The Magistrates’ Association welcomes the nationwide expansion of Child Focused Courts – formerly known as Pathfinder Courts – with the expectation this will benefit the children at the heart of family law cases.
The Child Focused Courts model takes a new approach to proceedings in the family court by giving the court more information about the child from the outset, including their wishes and feelings. It has been praised for promoting a problem-solving approach and has reduced the time taken to reach resolution in these cases.
Child Focused Courts currently operate in 10 of 43 court areas in England and Wales, including all of Wales, Birmingham, the West Midlands, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and West Yorkshire.
With £17m in Government funding committed for the next financial year, the model will initially be rolled out across Northumbria and North Durham, Cleveland and South Durham, Lancashire, Cumbria, York and North Yorkshire, Cheshire and Merseyside, Northamptonshire, and Coventry and Warwickshire. It will then expand across the rest of England and Wales in the following years.
