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"...parents, many of them now acting as litigants-in-person"

Not a reassuring thing to read: has the pushback against legal aid cuts made any noticeable difference 'on the ground'?

Also: how will this play out, a year or two into the future, with private sector service partnership providers in the role of social workers, making decisions about moving children into for-profit residential care homes, with commercial considerations (potentially) outweighing the welfare of the child?

This cuts both ways: social work solution providers might, one day, be perceived as seeking lucrative residential care placements; but, equally, they will be deterred from acting in the child's best interests if the cost (or threat) of it coming to court renders the casework unprofitable.

This is, of course, no more than idle speculation; and it is doubly irrelevant if whatever law applies in this improbable future is beyond the financial resources of the parents who would, in the past, have received legal aid to pay for representation.

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