FAMILY JUSTICE REFORM Annabel Burns Family Law and Relationship Support Division DfE June 2012

Family Justice System – the need for change Life changing decisions for many thousands of children and families each year 500,000 children and adults involved in the system each year, either in private or public law cases FJR concluded that the system was not delivering as it should for children With cases now taking on average 56 weeks the life chances of already damaged children are further undermined by the very system that is supposed to protect them FJR Final Report

Key Issues Fragmentation across different agencies, lack of accountability, and little hard data Long delays in care proceedings Too many disputes between separating couples played out before the courts, with damaging consequences for children

Key commitments Legislating to speed up care cases, ensuring that in future cases can be completed within six months Providing greater help to parents who do separate Emphasising the importance of children having an ongoing relationship with both parents A new Family Justice Board to strengthen coherence and drive performance improvements across the system Working with LAs and other agencies to help strengthen professional practice

Taking forward the changes Hugely challenging agenda but work already well underway Key legislative changes, including the 6 month time limit for case cases, due in this Parliamentary session Family Justice Board is up and running New multi-agency Local Family Justice Boards

Public Law Priorities Speeding-up cases: time limit and ICOs Reducing unnecessary duplication Ensuring a clearer, stronger role for the judiciary within the case management process Reducing the number of experts commissioned by the courts Spreading best social care practice

Government Support for LAs Government has committed to delivering improvements in partnership supporting a new targeted programme of work to capture and disseminate best practice building on the broader social work improvements already in train following the Munro Review and the Social Work Reform programme This seminar and broader work by the CIB is part of that process

FJR and LAs Practice improvement – particular priorities better quality assessments submitted to time as part of the care application process summary evidence better tailored to the court’s needs stronger and more systematic pre-proceedings work with families closer collaboration between IROs and the children’s guardian better dialogue and joint learning between the judiciary and local authorities an assertive approach to performance monitoring and quality assurance by local authority leaders. “Local Authorities are critical to proceedings…we have challenged the ready assumption that they are incompetent in what they do. This is far from the case and we have ample evidence of good practice. But we have also seen that poor practice happens” FJR Final Report

Next steps Social care workforce development: court-related skills and CPD Good practice development in relation to IROs and care planning Publication of summary guidance on child development September: Adoption Panel change brought into effect continued………..

Next steps continued FJB action plan – laying the ground for the introduction of the six month time limit Improvement work at local level: formation of Local Family Justice Boards Judiciary announces its plans for formal guidance, training and new court processes

Opportunities and Challenges Reform programme designed to deliver swifter decisions and better outcomes for children Significant potential benefits for LAs But benefits depend on securing greater consistency and quality in LA applications Some excellent practice already across many LAs and strong commitment to FJR reforms from LA leaders But key challenge, during period of change and budgetary constraints, will be to ensure good practice extends to all