Child focused courts delivering a near 50% reduction in case timeliness

Child Focused Courts are seeing reductions of nearly 50% in the timeliness of cases moving from application receipt to final order according to the latest data from the Ministry of Justice.

Formerly Pathfinder courts, Child Focused Courts were rebranded when then Deputy prime minister and justice secretary David Lammy confirmed the national rollout in March of this year. At the time the government committed £17 million of funding to support the expansion in 11 new court areas in 2026/2027, more than doubling the number of areas operating the model.

A corresponding report, Child Focused Courts An update on the implementation and national rollout of the Government’s Child Focused Courts programme, detailing the progress of national rollout added details of funding for the remaining 21 court areas is subject to final confirmation.

“We are confident the model will be in place across England and Wales by the end of this Spending Review period” said Jake Richards MP and parliamentary under-secretary of state and minister responsible for Family Justice in the foreword to the report. This means the model will be operating in all family court areas by March 2029.

Coventry and Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Cheshire and Merseyside, Lancashire, Cumbria, North Yorkshire, Cleveland and South Durham, Northumbria and North Durham are the next areas for rollout in November 2026. Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will follow in January 2027.

Former president of the family division Sir Andrew McFarlane described the national rollout of Child Focused Courts as the ‘biggest change to family courts in 30 years’. The model is designed to improve experiences and outcomes for families, particularly adult and child victims of domestic abuse. It focuses on early identification of risk, increased engagement with children and bespoke support for victims, all within a streamlined court process. Where it operates, the model replaces the previous Child Arrangements Programme for relevant private law proceedings.

The latest published data shows the average number of weeks from application receipt to final order made between 2022 and 2026 fell by nearly half across all pilot areas. In north Wales, where the pilot began in February 2022, the average number of weeks from application receipt to final order made was 33 weeks in 2022. By 2026 that had fallen to 18 weeks. There were similar falls in Bournemouth and Dorset from 51 weeks to 20 weeks over the same period.

The report added the number of private law cases started increased by 11% (to 14,833) in April to June 2026 compared to the equivalent quarter in 2025. Against this backdrop of rising demand for family courts outstanding caseload has reduced by more than 25% in the 3 months to June 2026 compared to the same period in 2025.

The delivery update adds with the rollout to West Midlands, Herefordshire and Worcestershire and Staffordshire and most recently Hampshire and the Isle of Wight the model now accounts for approximately a quarter of relevant receipts for private law children proceedings across England and Wales.