Senior judge hails progress on bringing care cases within timeframe of Public Law Outline but admits situation in London is “not so rosy”

Progress in bringing all care cases back within the structure and timeframe of the Public Law Outline has been “very real, and impressive” in most areas, the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has said.

This follows efforts by Sir Andrew and Mr Justice Keehan in November 2024 to “inject fresh impetus” into the project.

In his latest ‘View from The President’s Chambers’,  Sir Andrew noted that data published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in March this year shows that 37% of public law cases were concluded within 26 weeks in the last quarter of 2024, the highest since before the pandemic.

Case durations are the lowest since quarter 2 of 2020 at 38.4 weeks. Receipts are meanwhile at their lowest since 2014 and management information shows a 4% reduction in outstanding public law cases between January 2024 and January 2025.

However, the Family President warned that the picture is “not so rosy” in London, where the need to address “very substantial backlogs” is frustrated by a lack of adequate judicial and other resources.

He added: “It has also become clear to the Family Presiding Judge for London, MacDonald J, and to me, that there is a palpable cultural difference between the way that children cases are approached in London, when compared to other regions.”

Sir Andrew suggested that the publication by Mr Justice MacDonald of a local practice note, Ensuring Adherence to the Public Law Outline in London, in November last year had been received in a positive manner by the London Family Judiciary and local authorities.

He also said that he believed that the need for change had been accepted more widely across the board.

The Family President highlighted how the MOJ had injected some additional sitting capacity for this financial year and next to address backlogs. “At the same time, I continue to push for the recruitment of the full complement of CJs and DJs for London and the South East.”

Lord McFarlane meanwhile said the issue of judicial security, particularly with respect to that arising from social media and other online sources, was one that is “being taken very seriously by the Lady Chief Justice [‘LCJ’] and the senior judiciary”.

In December 2023, a family court judge was attacked in Milton Keynes County Court during a hearing – prompting widespread discussion over the security of all court users.

The Family President revealed that training, “which will bring together all of the guidance and learning that has been developed since the incident at Milton Keynes”, will be given to all of the Family judiciary in the Spring.

The HMCTS ‘Potentially Violent Persons Protocol’ is being updated and will be reissued at the same time, he added.

A new operational Judicial Security Taskforce, chaired by the deputy Senior Presiding Judge, Mrs Justice Yip, has also been set up by the LCJ.

He said: “The Taskforce’s remit will be to look not just at physical threats to security in the courts and tribunals but also online threats and abuse, and threats to home and family. It will consider what arrangements are made for those in a similar position, for example MPs, and how these matters are addressed abroad.”

Sir Andrew added: “When the training is rolled out, I would encourage all of those working in Family Justice to engage with it. Each of us needs to be confident that we know, ourselves, what to do in a potentially dangerous situation, but we also need to be confident that every other professional, judge, magistrate or staff member in the room/building is also fully up to speed with what is required.”

Turning to the topic of transparency, Lord McFarlane noted that at the start of this year, the ‘Transparency Pilot’ “ceased to be a pilot” when provision for all Family Court centres to make Reporting Restriction Orders was established “as part of normal business” by the introduction of Practice Directions PD12R and PD14G.

He said: "It is chastening to consider that the pilot only started in the first adopter courts in January 2023.

“For it to have been developed, taken up and now extended to all Family Courts in England and Wales in just two years is an indication of the impressive and sustained endeavour of Mrs Justice Lieven and Jack (now District Judge) Harrison, the acceptance and cooperation of many in the system and the fact that, so far, there have been no reported breaches of any RRO [Reporting Restriction Order]."

He noted the implementation of other elements aimed at increasing transparency in the Family Court, including anonymisation of judgments, greater publication of more reliable data and establishing “ready communication” between local courts and the local media.

Meanwhile, the Family President hailed the publication of a toolkit for judges writing to children in family court proceedings as a “most welcome event”.

The toolkit, developed with the Family Justice Young People’s Board, gives public and private family law judges an approach for writing to children, created after input from children and young people, judges, academics, social workers, clinical psychologists, communication experts and others who work with children and the courts.  

Lord McFarlane observed that the benefit of judges communicating with the child at the centre of proceedings has “long been recognised”, yet few judges have ever written to a child to explain the decision in their case.

He said: “There is an understandable judicial reluctance in this regard partly because of the realisation that the letter will be important and there is a fear of saying the ‘wrong thing’. In addition, judges may be worried that it will take a good deal of time to get the letter ‘right’, coupled with the well-known inertia that comes from staring at a blank page, without a template or previous experience to guide the writer.”

He added: “The Toolkit is very readable and does a great deal to break down the factors that may have inhibited judges in the past. To get past ‘blank page’ inertia, the content of a typical letter is built up, sentence by sentence, with suggestions, explanations and examples, and the whole is rounded off with worked up examples.

“I am very grateful to all who have been involved in developing this most valuable resource, but I would particularly like to thank the young people who have contributed”.

He urged all judges to read the guide, and to “use it from now on” in their cases.

The Family President also urged each local Family Justice Board (FJB) to consider holding events to “ignite local discussion” on child sexual abuse within the family environment, to consider what inter-disciplinary training might be undertaken locally.

Sir Andrew pointed to the findings of a report by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel - ‘I wanted them all to notice’ - a national review into child sexual abuse within the family environment.

He said: “The report is compelling reading. Over a third of the cases involved perpetrators who were already known to pose a risk of sexual harm; these ‘known knowns’, were however ignored, denied or deflected by professionals.

“If, as the research seems to suggest, child sexual abuse within the family has dropped off the radar we must continue to ensure that professional antennae are tuned to detect and react to it.”

The Family President noted that in response to one of the report’s recommendations, he has asked the national Family Justice Board and the Family Justice Council to consider the findings of the review, and “determine what actions are needed to support judicial decision making when children may have been sexually abused”.

Lottie Winson