Not so expert?

I've been working, and as part of my work I have been reading the report by Professor Ireland: "Evaluating Expert Witness Psychological Reports: Exploring Quality". This preliminary study assesses the quality of expert psychological assessments presented in Family Courts. These are reports that may well have been used/relied upon by family courts when deciding whether children should remain with their families, or be placed under supervision/care, or be put up for adoption.I recommend that you take a look at the report. You can locate it at: http://www.uclan.ac.uk/news/files/FINALVERSIONFEB2012.pdf.

There has been much debate recently in The Times recently about the quality of expert opinion in family cases, with experts quick to defend their corner. However, much of the Ireland Report supports the case that all is not well with expert opinion evidence in the Family Courts. Two thirds of the reports reviewed were rated as 'poor' or 'very poor', with one fifth of the experts straying out of their remit for example, by trespassing upon the remit of social workers. There is a quotation from one report, where the expert commented: "The carpeted lounge area looked in need of a vacuuming". Now I appreciate that one has to be careful when one is considering the welfare of children, and I certainly don't advocate  a return to Victorian squalor, but if the the touchstone of good parenting is whether or not your carpet needs a vacuum, I think that a lot of us are in trouble. My 'carpeted lounge area' is pretty much in constant need of 'a vacuuming': it's probably a miracle that my children have reached adult age without being terminally damaged by a marauding dust mite.

Some of the comments quoted in the report suggest that the experts concerned are either out of touch with modern family life, or perhaps even with life at all. One psychologist suggested ringing the employer of a parent, and when the parent became upset, described them as being 'cross'. They then discussed the possibility of the children being adopted with the parent in detail and, when the parent became upset, appeared to be unclear as to why this was the case, attributing the reaction to a 'learning disability'. Now I may be out of the ordinary, but if a psychologist interviewing me suggested that he have a chat with my boss, I am confident that the emotions that would surge through my being would be blind panic, followed by spine-curdling anger. Similarly, if someone had suggested that my children be adopted, I would have been very, very upset. Yet no-one has to date suggested that I suffer from a learning disability...

Some parts of the report would be funny, if they weren't so tragic. For example, page 28 provies examples of some of the inappropriate and/or irrelevant comments taken from expert reports. These provide helpful guidance as to what to do if you are being interviewed by a psychologist for family court proceedings:
"She was dressed in a low cut pink dress": Don't get your knockers out for the psychologist, girls.
"She had long auburn hair, which I think has been streaked and coloured in the current fashion": Make sure that you get your hair done before the interview.
"She was dressed appropriately for her age and weather, certainly demure": No hotpants or mini skirts for the over 25s and wear a mac if it's raining. Don't flirt with the expert.

On a more serious note, the report highlights real concerns in relation to expert evidence in family proceedings and makes very sensible recommendations in relation to the competence and instruction of experts and good practice in these cases. Last year the Law Commission also produced a report making sensible recommendations with regard to expert evidence in criminal proceedings, but the government has yet to do anything to implement these recommendations. Let's hope that the recommendations of both reports are implemented soon: experts play an important, frequently pivotal role in litigation, it isn't too much to expect competent, qualified experts to follow recognised good practice in their chosen field.

Enough. I'm off to do the hoovering...

Getting over oneself...

Dear Plankton,

Having read your spot in the Times today, I feel moved to post something.

Why are you so desperate to 'find a man'? It may win you followers on Mumsnet and a brief spot in The Times, but is it really a good idea?

Experience has taught me that, if there is one thing that men hate, it's desperation. Actually, it's probably two: neediness and desperation. It scares them off. They run a mile from it. It calls to mind bunny boilers and clingy stalkers. Whiny women who are always needing to be reassured and who are a pain in the posterior. And if there is one thing that emerges from your articles, it's desperation: all that fretting and weight loss.

My advice, for what it's worth is this. Stop whining and make a conscious decision just to get on with your life and to enjoy what you have, not pine for unattainable fjords. Sit down and have a nice cuppa. And a cake. Actually, since you're now down to 7st something, two probably wouldn't go amiss. You may not currently have a life partner, but at least you are not stuck with a needy creep who requires you to pander to his every whim. As Mr. Micawber said, "something will turn up". But probably not if you signal desperation at every turn.

All the best,

M

The Plankton

I am sure that the Plankton is a very nice lady and, that were we to sit down together in a moderately nice restaurant, we would enjoy a pretty damn good lunch. However, her blog and brief articles in The Times drive me to distraction. Look, in many ways being in your 40s and newly single is not much fun: you are less taut and smooth and gorgeous than you were in your teens and twenties; your smug married friends may at times try to make you feel like a second-class citizen, and sometimes it gets a little lonely. Life is never easy.  I am sure that the Plankton’s tales of everyday middle-aged woe strike a chime with many middle-aged women. What really gets on my slightly droopy mammaries is the self-pitying ‘poor me’ sentiment behind it all.

As someone who has never been drop dead gorgeous, I have always thought that the average looking have a much easier time of it when it comes to getting older and ‘losing one’s looks’. I have never turned men’s heads (save possibly when I walked down the high street in Torquay in 1981 in a pair of luminous pink footless tights) so I don’t really mind them not swivelling in my direction now. I wouldn’t mind a relationship with a man if a decent chap came along, but the principle obstacles to that occurring are not my lowly place in the sexual feeding chain, but my own attitudes and lifestyle.

First, I have noticed that I have become increasingly fussy as I get older and less tolerant of things that annoy me. I recently dated a man who called me ‘babe’. Every time that he used the term I felt like ripping his head off. It seems to me to be unwise to proceed with a relationship with someone who drives you to distraction from the outset. Second, I’m busy, very busy. It would be absolutely fantastic if I could find someone whose busy schedule slotted into mine, but I’m a realist, I accept that that is unlikely to happen unless I make some adjustments to my life. And frankly folks, I don’t really want to do that at the moment. I don’t have much leisure time and what I do have I don’t want to spend running around trying to keep yet another person happy. I like chillaxing with my teenage children (they will kill me for saying that), having the freedom to paint my chicken house in my pyjamas without anyone telling me that I look like a mad bag lady, or to watch Downton Abbey whilst knitting an eccentric tea cosy.

My advice to the Plankton and her readers would be to stop feeling so sorry for yourselves. Nobody likes a whinger and men can sense desperation a mile off. Girls, we are supposed to be emancipated women, can’t we just get on with enjoying what we’ve got rather than listlessly yearning for some man to make our lives complete?