Family justice reforms win backing of lawyers and magistrates

Norgove panel plans to cut family court delays and give access rights to grandparents welcomed

Lawyers and magistrates have welcomed proposals to streamline the family justice system, including faster settlements to minimise stress to children, the encouragement of mediation for separating parents and improved access for grandparents.

In a 123-page interim report, which now goes out to consultation for three months, an expert panel headed by former civil servant David Norgrove recommends simplifying the family courts. Implementation could follow before the end of the year.

Norgrove said: “Family justice is under huge strain. Cases take far too long and delays are likely to rise. Children can wait well over a year for their futures to be settled. This is shocking.”

Unifying the family justice service under a specialist board to supervise agencies and give support to families and a unified family court system are among the recommendations. Specialist judges would hear cases from start to finish and court social services would become part of the streamlined family justice system.

Parenting agreements to coordinate care arrangements for children after divorce would focus on where the children spend time rather than contact or residence times. Their relationship with grandparents and other relatives would be prioritised. Separating couples would be urged to seek mediation rather than going to court.

Bespoke timetables for resolving each child’s situation within a maximum time limit should be adopted, there should be less reliance on “unnecessary” expert reports where those are not in the best interests of the child, and parents should have a single online and phone help point to assist decision-making, the report recommends.

In 2009 nearly 114,000 divorces were registered in England and Wales. Norgrove estimates that the current family justice system costs more than £1.6bn.

Sam Smethers, chief executive of Grandparents Plus, said: “These proposals are very welcome. We know that the involvement of grandparents in children’s lives when parents separate helps cushion the impact of that separation or divorce on the children and have been calling for greater recognition of this fact for some time. We hope the government implements the proposals as soon as possible.”

Malcolm Richardson, the chairman of the Magistrates’ Association family courts committee, said: “We particularly welcome the proposal to create an integrated family justice service and the devolution of decision-making to a local level where magistrates and judges can exercise influence over the services they require to successfully discharge their duties to the children involved in litigation.”

Caroline Watson, a family law specialist at solicitors Russell Jones and Warner, said that it might still be expensive for grandparents to gain access. “If grandparents already play a positive role in a child’s life the lawyers are rarely denied court permission to apply for access anyway,” she said. “But a major hurdle remains: the cost of going to court. If you are surviving on a state pension the expense of going through this procedure may not be an option. Parents and grandparents will still have to share approved time slots, inevitably reducing the time available to grandparents to maintain or develop a relationship with their grandchildren.”

Norgrove said that a year of interviewing children, parents and people working in the sector convinced him that the present system is not working, and is complex, very slow and very expensive. He added: “Children are the most important people in the family justice system.”