How can the well-being of children and families be improved following parental separation?
The family court has a role when families cannot agree arrangements for children, most usually following parental separation – known as private law cases. More than twice as many private law applications are started in England and Wales each year than public law applications. Yet little is known about the children and families appearing in the system, their background and particular issues, or the services available to them on their journey towards the courtroom.
Those within the family justice system express concerns about rising cases numbers, difficulties in parents accessing legal advice, the ability to respond to issues such as domestic abuse, the impact of protracted cases on children’s welfare, litigation over ‘trivial’ issues, and a lack of children’s voices throughout the process.
There is a lack of evidence about those involved in private law cases, and about how the welfare of children can be protected.
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.