Better data needed to combat delays in public law family cases – by Celestine Greenwood
July 10, 2025
The National Audit Office’s report, Improving family court services for children, published on 21st May this year makes interesting reading for family lawyers engaged in children work but does not really tell us anything new says Celestine Greenwood from Exchange Chambers.
One of the key issues the report addresses is the duration of both private and public cases noting that whilst there is a statutory limit for public law proceedings (26 weeks) this has, and continues, rarely been met but there is no mandated timescale for private law proceedings. The report notes that the national average length of public law proceedings in 2024 was 36 weeks and 41 weeks for private law cases. Significant disparities in public law case durations are found across the country and the report cites the example of an average of 24 weeks in Wales and 53 weeks in London. Not surprisingly the report notes concern about the potentially harmful impacts on children of delays in resolving cases.
Further, the report notes that despite a range of efforts there continue to be gaps in data collection and in the analysis of the causes of delay. In particular, the report notes that “there is limited information on the families beings supported,” and that “it is not yet possible to follow a child through the family justice process”.
Commenting on these points, Celestine Greenwood, said:
“It is very disappointing that the Government does not yet have sufficiently complete and detailed evidence about the causes of delay in public law cases. This has been an issue throughout my time at the Bar and has only demanded increasingly urgent attention as it became clear that the 26-week timescale was not being met post 2014. I do think, as Sir Brian Leveson has found in respect of criminal cases, that public law family cases have become much more complex and now require many more specialist resources than when I started practice more than 30 years ago. When I stepped away from the Bar in 2011 it was still quite rare to have a case concerning the death of, or significant injury, to a child and in turn rare to see leading counsel in the robing room and on the court landing. Likewise, it was rare to have instructions to represent a parent whose first language was not English and having ‘an international element’ in a case or an intermediary was unusual. Upon my return to practice in 2019 I was initially surprised by the number and regularity of very complex cases, the number of cases requiring the assistance of leading counsel and, the frequency of cases in which interpreters, evidence from a jurisdiction overseas or intermediaries were vital. I believe these developments reflect both the changes in society and our improved understanding of the ways in which people require assistance if, as they must, they are enabled to engage meaningfully in cases about their children, over the last decade.”
Continued Celestine:
“Whilst I certainly agree that care applications should be resolved as soon as practicable in my opinion it is significant that cases in the Family Drug and Alcohol Court take an average of 43 weeks and that the child or children either remains or returns to the care of their parents in 52% of cases. Given these results I am delighted that Liverpool now has a FDAC and urge caution about rigid adherence to 26 weeks. If, as we profess, children should be cared for by their parent(s) whenever possible, we must look at how support and time for families to effect change can be built into the system without undue detriment to children.
“I totally agree that better collection, analysis and use of data is necessary. The research I am undertaking for my PhD is focused on plugging the gaps and exploring how data can help us to improve case management, inform our understanding of families’ needs and use resources more efficiently and effectively to maximise outcomes for children.”
