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15 J. Soc. Welfare & Fam. L. 1 (1993)

handle is hein.journals/jnlosclwl15 and id is 1 raw text is: Editorial The New Year sees a number of issues which came to the fore in 1992, and which are likely to be of interest and concern to readers of the Journal, still to be addressed. In September, shortly before the Irish referendum on abortion, the European Court of Human Rights awarded damages and costs of almost £223,714 against the Irish government in a case linked to Dublin's controversial ban on abortion. The response of the Irish govern- ment to this ruling and the issues which it raises, in terms of the political context within Ireland and the broader implications of the ruling for the rights of women in a European context, will be a matter of some interest. This interest may be heightened in the light of the Irish government's fail- ure to implement a Strasbourg ruling of four years ago on the Irish ban on homosexuality. In this issue, Mel Cousins adds to the literature on Irish issues by con- sidering the treatment of households under the Irish social welfare code which has been under review also as a result of influences from Europe in the form of EC legislation on equal treatment in social security, as well as the impact of demographic changes in Ireland such as the increasing number of married women joining the labour force and changes in house- hold composition. The latter indicate trends similar to those in England and Wales, with an increase in single family households, including lone parents, and a decrease in multi-family households. The responses of policy-makers to such changes may exert a critical influence on family life, especially for vulnerable groups such as lone-parent families. Also in 1992, it was reported that the Government had decided on an amendment to the forthcoming education bill which will extend the powers of the local authority ombudsman to adjudicate appeals by parents unable to get their children into schools which opt out of local education authority control. Such measures reflect the continuing concern of the Government about the need to foster greater accountability of service providers to con- sumers in all areas of the public sector, including the education service. In this issue, Neville Harris develops this particular theme further, discussing the findings of his research into the operation of local education complaints procedures established under the Education Reform Act of 1988, conclud- ing that they are too limited in scope, that they lack independence and that they are under-publicised and therefore under-used. Related issues about the adequacy of measures to protect rights are raised in an article by Noel Timms and Robert Harris, based on a study of juveniles in secure accommodation and a consideration of the measures introduced by the Children Act 1989. In recommending an extension and refinement of the guardian ad litem system and a post-Children Act study of legal representation in secure accommodation hearings, they point to the dangers of assuming that because judicial hearings exist, they are suf- 1

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