Children to have a say in proposed reforms to family justice system
The independent panel set up to review the family justice system has launched a Young People’s Guide to encourage children and young people to comment on the proposed reforms.
The guide, published last week, aims to explain the proposed reforms in language young people can understand. It has been drawn up by Roger Morgan, the children’s rights director for England, and covers the proposals put forward by the family justice review panel, chaired by David Norgrove.
Norgrove says: “Children are the most important people in the family justice system and it is vital that they have a voice in shaping its future.
“The publication of the Young Person’s Guide gives them this opportunity and the panel will carefully consider what they say.”
The Norgrove review, which will make its final recommendations in the autumn, has highlighted “scandalous” delays in the justice system, with children living with foster parents and in children’s homes for months and years while the courts resolve their future. It can take a year or longer for a baby to be placed with adoptive parents, and the average child care case took 53 weeks in 2010.
The review panel has proposed introducing into legislation a six-month time limit for completion of care proceedings. It called for greater judicial continuity in cases to enable the judge to exercise firmer case management, and so that children and parents appear before the same judge at each stage in the proceedings.
It noted a lack of communications between different agencies and criticised “the current unsatisfactory IT systems” used in family cases. It recommended simplifying the court structure by creating a single family court, with a single point of entry, in place of the current three tiers of court, and creating a family justice board to oversee the system.
Morgan wants children to have a voice in the decisions made about their future.
“I spend a lot of time listening to what young people have to say about how they are looked after and reporting these messages to government,” he says. “It is essential that children and young people are told about proposals that will directly affect them.”
Alan Bean, co-chairman of the association of lawyers for children, says: “We draw a distinction between a vox pop or snapshot survey and serious academic research on which policy can be based. It is interesting to hear the views of children and young people, but I’m not sure how the review panel intends to interpret the responses it receives, or how they will use them.”
The consultation closes on 23 June.
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