Supporting the victims of domestic abuse better at court

Work with offenders on a new family court pilot scheme

A new pilot launched at family courts in North Wales and Dorset aims to improve information sharing between agencies such as the police, local authorities and the courts. The pilot is known as Integrated Domestic Abuse Courts and follows a review of Family Courts which found that an adversarial process often worsened conflict between parents and could have a damaging impact on victims and their children. The courts will hear three main types of cases:

• Child arrangement orders – an order that decides the arrangements of whom a child is to live with, spend time with, or has contact with.
• Specific issue order – to resolve a particular issue around parental responsibility. For example, this could be around medical treatment, name change, relocation or education.
• Prohibited steps order – to prevent a parent from carrying out a particular action as part of their parental responsibility. For example, removing and relocating the child to outside England and Wales or changing a child’s surname.

A key component of the scheme is the capacity for local domestic abuse professionals to share risk assessments with the court to spare victims and parties in the case the trauma of having to unnecessarily repeat their experiences.

Importantly, it will also boost the voice of children at every stage of the process, ensuring they are listened to and their views are taken into account when decisions are made about their futures. It will see children given more opportunity to explain how they feel and, following a court order, to say whether it is working for them. 

The pilots work by allowing judges to review gathered information and request more documentation before a case gets to court. It avoids the circumstances of the case being debated in the courtroom, which can often exacerbate conflict between parents. The pilot is also designed to encourage proceedings to be less adversarial so that more emphasis can be put into investigating and addressing allegations of domestic abuse and other harmful behaviours – rather than allowing confrontation in the courtroom to take place.

Operational details 

The investigative pilot will be tested initially in Bournemouth and Weymouth in Dorset, and Caernarfon, Mold, Prestatyn and Wrexham in North Wales for up to two years before a full evaluation.

The pilot was designed in consultation with a wide range of family justice experts. These included individual members of the judiciary, Cafcass, HMCTS, and the Ministry of Justice. It also worked closely with stakeholders such as the Family Justice Young People’s Board, academics, police, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, and charities such as Women’s Aid, Welsh Women’s Aid, SafeLives, Respect, JUSTICE, Centre of Justice Innovation, and the Nuffield Foundation.

It is comprised of three stages.

1. Agencies will first gather information and assess whether there are any concerns for a child or person involved in the case about substance misuse, domestic abuse, or other welfare issues.
2. There will then be a hearing to decide what interventions or decisions are required, for example whether it could be suitable for mediation out of court. It would also look at whether programmes such as Separated Parent programmes on how to put children first when a relationship breaks down are needed before an order is made. The new process aims to take the confrontational elements out of the family court system, with a focus more on investigating and solving problems to reduce potential harm to those involved.
3. The pilot will also, when appropriate and safe, help direct families towards accessing out of court options such as mediation. This could see them avoid the family courts altogether, resolving disputes without the stress of often lengthy and costly courtroom battles

Between three months and a year after a ruling is made, the courts and agencies involved will carry out a review to ensure decisions made are working well. This includes assessing whether court orders are being followed and whether additional support is needed.