Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will review the time limit on determining care proceedings as set out by the Children and Families Act 2014.

The government remains committed to meeting the 26-week timeframe for public law cases and has no plans to review this. Although there is a considerable amount of work taking place across the family justice system to improve timeliness, the government acknowledges there is more to be done. The Public Law Outline (PLO) introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014, of which the 26-week timeline is one aspect, brought about a renewed focused and statutory responsibility. In January 2023, the President of the Family Division reiterated his clear desire for the current time limits to be met by family courts in England and Wales through his re-launch of the PLO.

To measure the system’s progress in reducing delays and backlogs in the system, the national Family Justice Board, co-chaired by ministers from the Department for Education and the Ministry of Justice, have agreed a set of key performance indicators which are reviewed at every Board. The department is working closely with partners across the system to deliver several initiatives to ensure public family law timeliness returns to the 26-week statutory timeframe as quickly as possible. For example, we have launched a pilot to bring the child’s guardian and social worker together earlier than the case management hearing (first hearing), which should decrease delays caused at the earliest stage of proceedings. With HM Courts and Tribunals Service, we are piloting the use of two checklists to support engagement with the PLO principles and reduce last minute adjournments. We have also invested approximately £2.2 million to improve family justice pre-proceedings practice and data collection as a means of reducing court backlogs.