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Going through the family courts as someone with lived experience of domestic abuse destroyed my childhood. The abuse both my protective parent and I had suffered was poorly understood and the process of the family courts took nearly 5 years of my life, with the abuse continuing in this time.
Child Focused Courts/Pathfinder was not a thing when I went through the courts, but the model gives me hope for children, who are victims in their own right, to have their voices heard and to not have to fight for their experiences to be understood.
Along with the recent commitment to repeal the presumption of parental involvement, and now the rollout of these specialist courts, children as victims in their own right is beginning to be realised in the family courts.
– Young person with lived experience
This week, the Government announced the national rollout of Child Focused Courts across England and Wales.
This is a significant moment for the family justice system and an opportunity to strengthen how children’s voices are heard, recognising children and young people as victims of domestic abuse in their own right. What has happened to them must shape every decision that affects their lives.
The model aims to deliver faster decisions while reducing trauma for families, but speed alone does not guarantee safer or better outcomes. Its success depends on strong multi-agency working and a court culture that is trauma informed and prioritises child safety and wellbeing, with robust, ongoing feedback and monitoring to ensure it is safe and effective for both child and adult victims of domestic abuse.
Every part of the family court system must be child focused. This rollout is an important opportunity to make that a reality, but it must be done carefully, with safety and long-term outcomes at its heart.
To be effective, Child Focused Courts and the processes and organisations that support them must work together to embed specialist domestic abuse expertise and trauma-informed practice at every stage. This includes respecting the insight and role of all involved, from Family Court Advisors, Social Workers and IDVAs to the Judiciary and child and adult victims themselves.
We need continued reform across the whole family justice system, where the impact of domestic abuse is too often overlooked. Professionals must be properly trained, building on values and beliefs that understand and never justify or minimise the impact of abusive behaviours on children and their protective parent. The IDVA and Cafcass partnership that this model creates must be developed and supported at a local and national level, alongside exploring how specialist support for children, such as Children’s Domestic Abuse Advocates, can be integrated into the model.
The child focused court model and repeal of the presumption of parental involvement require a commitment to culture change and clear guidance for professionals to look jointly for reasons a child is not safe to have contact with a parent and what’s in their best interests.
SafeLives continues to work within Cafcass and across partnerships such as domestic abuse specialist support services and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s office, and are proud to contribute to the Stakeholder Reference Group supporting this work on child focused courts. We remain committed to working with government and partners to ensure these changes deliver safer, more consistent outcomes for children. They are victims in their own right, and this must never be overlooked.
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