Following extensive trials, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced Pathfinder courts will be rolled out across England and Wales with £17 million in government funding for the next financial year. The name of the courts will be updated to Child Focused Courts.
Deputy prime minister and justice secretary David Lammy made the announcement this week following trials which the MoJ said have seen family court backlogs halve and cases resolved up to seven and a half months faster.
Child Focused Courts currently operate in 10 of 43 court areas in England and Wales, including all of Wales, Birmingham, the West Midlands, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and West Yorkshire. The £17 million investment will see the courts rolled out across Northumbria and North Durham, Cleveland and South Durham, Lancashire, Cumbria, York and North Yorkshire, Cheshire and Merseyside, Northamptonshire, and Coventry and Warwickshire. They will expand across the rest of England and Wales over the coming financial years.
The court process “bolsters coordination” between the family court and agencies, such as local authorities and the police, particularly when dealing with allegations of domestic abuse and other harms, the MoJ said. There should be a future reduction in the number of returning cases where they have gone through the Pathfinder process, the MoJ added.
Commenting on the rollout, David Lammy said:
“Court backlogs are not just numbers on a page. When it comes to the family courts, they represent victims waiting, families in limbo and children and domestic abuse victims left to linger in harm’s way. That is why the national rollout of the Child Focused Courts matters so much. It will protect, support and hear the voices of children, helping family courts make safe and fair decisions without delay.
“It also shows that, through innovative reforms, we can make our courts work better, tackle delays and bring down the backlog so more victims and families get the swift justice they deserve.”
The Law Society of England and Wales welcomed the move, but warned that without additional funding for legal aid, domestic abuse survivors could be left to face their abusers in court without representation.
Law Society president Mark Evans said:
“The justice system is a vital public service that ensures we can all be supported during some of the most difficult moments in our lives. We support the aim of Pathfinder, which is to ensure better outcomes for children and families, and we are keen to see the UK government’s evaluation against this aim as the pilot progresses.
“However, we are concerned that legal aid funding for cases has not been adjusted to fit with the Pathfinder process. The result is some domestic abuse survivors who are eligible for legal aid are being left without representation and facing their abusers alone in court, which is entirely contrary to the aims of the Pathfinder process.
“This distressing situation must be resolved urgently. The evaluation that has taken place with families demonstrates a more positive experience for those represented through the process.”
The rollout of Child Focused Courts is another element of the government’s efforts to protect both child and adult victims from violence and abuse. The repeal of the presumption of parental involvement, which will also remove parental responsibility from people who have been convicted of a serious sexual offence against any child and where a child is born of rape, is to be enshrined in the upcoming Courts and Tribunal Bill.
A ‘new and improved’ Victims Code includes the very first child-friendly version of the code, making sure children are better supported to receive help and understand their rights as victims of crime, as part of over £1 billion in investment in the government’s campaign to halve violence against women and girls.
The outgoing president of the Family Law Division, The Rt. Hon. Sir Andrew McFarlane, described the announcement as a “game changer” for the family justice system. He added:
“I have long been a supporter of Pathfinder’s approach which is truly groundbreaking. The key change is the Child Impact Report produced by Cafcass, Cafcass Cymru or the local authority, which enables the court to gain an early understanding of the impact the dispute is having on the child and focus the parties on how to address that. The model benefits families and indeed the whole system with fewer hearings, a better understanding of domestic abuse, and less parents returning to court because the arrangements have broken down”.
The judicial lead for Child Focused Courts, Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles, said:
“The positive thing about a Child Focused Court is that it does what it says on the tin – it puts the child’s safety and welfare at the heart of everything the court does. The emphasis on talking to children whenever we can is long overdue, That, together with the front loading of information about a child’s circumstances in the Child Impact Report, helps parents and the court focus on what the child’s safety and welfare demand early in the legal proceedings. I am clear that this promotes earlier resolution and better, longer lasting decisions which can only be good for children and their families”.
HHJ Christopher Simmonds, the designated family judge for Bournemouth, one of the first areas to launch Pathfinder, said the scheme had revolutionised how the judiciary hears cases and enabled a mire effective and proportionate use of court resources.
Baroness Levitt KC commented:
“No child should have to live with fear, uncertainty or the shadow of conflict hanging over their everyday life. Behind every case is a young person who needs reassurance, protection and the chance to simply be a child. By rolling out Child Focused Courts nationally, we can help spare more children the pain of drawn-out proceedings, deliver swifter justice for families while making sure support comes earlier when it is needed most.
“This is about giving children and their families safety, stability and the best possible foundation for a healthy future.”
Domestic abuse commissioner Dame Nicole Jacobs concluded:
“For too long, children and adult victims have been advocating for a family justice system that truly understands domestic abuse, listens to their concerns, and prioritises their safety.
“I’m thrilled that the government has heard their calls and taken decisive action to rollout Child Focused Courts nationally. This approach has shown that when we put children first, victims feel more supported and re-traumatisation is reduced. It is important that these outcomes are at the heart of every case concerning domestic abuse.
“The Family Court should be a place of support and protection, and I’m pleased that we are now a step closer to making this a reality.”
One Response
This is not reform. It is rebranding.
My son’s childhood has been consumed by the Family Court. We have been in proceedings for almost seven years. In that time, every intrusive intervention has been tried, many of them repeatedly. The conclusions have remained substantially the same, yet the litigation has continued regardless, as though the system is incapable of stopping itself even when the damage is obvious.
My son is neurodivergent and has been subjected to more than 30 professionals. He has been assessed, scrutinised, drawn into repeated interventions and denied the peace that any child needs in order to grow, develop and feel safe. His wishes and feelings have remained consistent, yet they have too often been minimised, reshaped or ignored when they do not suit the prevailing narrative.
That is the real scandal. Not delay alone, but the ability of the system to keep harming a child while continuing to call itself protective.
For some families, the Family Court does not resolve conflict. It institutionalises it. It gives repeated opportunities for matters to be reopened, for discredited allegations to be repackaged, and for attritional litigation to continue long after any welfare justification has evaporated. The adults working within it go home at the end of the day. The child is left to live with what the process has done to him.
My son is now 14. Even if this ended tomorrow, those years are gone. His childhood has been spent under surveillance, under suspicion, and under a level of professional intrusion that no child should ever have had to endure. The damage to his health, our lives and our future cannot be undone by a new title or a national rollout.
So no, I do not find this reassuring. A system does not become child-focused because it declares itself to be so. It becomes child-focused when it knows how to stop, when it respects a child’s voice, and when it is capable of recognising the harm caused by its own interventions.
Until then, this is not transformation. It is the same machinery, with softer language.
You cannot call it child-focused while children are still losing their childhoods inside it.