Policy paper

What’s happened since the Family Justice Review: a brighter future for family justice

This update from the government, along with a guide written for young people, sets out the progress made since the family justice review was published in 2011.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Documents

A brighter future for family justice: a round up of what’s happened since the Family Justice Review

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A brighter future for family justice: a round up of what’s happened since the Family Justice Review (Welsh)

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A brighter future for Family Justice: a young persons’ guide to what’s happened since the Family Justice Review looked into things

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Details

When the Family Justice Review reported in November 2011, it made for difficult reading for all those with responsibility for the family justice system.

The Review found a system that was failing the vulnerable people it was supposed to be serving, characterised by incoherence, distrust between agencies and a lack of leadership. This was causing huge, unnecessary delays, with the average care case in the county courts taking over 60 weeks – “an age in the life of a child” in the words of David Norgrove.

In the government’s response in February 2012 we agreed with the vast majority of what the Review had found and, along with the majority of agencies working in the system, accepted that radical action needed to be taken. Since that response, the family justice system has undergone a revolution. Reforming family justice and child protection was, and is a priority for the government and the Ministry of Justice and Department for Education are pleased to present this publication which sets out the significant progress that has been made.

Updates to this page

Published 20 August 2014

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