An article examined the views of scholars from Australia, Canada, Scotland, France, and Sweden on the working of the family justice system in England and Wales, and compared the experience there with those using the system in their own jurisdiction.
Source: Mavis Maclean, Rosemary Hunter, Fran Wasoff, Lucinda Ferguson, Benoit Bastard, and Eva Ryrstedt, 'Family justice in hard times: can we learn from other jurisdictions?', Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Volume 33 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Dec
An article examined the impact of changes to the legal aid regime on public child law. Despite a rhetoric of protecting service quality, little account had been taken of clients' needs in the mechanisms for quality assessment. Reductions in the supply of lawyers and in service quality threatened access to justice for parents.
Source: Judith Masson, 'Public child law – a service priority?', Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Volume 33 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Dec
An article examined the possible impact on child contact litigation of the reforms proposed in the interim report of the Family Justice Review, and of the coalition government's plans for cutting legal aid in private law cases.
Source: Joan Hunt, 'Through a glass darkly: the uncertain future of private law child contact litigation', Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Volume 33 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Dec
The number of divorces in England and Wales in 2010 was 119,589, an increase of 4.9 per cent compared with 2009.
Source: Divorces in England and Wales 2010, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report | FPI press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Dec
An article examined whether the Scottish children's hearings tribunal system could promote greater responsiveness to the needs of parents with learning disabilities, and support fuller direct participation in decisions about the welfare of their child.
Source: Janice McGhee and Susan Hunter, 'The Scottish children's hearings tribunals system: a better forum for parents with learning disabilities?', Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Volume 33 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2011-Nov
A report examined family breakdown issues in the context of the coalition government's family justice review and cuts to family legal aid. There was a growing 'advice gap' in relation to family problems. The supply of information and advice to separating couples, especially from legal aid, was declining. Mediation and other services could offer alternatives to legal aid: but legal advice and representation, money advice, and good-quality general advice on family issues were essential to mitigate the worst effects of family breakdown.
Source: Breaking Up Is Never Easy: Separating families advice needs and the future of family justice, Citizens Advice
Date: 2011-Nov
An independent panel (led by David Norgrove) set up to review the family justice system published its final report. It said that the existing system was characterized by mutual distrust, a lack of leadership, incoherence, and a lack of evidence-based knowledge about how it really worked. The consequence for children was 'unconscionable delay'. Key recommendations for reform included: a new 6-month time limit in care cases; enabling people to make their own arrangements for their children when they separated, only using courts when necessary; and better co-operation between agencies and professionals.
Source: Family Justice Review: Final Report, Ministry of Justice
Links: Report | Review press release | BAAF press release | Bar Council press release | Cafcass press release | Childrens Society press release | Gingerbread press release | Law Society press release | NFM press release | OCC press release | Resolution press release | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Nov
The coalition government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the family courts system.
Source: Government Response to Justice Committee s Sixth Report of Session 2010-12: Operation of the Family Courts, Cm 8189, Ministry of Justice, TSO
Links: Response | NFM press release
Notes: MPs report (July 2011)
Date: 2011-Oct
A report summarized the views of children on the recommendations of an official review of the family justice system.
Source: Family Justice Review: The Children's Verdict, Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
Links: Report
Notes: Review report (March 2011)
Date: 2011-Aug
The Court of Appeal ruled that the welfare of the child should be 'the paramount consideration' for family judges considering applications by divorced parents to relocate abroad – setting aside earlier interpretations that bound judges to take particular account of the welfare of the main carer.
Source: MK v CK, Court of Appeal 7 July 2011
Links: Judgement
Date: 2011-Jul
A report said that sharing the care of children after parental separation worked well for some families: but it caused extra problems for many others. For many families on modest or low incomes, there were practical and financial obstacles that put the option of shared care out of reach.
Source: Philippa Newis, Firm Foundations: Shared care in separated families – building on what works, Gingerbread/One Plus One
Links: Report | Summary | Gingerbread press release
Date: 2011-Jul
A report by a committee of MPs said that family courts would need to be more prepared to cope with litigants representing themselves following coalition government cuts to legal aid, in what were often emotionally charged cases. It also called on the government to scrap provisions allowing media access to family courts.
Source: Operation of the Family Courts, Sixth Report (Session 2010-12), HC 518, House of Commons Justice Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Evidence | Additional written evidence | OCC press release | Community Care report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Jul
Researchers evaluated a programme for parents involved in litigation about child contact and residence in England. The results of the evaluation were mixed. Although participants' experiences tended to be very positive, this did not necessarily translate into mutually satisfactory contact arrangements regarding the child.
