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Our work

We do research to fill the most urgent gaps in knowledge about children, families and their experiences.

Explore our current focus areas

Inequalities

Maintaining relationships

COVID-19

Private law

Newborn babies

Special guardianship and kinship care

Young people

Children’s Participation

Explore our research

Type

Resource

Young people | 2026

Young people meeting judges: What we learnt from a pilot with young people in care proceedings

The Young People’s Participation Pathway (YPPP) was a pilot intervention designed to enhance the direct participation of young people in care proceedings by enabling them to meet regularly with the judges responsible for decisions about their futures. Traditionally, children are represented indirectly in court through professionals – but this often leaves them (and young people in particular) feeling excluded and disempowered.

Resource type

Report
Summary

Region

England

Methodology

Qualitative
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Resource

Young people | 2025

Caring for children in complex situations: Towards a new ecosystem 

This briefing sets out a vision for a new ecosystem of care for children in complex situations and at risk of being deprived of their liberty. It is based on the learning points and case for change developed by members of a peer collaborative convened by Nuffield Family Justice Observatory.

Resource type

Briefing

Region

England
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Resource

Young people | 2025

Caring for children in complex situations: Five learning points and a case for change 

This briefing highlights learning points from a peer collaborative convened by Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. Members of the collaborative have been sharing insights about how children in complex situations are cared for in their regions and helping to develop a case for change.

Resource type

Briefing

Region

England
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Resource

Newborn babies | 2025

Residential family assessment centres: Data trends and questions

This briefing paper examines the patterns around the increasing number of residential family assessment centres across the country. It highlights what we know about practice and policies relating to these centres, outlining the key questions for stakeholders to consider in this understudied area.

Resource type

Briefing

Region

England

Methodology

Evidence review
Quantitative
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Resource

Young people | Data | 2025

Child-focused, data-driven: Learning from youth justice to improve family justice data

This paper explores whether there are lessons that the family justice system could learn from the way that data is used in the youth justice system.

Resource type

Report
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Resource

Young people | Data | 2025

Towards a child-first family justice data strategy: Six key insights from youth justice

This briefing highlights principles and practices underpinning the collection and publication of data in the youth justice system. Based on a recent review of performance monitoring data and published datasets, it aims to help inspire better data and better outcomes for children and families in the family justice system

Resource type

Briefing
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Resource

Newborn babies | 2025

Recurrent care proceedings: five key areas for reflection from the research (update)

This paper highlights the evidence on the number of mothers and fathers who experience recurrent proceedings in England and Wales, their circumstances and the impact of having children removed in this way. It also highlights messages from evaluations of specialist services working to support parents who have experienced – or who are at risk of experiencing – recurrent proceedings.

Resource type

Spotlight

Region

England
Wales

Methodology

Evidence review
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Resource

Newborn babies | 2025

Newborn babies in urgent care proceedings in England and Wales: An update

This briefing paper provides an analysis of the most recently available data on the number of newborn babies in care proceedings in England and Wales and the proportion of initial hearings involving newborn babies that are held at short notice. For the first time, we are also able to report on the ethnicity of babies in care proceedings in England.

Resource type

Briefing

Region

England
Wales

Methodology

National administrative data
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Search research

Our research methods

An overview of the different methods we use in our research.

Infographic Resource

What do we know about children in the family justice system?

Our regularly updated infographic highlights what we know, and what we don’t know, about children’s journeys through the family justice system based on national administrative data.

Discover the infographic
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About the Observatory

We are an independent body, funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Nuffield Family Justice Observatory turns research, collaboration and new ideas into better experiences for children and families in the family justice system.

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