‘Government has more to do’ to reduce family justice delays despite cutting backlog

Children and families are still waiting too long to have their cases resolved, a new watchdog report reviewing the government’s approach to improving family court services for children in England and Wales finds.

A new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) analysing data at December 2024 finds over 4,000 children were in proceedings lasting nearly two years or more.

It says 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.

Family courts were found to have recovered much better than crown courts following the COVID-19 pandemic. At the end of 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 the NAO says many cases still take too long to complete.

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 the report.

Currently, 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, report authors say.

The audit found that while the government has a range of initiatives underway to reduce delays and to improve the experiences of vulnerable court users, it 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 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,” Gareth Davies, Head of the NAO, said.

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, from lack of capacity across all areas to poor administration.

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.

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.

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.

As a result of the report, the NAO has recommended a system-wide assessment of key issues affecting performance, as well as a review of ongoing and future initiatives to ensure work is joined up and addresses key performance issues.