Three DfE-funded pilots aimed at reducing family court delays in England to be evaluated by legal experts
The National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and research agencies Verian and Alma Economics are to carry out a “robust evaluation” of three Department for Education-funded pilots aimed at reducing unnecessary family court delays in England.
The evaluation will provide a “comprehensive insight” into pilot design, delivery, and their impact on court proceedings.
The three pilots: the Designated Family Judge Area (DFJ) Trailblazer, trialling Pre-Case Management Hearing (CMH) meetings, and the Suspected Inflicted Head Injury Service (SIHIS), are aimed at addressing specific challenges that cause unnecessary delays to family court proceedings.
The designated family judge trailblazer pilot involves local authorities from five selected designated family judge areas working with a delivery partner to “co-design and implement solutions to reduce court delays”.
The Pre-Case Management meetings pilot involves council or children’s trust and Cafcass practitioners having an information sharing meeting once proceedings have been issued, but before the case management hearing (CMH) - in the hope that the increased clarity may reduce uncertainty that leads to requests for new expert assessments.
Under the Suspected Inflicted Head Injury pilot, multi-disciplinary ‘clinical hubs’ at each pilot location examine and report on cases of suspected inflicted head injuries. The hubs include access to paediatricians, neuro-radiologists, haematologists and other disciplines – who compile a standardised document to provide more thorough information to stakeholders.
The pilots all aim to follow the Public Law Outline (PLO) and ensure cases are resolved within 26 weeks.
As part of the evaluation, a panel of five leading experts in the children’s services and family justice systems, led by NCB, will be working with the evaluation consortium to “directly consult” on the evaluation design and key findings that emerge from the programmes.
The NCB said: “The evaluation is made of three components: an impact; a process and an economic evaluation. The consortium will seek to understand, refine and monitor the development and delivery of the pilots, understand the early impacts of the pilots including reducing the length of proceedings, and assess the pilots’ value for money.”
The evaluation findings and recommendations from the panel will guide NCB in compiling a series of ‘practice guides’ for local authorities, DFJs, family courts and NHS Trusts.
“This will allow practitioners to learn from the pilots and improve current practice across local authorities, reducing the existing backlog”, said the NCB.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The Reducing Family Court Delays pilot programme represents an opportunity to test new approaches to transform support for the nation’s most vulnerable children and families. Following a competitive process, we have appointed Verian, Alma Economics, and the National Children’s Bureau to evaluate the programmes, and we look forward to seeing their findings.”
Lottie Winson
