Lexis®Library update: The President stated that there is a need for a radical resetting of the culture within the Family Court to reconnect with the PLO and to meet the statutory requirement of completing each public law children case within 26 weeks. The President’s aim is for the necessary change in working practices to go live in all local authorities and courts throughout England and Wales on 16 January 2023.
The PLO 2014 for care, supervision and other proceedings under Part IV of the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989) came into effect as Family Procedure Rules 2010, PD 12A (FPR 2010) on 22 April 2014. ChA 1989, s 32(1)(a)(ii) sets out the 26-week timescale. By 2016, the national average time taken for public law children cases had been reduced to 27 weeks. However, an unexpected 25% rise in the volume of ChA 1989, s 31 applications and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in a substantial increase in the backlog of unfinished cases with a consequent rise in the average length of cases to 44.4 weeks in 2021.
Despite the recommendations of the Public Law Working Group (PLWG) in April 2021 which led to a reduction in the number of public law children applications being made, the backlog already in the system was such that it has remained difficult to make substantial reductions in the length of each case. Despite a return to more ordinary working practices following the end of the COVID-19 restrictions, the sustained efforts of those involved and deploying 25% more judicial resources than was the case pre-COVID-19, the backlog and delays remain. The President states that ‘it is now some six or seven years since the courts have been able to meet the 26-week deadline and there is no current expectation of doing so’.
In the View, the President sets out the basics of what is required to get back to operating the PLO and to meet the statutory requirement of completing each public law children case within 26 weeks:
• the PLO pre-proceedings process, with the engagement of parents and a thorough assessment exercise, following the Department for Education guidance and the PLWG recommendations, is essential
• only very rare cases that are truly urgent should be the subject of an urgent first hearing
• the first hearing should be the case management hearing (CMH), held not before day 12 and no later than day 18—an advocates meeting is to be held no later than two days before the CMH
• parents are expressly required to identify any family members for assessment at, or within a week of, the CMH
• no other hearing should normally be listed after the CMH until the issues resolution hearing (IRH)
• experts should only be instructed where to do so is necessary to assist the court to resolve the proceedings justly, rather than where it is merely desirable or helpful (CFA 2014, s 13(6))
• the third hearing in the case, if necessary, will be the final hearing
• at the IRH or final hearing the court is only required to evaluate and decide upon the following issues:
○ are the ChA 1989, s 31 threshold criteria satisfied?
○ if so, what are the permanence provisions of the care plan (ChA 1989, ss 31(3A), 31(3B))?
○ what are the contact arrangements (ChA 1989, s 34(11))?
○ by affording paramount consideration to the welfare of the child, what final order(s), if any, should be made?
• the court is not required to consider any aspect of the care plan other than the permanence provisions
• robust case management by the court is required at all stages including, where necessary, regular compliance hearings to deal with any failure by a party to meet dates, the monitoring of compliance with the court timetable and, if needed, the reporting of any failures to the court
This content was first published by LNB News / Lexis®Library, a LexisNexis® company, on 30 November 2022 and is published with permission. Further information can be found at: www.lexisnexis.co.uk.
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