Recommendation 25

We asked MoJ and DfE why the system was not working as well as it should, given that better data sharing should allow improvements, and whether this was evidence of complacency.58 Delays in cases weigh heavily on children, in particular, domestic abuse victims.59 Gaps in the data mean that MoJ and DfE do not have good information on how the service is impacting on different groups of service users, what happens to children at the end of proceedings or outcomes for them after that, particularly for survivors of domestic abuse.60 Different organisations in the system collect data differently. There is no common identifier across the system, for example, to link data sets and follow a child from end-to-end through the family justice system. Many of the limitations in the data are long-standing and well understood, but there is not a joined-up plan to improve how data are collected and analysed. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill contains a provision to introduce for the first time a unique child identifier for data by local authorities. DfE told us that the unique identifier is a “material difference” that will enable tracking a child’s journey through the system although, if passed, that will still take time to implement.61