On 21 May 2025 the National Audit Office released a Report on the Family Justice System. They highlight:
- “While the backlog for family courts has reduced by over a quarter since 2021 and has recovered much better than crown courts, family justice cases still take too long.
- Government’s time limit of 26 weeks to resolve most care proceedings instigated by local authorities to protect a child from harm has never been met since it was introduced in 2014.
- Government is prioritising tackling delays but does not know how much it is spending on family justice – the National Audit Office (NAO) estimates it was more than £1.8bn in 2023-24.
- NAO recommends a system-wide assessment of the key factors driving poor performance and a better understanding of costs to deliver best value for money.
- Children and families are still waiting too long to have their cases resolved – at December 2024 over 4,000 children were in proceedings lasting nearly two years or more – because complex. accountability arrangements and limited information on the biggest causes of delays make it difficult to target improvements to where they will have best effect…”.
Continuing they write:
“Delays can mean children waiting longer for permanent care and living or contact arrangements, increasing risk of harm, anxiety, instability and disrupted friendships or education, all of which were reinforced to the NAO by other stakeholders in the family justice system.
The latest report from the NAO reviews the government’s approach to improving family court services for children in England and Wales.
Family courts have recovered much better than crown courts following the COVID-19 pandemic, as of December 2024, there were 47,662 outstanding family court cases brought by local authorities (10,121) and families (37,541) related to the living and contact arrangements for children. The number of outstanding cases has reduced by over a quarter since August 2021, although many cases still take too long to complete. Government has a range of initiatives underway to reduce delays and to improve the experiences of vulnerable court users.
As of December 2024, there were over 4,000 children in proceedings that had been ongoing for nearly two years or more. Government introduced a statutory time limit to resolve most cases started by local authorities within 26 weeks, but this legal deadline has never been met since it was introduced in 2014. There is no equivalent time limit for cases brought by parents.
Responsibilities for family justice are dispersed across several government bodies, these include Ministry of Justice (MoJ), Department for Education (DfE), His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) in England, all of whom were audited for this report. There is no single body accountable for overall performance, nor is there a shared understanding of what good quality support looks like from the perspective of a child. Due to a lack of joined-up data, at present it is not yet possible to follow a child through the family justice process from beginning to end.
The government does not yet have the data it needs on family justice to understand what the biggest causes of delays across the whole system are, or what the impacts are on different groups. The NAO analysed the findings of performance reviews undertaken by government bodies to identify reasons for delay and inefficiencies in family justice cases. The reviews identified more than 25 different issues, which vary across local areas and between different types of cases, including:
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- Increased work required for each case
- Lack of capacity in all parts of the system
- Poor administration (32% of cases had at least one hearing cancelled before it took place, then had to be rearranged)
- Families not being adequately supported
Case durations vary significantly by region. Wales performs best with average durations of 24 weeks for cases brought by local authorities and 18 weeks for cases brought by parents. London and the South-East perform poorly, with London averaging 53 weeks and 70 weeks respectively. In December 2024, nearly two-thirds of the 4,000 cases that had been open for 100 weeks or longer were in London and the South-East, reflecting issues like lower judicial capacity in those areas.
Delays can lead to even further delays as evidence or assessments need to be updated, and costs grow. For example, between 2018 and 2022, average spending on legal aid for a case brought by a local authority doubled, from about £6,000 to about £12,000, mainly due to cases taking longer. This represents an annual increase of £314 million legal aid spending for these cases.
Due to the number of organisations involved in family justice it is not easy to identify only family-justice-related costs, as these services share assets and staff with other services. Therefore, the government does not know how much is spent on family justice – the NAO estimated the cost to be more than £1.8bn in 2023-24.
The government established a ministerial-led Family Justice Board (FJB) to help organisations work together more effectively, but a high turnover in ministers has led to inconsistent political leadership, the NAO report found, with the Board frequently refocusing its role and priorities.
MoJ has several initiatives to improve case progression in family justice. For example, the pathfinder pilot in five areas, is designed to improve the court experience and outcomes for children and parents involved in private family law proceedings, including those who have experienced domestic abuse. Early evaluations in two pilot sites showed that the redesign reduced delays and staff reported improved experiences for children and domestic abuse victims.
