What impact do inequalities have on the experiences and outcomes of children and families in the family justice system?
Recognising and responding to all inequalities is vital for a fair and effective family justice system.
There is a growing recognition and acceptance that there are deep inequalities related to ethnicity in children’s social care.
A lack of access to good quality data about the ethnicity of children and adults in the family justice system has been, and continues to be, a barrier to understanding how various children and families experience the system. Although significant progress has been made in recent years by Cafcass, we know that the recording of ethnicity data is beset by challenges, and that data linkage is needed to help improve access to reliable ethnicity information. Qualitative research, and listening to those with lived experience, is another vital step in improving our understanding of what is happening within the family justice system.
We know that there is a long way to go and that more needs to be done to recognise and respond to the needs of children and adults through an ethnicity lens.
Infographic
What do we know about children in the family justice system?
Our infographic pulls together what we know, and what we don’t know, about children’s journeys through the family justice system from national data.