Today, the government has published its response to the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report which looked at how the Family Court responds to domestic abuse within child arrangement proceedings.
The research report – based on a pilot study across three Family Court sites which reviewed nearly 300 child arrangement case files, live observations of nearly 100 case hearings, as well as focus groups with domestic abuse survivors and interviews with judges, magistrates and Cafcass/Cafcass Cymru officers - made 16 recommendations aimed at improving the experiences of victims and survivors, alongside better data collection and transparency within the family justice system.
In its comprehensive response, the government has accepted most of the Commissioner’s recommendations and announced it will provide a further £500,000 to fund a second phase of the Family Court Review and Reporting Mechanism (FCRRM).
This phase will see the Commissioner’s office focus specifically on evaluating Child Focused Courts – previously known as Pathfinder Courts – a new model being rolled out nationally by the government which works by centring children’s voices at the heart of proceedings.
The government has however said it will not take forward the Commissioner’s recommendation to incorporate financial remedy cases into the second part of the FCRRM and several measures to improve data gathering on domestic abuse within child arrangement proceedings. This, the Commissioner says, limits opportunities to further understand the prevalence of domestic abuse and design ways to tackle and prevent it.
Dame Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, said:
“Survivors of domestic abuse want a family justice system that understands what they’ve been through and puts their concerns and safety at the heart of every decision.
“I’m extremely pleased that the government shares in this vision and will be providing additional funding to enable my office to evaluate the effectiveness of Child Focused Courts in improving the experiences of adult and child victims. I’m also pleased to see that children will be consulted as part of this and that data on more forms of domestic abuse, as well as ethnicity and disability, will be captured in these proceeding going forward.
“But I am disappointed to see that financial remedy cases will not feature in the second phase of this review. Ministers know all too well the devastating consequences economic abuse can have on survivors, so we should be taking every opportunity we get to understand it’s prevalence, so we can put in place measures to support victims. I am also concerned that allegations of harm identified by social workers will not be captured and shared more widely. We cannot tackle domestic abuse and fully protect victims if we do not know it’s true scale.
“Ultimately, the Family Court’s role in tackling domestic abuse is too important, and the stakes for survivors and their children too high, to settle for partial progress. I look forward to working closely with the government to make the next phase of the review as robust as possible, and I will continue to press ministers on the recommendations that have not been accepted.”
ENDS
Notes to editor
The Commissioner’s full report, Everyday Business: Addressing domestic abuse and continuing harm through a family court review and reporting mechanism, can be read here.