The Department for Education (DfE) and MoJ also have initiatives seeking to reduce the number of people needing to use family courts, through encouraging earlier support for families and out of court mediation. The number of new cases coming to family court has reduced since 2020 although there is no evidence that take-up of mediation has increased.
The NAO has several recommendations for MoJ, DfE, His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) in England, to improve the efficiency of family justice and outcomes for children in England and Wales, including:
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- clear and measurable objectives for better serving children and families and taxpayers;
- a system-wide assessment of key issues affecting performance;
- a review of ongoing and future initiatives to ensure work is joined up and addresses key performance issues; and
- review available support for families through court proceedings and assess opportunities for better support to those without legal representation and families more widely, including how to improve guidance for family court applicants”.
Gareth Davies, head of the NAO wrote:
“The government has a range of initiatives to improve family justice services for families and the number of children waiting for court decisions is reducing. But many cases still take too long to complete and further action is needed to remove the barriers to a more efficient system, including poor quality data and fragmented decision-making.”
Responding to the Report the Bar Council stated it:
“has repeated its calls for greater investment in the family justice system and the rollout of pathfinder courts in response to the National Audit Office (NAO) report ‘Improving family court services for children’. The report sets out the challenges in the family jurisdiction from the perspective of children in the system, including court delays and timeliness of cases, the lack of accountability for overall performance, and a lack of data on cost-effectiveness”.
Commenting, Barbara Mills KC, Chair of the Bar Council, said:
“The NAO report makes sobering reading. Behind the statistics highlighting the 47,662 outstanding private and public law cases are the lives of children, stuck in the limbo of uncertainty about their future, who simply cannot and should not have to wait. The delay for these children is inimical to their welfare.
A much more joined-up approach is essential to improving the performance of the family jurisdiction but that must go hand-in-hand with adequate funding. Cases are increasingly complex, yet access to legal aid continues to be limited. Last year four in ten cases had no legal representation for the applicants or respondents, adding time and pressure into the system. Greater investment in legal aid now would vastly improve the effectiveness of the family courts in the future.
The upcoming Spending Review provides an opportunity to properly fund the family courts, reduce the delays and provide resolution for children and families”.
Commenting specifically on Pathfinder, Barbara Mills KC said:
“The NAO report also considers the pathfinder court pilots and states: “Early evaluations in two pilot areas showed that the redesign reduced delays, and staff reported improved experiences for children and families, including domestic abuse victims.
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As the NAO report states, the pathfinder courts are a real opportunity to improve the process for children and families and an example of how the government can spend to save. While local authority costs increased in the pilots, direct judicial costs halved. We’ve called for the national roll out of pathfinder courts, but it is essential that new courts are resourced to the same level as the pilots in order to realise the benefits.”
Also responding, Sophie Francis-Cansfield, Head of Policy at Women’s Aid, said:
“At Women’s Aid, we know that the family courts consistently fail women and children who have experienced domestic abuse, with many survivors being forced to wait long periods of times for their cases to even be heard, let alone resolved. We welcome the new report from the National Audit Office, which highlights the delays survivors experience, and echo the call on the Ministry of Justice to take action to prioritise the safety of women and children and reduce family justice delays.
Delays in court proceedings are detrimental to children who have experienced abuse, as they negatively impact their mental wellbeing and hinder their ability to start healing and moving on from the trauma they have endured. Unresolved cases may lead to children being in temporary care arrangements for longer, disrupting their sense of stability and security, as well as their education and schooling. They may also result in prolonged unsuitable child contact arrangements, with perpetrators of abuse, while investigations are done.
System wide action must be taken to address the capacity issues in the family courts, so that women and children are not put at risk for years while the courts process their cases. These case must be created with the urgency the deserve, so that survivors are able to live in safety and move on with their lives post abuse.”
For the NAO Press Release and full Report see here
For the Bar Council Response see here
For the Women’s Aid Press Release see here
Original reporting by Family Law Week