In April 2014, three concurrent changes will be introduced into the family courts in both England and Wales to increase efficiency. The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) focuses on the interests of children involved in court proceedings. Although the organisation is independent from both the courts and local authorities, the principles and regulations followed derive from the rules of the Family Court aided by legislation, in order to effectively advise the courts in what is considered to be in the best interests of the children involved.
The first change is set to revise the Public Law Outline. The PLO, which replaced the Protocol for Judicial Case Management in Public Law Children Act Cases in 2003, focuses on improved case preparation, active case management, and co-operation between all parties. Although the proposed version is not much different from that introduced in July 2013, it is hoped that it will define how future care applications will be dealt with in the forthcoming years. The main principal that the new PLO hopes to achieve is early identification of key issues, preventing any unnecessary delay regarding the children. Additionally, early use indicates that children requiring safe care can be placed more quickly as a result of the revised PLO, if a suitable placement has been found during combined care and placement final hearings.
The second change is the introduction of Child Arrangements Orders, making the transition from current Private Law Programmes to the CAP. The purpose of such a move is to focus on the needs of children as opposed to the demands of parents. The difficulty at hand is implementing such a proposal in an environment where it is the norm for neither party to have an advocate to narrow the issues brought before the Court. However researchers such as Liz Trinder place emphasis on the need for dispute resolutions, in order to assist parties to reach agreements efficiently in such emotional proceedings.
Finally, the revised order is set to focus as much on the proceedings in court as they do behind the scenes. The Single Family Court should establish more effective gate-keeping and allocation of cases, to effectively stream-line cases being heard by the right person at the set time. A proposition has been made to train magistrates regarding this aspect to effectively increase the flow of cases being heard, whilst referring those that are not to alternative organisations.
All in all the introduction of the aforementioned principles should enable those working in the family courts to focus on using within their resourcestlimited professional time to fewer hearing, essentially resulting in earlier and positive outcomes for the children involved.