Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Improving family court services for children

Status: Closed Opened: 6 May 2025 Closed: 15 Dec 2025 5 recommendations 25 conclusions 1 report

In 2023, more than 130,000 children were involved in the family court system. A large part of family courts’ work is dealing with disputes over children, such as deciding which parent a child should live with or whether a child should be taken into care for their protection.. The system relies on input from a …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
45th Report - Improving family court services for children HC 883 12 Sep 2025 30 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

1 item
6 Recommendation 45th Report - Improving family court se… Deferred

Publish plan and timeline for wider Pathfinder rollout, assessing funding reallocation within 12 months.

‘Pathfinder’ pilots present an opportunity to improve private law performance, but MoJ has not yet made necessary preparations to roll the pilot out nationally. The MoJ’s ‘Pathfinder’ pilot is now rolled out across six family court areas, with plans for another four areas. Initial evaluations suggest the new model improves …

Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation to publish a plan and timeline for the wider rollout of Pathfinder, but defers its publication until after the conclusion of departmental funding decisions through the Spending Review 2026-2027 and the approval of the …
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
23 Jun 2025 Amy Rees CB · Ministry of Justice, Fran Oram · Department for Education, Jacky Tiotto · CAFCASS, Luke Taylor · Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Nick Goodwin · HMCTS View ↗

Correspondence

1 letter
DateDirectionTitle
14 Jul 2025 To cttee Letter from the Chief Executive of HM Courts and Tribunals Service relating to …