Family Justice Council Family Report and Accounts 2006-7 Justice Council
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Family Justice Council Family Report and Accounts 2006-7 Justice Council Contents | Report and Accounts 2006-7 Contents Foreword by the President 1 Chapter 1 How the Council works 2 Chapter 2 Overview of Activities and Issues in 2006/7 6 Chapter 3 The Children in Families Committee 10 Chapter 4 The Children in Safeguarding Proceedings Committee 14 Chapter 5 The Money and Property Committee 18 Chapter 6 The Diversity Committee 22 Chapter 7 The Experts Committee 26 Chapter 8 The Voice of the Child Sub-Group 30 Chapter 9 The Domestic Violence Working Group 34 Chapter 10 The Education and Training Committee 38 Chapter 11 Local Family Justice Councils 42 Chapter 12 Challenges for 2007/8 46 Annex A The Terms of Reference of the Family Justice Council 50 Annex B Membership of the Family Justice Council 51 Annex C Expenditure 2006/7 and Budget for 2007/8 67 Annex D Business Plan 2007/8 69 i Foreword | Report and Accounts 2006-7 Foreword by the President The publication of the second Annual Report on the work of the Family Justice Council provides an opportunity to reflect on what has been achieved during a busy year. In my view, the Council has now established itself as the champion of an inter-disciplinary approach to the family justice system and as a source of authoritative advice to Government. This report covers a year when the Council responded to a number of significant Government consultation papers impacting on the family justice system. Three issues particularly stand out: transparency, legal aid reform and the Chief Medical Officer’s proposals on expert witnesses. On all these issues, I was struck by the high quality of the Council’s responses. The inter-disciplinary nature of the Family Justice Council gives it a broader, but also more “joined-up”, perspective than purely sectional interests provide, and this is of great value. It is a key feature of the Council that it is supported by 40 Local Family Justice Councils across England and Wales. The Local Councils have made a major contribution to the responses to consultation which the Council has submitted during the period covered by this report. As I have visited different parts of the country I have had an opportunity to see some of the excellent training events which the Local Councils organise. I would like to thank the members of the Council for the time and effort which they have put into the work of the Council. It is a measure of the commitment shown by the members that they have produced advice of such quality without remuneration and out of dedication to the improvement of the system which we all serve. For this, I am very grateful. I am also grateful to all those others who give freely of their time and expertise to serve on the Council’s committees and working groups and on the Local Family Justice Councils. I am also happy to acknowledge the contribution of Government through what are now the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Children, Schools and Families in their positive engagement with the Council across a wide range of issues. Finally, I would like to express particular thanks to our secretariat for their hard work and support over the last year as well as to the staff who support the work of the Local Family Justice Councils across England and Wales. Sir Mark Potter President 1 Chapter 1 How the Council Works 2 How the Council works | Chapter 1 1.1 This is the second published Annual Report of the Family Justice Council and covers the work of the Council over 2006-07. Details of the Council’s activities and the key issues it has tackled are set out in chapter 2. The Council is a non- statutory advisory Non Departmental Public Body, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). It was established on 1 July 2004 as an outcome of the responses to the then Lord Chancellor’s Department’s 2002 consultation paper on ‘Promoting Inter-Agency Working in the Family Justice System’. Those responding to this consultation felt that there was a clear need for a representative body that brought together all the key groups working in the family justice system. The Primary Role of the Family Justice Council 1.2 The Council’s primary role is to promote an inter–disciplinary approach to family justice, and through consultation and research, to monitor how effectively the system, both as a whole and through its component parts, delivers the service the public, and the Government, need and to advise on reforms necessary for continuous improvement. The Council also aims to improve co-operation between the various professions that work in the family justice system (judges, lawyers, health professionals, social workers, guardians, mediators and others) and to promote a greater understanding between the professionals and the users of the family courts – parents and children. The formal terms of reference set by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor are attached at Annex A to this Report. Composition of the Council 1.3 The Family Justice Council consists of a representative cross section of those who work in, use, or have an interest in, the family justice system. A full list of the members is attached at Annex B. The Council is chaired by the President of the Family Division, Sir Mark Potter. Its Deputy Chair is Lord Justice Thorpe, the Deputy Head of Family Justice. Its members include: • a Family Division High Court Judge • a Circuit Judge • a District Judge (county courts) • a District Judge (magistrates’ courts) • a lay magistrate 3 Chapter 1 | How the Council works • a Justices’ Clerk • two family barristers • two family solicitors • a family mediator • a paediatrician • a child mental health specialist • a director of local authority social and children’s services • an academic • a person appointed for their knowledge of family justice from a parent’s point of view. In addition the Council has ex officio representatives (who attend meetings where there is business which concerns them) from the following organisations: • Cafcass • Cafcass Cymru • the Children’s Commissioners for England and Wales • the Ministry of Justice • the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) • the Department of Health (DH) • the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) • the Home Office (HO) • the Legal Services Commission (LSC) • HM Courts’ Service • the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). 4 How the Council works | Chapter 1 Structure of the Family Justice Council and its Committees 1.4 The Family Justice Council has 30 members (including the ex officio representatives). 1.5 There is an Executive Committee of 12 members, which makes the more detailed management and planning decisions. 1.6 The Council’s more detailed work is carried out by a number of subject based committees. There are three main committees dealing with Children in Safeguarding Proceedings (Children Act 1989 and Adoption and Children Act 2002); Children in Families (Children Act 1989 and Family Law Act 1996); and Money and Property (Matrimonial Causes Act 1973). In addition, there are cross- cutting committees on Experts, Education and Training, Diversity and the Voice of the Child. There are currently two working groups on Domestic Violence and Transparency. The committees and working groups include co-opted members, who are not members of the full Council, as well as relevant Council members. 1.7 Chapters 3 to 10 following, contain reports on the work of all of the Council’s committees and working groups. The work of the Transparency Working Group will be covered in chapter 2. 1.8 There is also an ad hoc Dartington Conference Planning Committee, which meets to arrange the biennial interdisciplinary residential conferences at Dartington Hall, Totnes in Devon. This Committee met several times during 2006-07 and has identified diversity as the theme for the next conference. Meetings of the Council 1.9 The full Council meets quarterly. Its March 2007 meeting was linked to a residential conference at Kenilworth for representatives of the Local Family Justice Councils (LFJCs). A report on this conference is included in chapter 11 of this Annual Report which also covers the work and activities of the LFJCs across the country. 1.10 Chapter 12 sets out briefly what the Council hopes to achieve in 2007–08. 5 Chapter 2 Overview of Activities and Issues in 2006-7 6 Overview of Activities and Issues in 2006-7 | Chapter 2 2.1 This year saw a number of significant new initiatives by central Government affecting the family justice system. The Council responded to several major consultation documents in this reporting period covering such key policy areas as: • transparency in the family courts; • Legal Aid reform; • the review of child care proceedings; • separate representation of children, and • the Chief Medical Officer’s report on expert medical evidence in the family courts. 2.2 Transparency, the admission of the public to, and reporting restrictions on, family proceedings, and making transcripts of court judgments available to the public, is one of the most important policy issues to face the family justice system for many years. For this reason, the Council set up a working group to examine the issue. The membership of the working group is as follows: Lord Justice Thorpe (Chair), Paul Clark, Stephen Cobb QC, DJ Nicholas Crichton, Katherine Gieve, Dr Danya Glaser, Mary MacLeod, Professor Judith Masson, HHJ Lesley Newton and Khatun Sapnara. 2.3 The working group engaged with officials at the Department for Constitutional Affairs, as it then was, responsible for developing the policy on transparency to explore and debate the issues raised.