Just as children’s social care does not have the same profile as adult social care or the national health service, the family courts do not receive the same focus and attention as the criminal courts. The work of the family courts is just as critical, the stakes just as high, and the backlogs and delays are just as long as in the criminal courts. 

In this backlog, there are tens of thousands of stories and tens of thousands of lives on hold.  There are children and families who are separating or who are estranged and unable to agree custody or visitation arrangements, children who are so poorly and so traumatised we need to deprive them of their liberty to keep them safe and children who cannot safely live with their birth families.  It is no exaggeration to say that at times this work is literally life and death.

Covid-19 clearly contributed to the place we find ourselves in, but delays were already a feature of the system before the pandemic hit.  As funding fell so too did the number of judges and sitting days and even the number of court buildings has drastically reduced.  So, the resulting delays should not be a surprise to anyone.  Family courts were not prioritised for access to pop-up courts in university or council buildings during that period of successive lockdowns and enduring social distancing measures.  On the upside, the lockdown experience turbocharged modernisation efforts in this space, with electronic bundles and virtual court hearings now commonplace after years of debate.

The bulk of backlogs and delays in the family courts relate to private law hearings but there are challenges in the public law space too.  Over time, and if rolled out nationally, the reforms that the government set out in Stable homes built on love should result in more children being cared for in their extended family, where this is right for them, and fewer children entering the court arena.  However, this shift will necessitate a huge culture change for local authorities, for the judiciary, Ofsted and for ministers too.  The direction of travel feels right but it will require us all to hold our nerve and live with a degree of safe uncertainty in the holding of risk differently in the community.  Renewed funding for support services to bolster and sustain families will be needed for success.

In recent years, some big reforms to children’s social care have been made in response to the small number of cases where things go very wrong and a child or young person suffers significant harm or even dies.  There is always learning for us all, but the circumstances in individual cases, in individual tragedies are often quite unique.  Going forward, a more strategic, long term approach, ideally underpinned by a national plan for childhood, is needed to making policy along with a long term commitment to funding services for children and families and improving their outcomes.  Surely that’s something we can all get behind.

Andy Smith  ADCS President 2024/25

Family courts and care proceedings: Key policy developments | CYP Now first appeared in CYP Now on 27 June