UK Inquiry Tracker

Improving family court services for children

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry

Opened: 6 May 2025 Closed: 15 Dec 2025 Parliament page

In 2023, more than 130,000 children were involved in the family court system. A large part of family courts’ work is dealing with disputes over children, such as deciding which parent a child should live with or whether a child should be taken into care for their protection.. The system … Read more In 2023, more than 130,000 children were involved in the family court system. A large part of family courts’ work is dealing with disputes over children, such as deciding which parent a child should live with or whether a child should be taken into care for their protection.. The system relies on input from a range of bodies including His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ); the Department for Education (DfE); and the Children’s and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), to provide adequate support and services for the children and families involved. The work of Cafcass was last examined by the Committee in 2010 when it determined that the service, which looks after the interests of children involved in family court proceedings in England, was not fit for purpose. However in the years since these findings Cafcass has been rated outstanding by Ofsted, although some past challenges identified by the PAC still apply today, including the pressure caused by high caseloads. The National Audit Office’s (NAO) work in this area in 2025 questioned whether the MoJ, DfE and other bodies involved in the family court system in England and Wales managing the system effectively to provide better outcomes for the children and families involved. In recent years the time taken to resolve cases in the family courts has steadily increased, with figures in March 2024 showing that families were waiting almost a year on average for decisions to be made. Based on the NAO’s work, the Committee will take evidence from senior MoJ and DfE officials, and representatives from other relevant bodies on topics including: Examining if the family court system across England and Wales has capacity to meet current and future demand, including accounting for the needs of different groups within the system; Understanding how Departments and other organisations are working towards a whole system approach to improve family courts performance and; Asking how the system can deliver an effective and efficient service that also offers value for taxpayers money. If you have evidence on these issues please submit it here by 23:59 on Monday 9 June 2025. Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere. Please note that the Committee’s inquiry cannot assist with individual cases. If you need help with an individual problem you are having, you may wish to read the information on Parliament’s website about who you can contact with different issues . Show less

5 Recommendations

25 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

1 Letter

1 Event

Activity timeline 4 events

12 Sep
2025

Report published

45th Report - Improving family court services for children

14 Jul
2025

Correspondence

Letter from the Chief Executive of HM Courts and Tribunals Service relating to the oral evidence session held on 23 June 2025 on Improving …

23 Jun
2025

Oral evidence

Oral evidence session

23 Jun
2025

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House

Committee event

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

23 Jun 2025

View on parliament.uk

Amy Rees CB · Ministry of Justice Fran Oram · Department for Education Jacky Tiotto · CAFCASS Luke Taylor · Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Nick Goodwin · HMCTS

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
45th Report - Improving family court services for children	HC 883	12 Sep 2025	30	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

30 results

2 Recommendation Accepted

45th Report - Improving family cou…

Assess and report on improving accountability for family justice system by December 2025.

The family justice system is complex, but excessive fragmentation hinders transparency, leading to poor accountability for service improvement and overall performance. The family justice system involves many organisations across government and the independent judiciary. There is no single body accountable … Read more

Government Response

The government accepted the recommendation, agreeing to assess current accountability arrangements for family justice and report back to the Committee by December 2025 with plans for improvements and better support for Family Justice Boards.

HM Treasury

Improving family court services for children

Activity timeline 4 events

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Recommendations & Conclusions

Assess and report on improving accountability for family justice system by December 2025.

Improve efficiency in family justice processes and clarify £2 billion social care investment.

Clarify required family court capacity and plans to resolve judge and social worker shortages.

Set out a joined-up data and evidence strategy for family justice within six months.

Publish plan and timeline for wider Pathfinder rollout, assessing funding reallocation within 12 months.

Committee took evidence on improving family court services for children.

Family justice backlog remains large despite recent decrease from 2021 peak.

Mean family law case durations remain high with significant regional variations.

Thousands of children's family law cases persist beyond 100-week duration.

Statutory 26-week public law case deadline consistently unmet since 2014.

Family justice system lacks single accountability due to dispersed responsibilities.

Family Justice Board suffers infrequent meetings and high ministerial chair turnover.

Absence of shared strategy for family justice system across departments.

Local Family Justice Boards' effectiveness varies due to non-statutory status and resource issues.

Family court processes plagued by inefficiencies, poor data quality and administrative errors.

Public law cases suffer delays from cancelled hearings and excessive hearing numbers.

Increasing numbers of unrepresented litigants affect family court efficiency, despite data limitations.

Mediation Information Assessment Meeting attendance remains low despite voucher scheme.

New investment in children's social care aims to reduce family court cases.

Significant regional disparities exist in family court case durations, particularly in London.

Case complexity, administrative landscape, and staff shortages contribute to London court delays.

Overall capacity requirements for the family justice system caseload remain undefined.

No overall assessment exists for prioritising efforts to reduce family justice delays.

Significant gaps and quality issues exist in family justice data collection.

Lack of a joined-up data plan hinders understanding of outcomes for children.

Total cost of the family justice system remains unknown to the MoJ.

Pathfinder scheme pilots show improved experiences for domestic abuse victims and reduced case durations.

Pathfinder scheme rollout requires significant funding reallocation for increased social worker and Cafcass involvement.

Rollout of the Pathfinder model for private law remains significantly slow

Lack of a comprehensive plan for Pathfinder model's wider adoption by MoJ

Government Response AI assessment · 12 of 5 classified

Correspondence 1 letter