rare an occurrence as many would think’.
