Most parents who go to court to make arrangements for their children do not return to court, according to new research by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory.
The new report, Routes Through Court for Families in Private Law Proceedings, looked at cases involving nearly 200,000 adults in England and Wales.
It found that a third (31%) of parents in England and two-fifths (39%) of parents in Wales came back to court for further private law proceedings within five years.
The report, authored by academics from Lancaster University, uses anonymised administrative data from Cafcass and Cafcass Cymru. It analysed 176,760 adults in England and 12,710 adults in Wales who came to court between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2018.
“Of the around 80,000 children involved in private law proceedings each year, so little is known about even the general patterns of what happens for those families when they reach the court’s door,” the report’s authors write.
The aim of the report was to explore how these families interact with the family court and how any patterns vary according to their characteristics and circumstances.
It found that where parents come back to court for further private law proceedings, they tend to only return once. Two-thirds of parents who returned to court in England (67%), and just under two-thirds in Wales (63%) only came back to court once in the five years after their first application.
The average time between a first application and a return application was 21 months in England and 19 months in Wales.
Families involved in returning cases may be facing greater challenges, such as concerns about domestic abuse, mental health, drug misuse, alcohol misuse and child welfare. This may reflect greater levels of professional involvement, with more opportunity for Cafcass to recognise and record concerns.
The research found that parents in Wales are more likely to return to court than parents in
England. Within Wales, parents are most likely to return to court in Swansea (45%) and least likely in North Wales (34%). Within England, parents are most likely to return to court in the South West (35%) and least likely in London (30%).
An important minority of families are involved in both private and public law. Of parents who were involved in a private law application, 4% in England and 3% in Wales were also involved in a public law application within five years.
The report’s authors estimate that between 6% and 8% of adults appearing in care proceedings are also involved in a private law application between two parents.
The report was authored by Linda Cusworth, Jade Hooper, Bachar Alrouh, and Zoe Cheng, all of Lancaster University.
