In this episode of the Today’s Family Lawyer Podcast, host David Opie sits down with Carolyne Willow, a long-standing children’s rights advocate, founder of the charity Article 39, and a newly qualified family and public law barrister. Reflecting on a career that began as a 22-year-old child protection social worker, Carolyne shares her journey of fighting to place children at the absolute centre of the legal and statutory systems that govern their lives.
The discussion dives into the legal battles that have defined Willow’s career. Following the public inquiry into the tragic death of Victoria Climbié, Willow, then leading the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, successfully lobbied parliamentarians to secure a critical amendment to the Children Act. This ensured that statutory child protection investigations carried a strict duty to ascertain and consider the child’s own wishes and feelings. Willow also speaks passionately about the ongoing campaign to remove the outdated 1860 parental defence of “reasonable chastisement” for physical assault, arguing that England remains shamefully behind Scotland, Wales, and dozens of countries worldwide in failing to give children equal protection under the law.
Willow has also presented evidence to major national inquiries detailing Article 39’s work during the pandemic, where the charity successfully mounted a Court of Appeal challenge against secondary legislation that diluted 65 different child safeguards. She also contributed to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), where she targeted the institutional abuse of children in custodial settings and campaigned fiercely against officially trained, pain-inducing restraint techniques.
Willow’s journey takes her from from a council estate with no concept that she could ever become a barrister, through to completing her law conversion and bar exams in her late 50s while continuing to run her charity full-time. Now practicing at age 60, she views the bar as a powerful new vehicle to join the dots, challenge systemic failures, and continue her lifelong fight for children’s integrity.
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