Source: Liz Trinder, Caroline Bryson, Lester Coleman, Catherine Houlston, Susan Purdon, Janet Reibstein, and Leanne Smith, Building Bridges? An evaluation of the costs and effectiveness of the Separated Parents Information Programme (PIP), Research Report RR140, Department for Education
Date: 2011-Jun
The Supreme Court ruled that two girls, aged 7 and 4 respectively, should be returned from the United Kingdom to their father in Norway, after their mother had removed them without the father's consent. The decision was made largely under the Hague Convention on the Rights of the Child, on the grounds that it gave more specific direction to the courts in abduction cases than did the European Convention on Human Rights.
Source: E (Children) FC, UKSC 27 (2011), United Kingdom Supreme Court
Links: Judgement | Supreme Court press release
Date: 2011-Jun
A briefing paper said that proposed legislation to introduce a presumption of shared parenting time for separating couples might not be in the interests of children.
Source: Belinda Fehlberg and Bruce Smyth with Mavis Maclean and Ceridwen Roberts, Caring for Children After Parental Separation: Would legislation for shared parenting time help children?, Family Policy Briefing 7, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford
Links: Briefing | Nuffield Foundation press release | Family Law Week report
Date: 2011-May
A paper examined the effect on geographical mobility of divorce, splitting up, and repartnering.
Source: Peteke Feijten and Maarten van Ham, The Impact of Union Dissolution on Moving Distances and Destinations in the UK, Discussion Paper 5628, Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn)
Links: Paper
Date: 2011-May
A think-tank report said that levels of births outside marriage were at their highest point for at least 200 years – contrary to claims that there was nothing new about contemporary levels of family breakdown.
Source: Rebecca Probert and Samantha Callan, History and Family: Setting the Records Straight – A rebuttal to the British Academy pamphlet 'Happy Families?', Centre for Social Justice
Links: Report | CSJ press release | British Academy pamphlet | NFM press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2011-Apr
A study examined how the parents of children in care proceedings were represented. The courts relied very heavily on the parties' lawyers. In theory proceedings were controlled by the judge, but in practice most issues were negotiated between the parties' lawyers: this occurred because judges did not feel that they were sufficiently well prepared to make decisions, trusted the lawyers who appeared before them, and preferred that cases proceeded by agreement.
Source: Julia Pearce and Judith Masson with Kay Bader, Just Following Instructions? The representation of parents in care proceedings, School of Law, University of Bristol
Links: Report | Bristol University press release | Community Care report
Date: 2011-Mar
An independent panel (led by David Norgrove) set up to review the family justice system published its interim report. It said that the system was too complicated, with overlapping structures and a lack of shared goals and objectives, and needed 'significant reform'. It recommended the creation of a new Family Justice Service led by a National Family Justice Board, to draw the key functions of agencies together and see children and families all the way through the justice system with greater support and more efficiently.
Source: Family Justice Review: Interim Report, Ministry of Justice
Links: Report | MOJ press release | ADCS press release | Bar Council press release | BASW press release | Gingerbread press release | Grandparents Association press release | Resolution press release | Community Care report | Family Law Week report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2011-Mar
A report highlighted the concerns that children in care had about the family court system. Only one-half of the children surveyed trusted the courts to make the right decisions about their lives.
Source: Children on Family Justice, Children's Rights Director for England/Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills
Links: Report | OFSTED press release | Community Care report
Date: 2011-Feb
The government announced that, from April 2011, anyone setting out to contest the terms of a divorce separation in court would first be required to consider mediation, under a new protocol agreed with the judiciary.
Source: Press release 23 February 2011, Ministry of Justice
Links: MOJ press release | NFM press release | BBC report | Children & Young People Now report | Telegraph report | Guardian report
Date: 2011-Feb
A think-tank report examined the interim findings of research into the causes and effects of poor mental health, particularly as experienced by certain groups. High levels of family breakdown were a key factor in the 'rising tide' of mental illness. Despite significant improvements in mental health services under the former Labour governments (1997-2010) there was still too much bureaucracy, risk aversion, and ineffectiveness in mental health services. Services needed to be more flexible, family-based, and community-oriented.
Source: Mental Health: Poverty, Ethnicity and Family Breakdown – Interim policy briefing, Centre for Social Justice
Links: Report | Summary | CSJ press release | Family Action press release | Guardian report | Children & Young People Now report
Date: 2011-Feb
An official advisory body began consultation on a range of potential options for reforming the law of pre-nuptial, post-nuptial, and separation agreements – contracts made by couples before or during their marriage or civil partnership that were intended to govern their financial arrangements if the relationship ended.
Source: Marital Property Agreements: A consultation paper, Consultation Paper 198, Law Commission
Links: Consultation document | Summary | NFM press release | Law Gazette report | Professional Pensions report
Date: 2011-Jan