His Honour Judge Clifford Bellamy

HIS HONOUR JUDGE CLIFFORD BELLAMY DESIGNATED FAMILY JUDGE FOR LEICESTER

NEWSLETTER 2

Recent progress The progress of the modernisation reforms continue to gather pace. On 30th May I circulated two documents from the President’s office: Practice Direction 36C – Pilot Scheme: Care and Supervision Proceedings and Other Proceedings under Part 4 of the Children Act 1989 and the Annex to that Practice Direction, Pilot Practice Direction 12A – Care, Supervision and Other Part 4 Proceedings: Guide to Case Management. Further Practice Directions will follow later this month dealing with issues such as allocation and gate-keeping, judicial continuity and the use of prescribed documents. I will circulate these as soon as I receive them.

You will notice that these documents have the word ‘pilot’ in their title. The new procedures are being trialled nationally. The ‘big bang’ will happen on 1st April 2014 when the new Family Court will officially open its doors and the changes being introduced by the Children and Families Bill will come into effect. So we have ten months to learn, to change and to get ready.

The Dawn of a New Age You should all have received a copy of the poster advertising our first local training event to prepare people for the local implementation of the pilot reforms. This open meeting is to take place at Leicester Magistrates Court, Pocklingtons Walk on Monday 17th June from 5.00pm to 7.00 pm. Everyone who is involved in public law Children Act work, in whatever capacity, is welcome to attend.

1 June 2013 The national Family Justice Board (FJB) has tasked local Family Justice Boards (LFJBs) to choose a specific date when they intend to join the pilot of the revised PLO (1 July, 5 August, 2 September or 7 October). The FJB is keen that every LFJB area should adopt the pilot as quickly as possible. The open meeting on 17 June is intended as a means of helping to prepare practitioners for implementation of the pilot in Leicester.

Locally, what date should we choose for implementation of the pilot? The LFJB will be meeting on 17th June to consider that issue. The guidance from the FJB states that “A start date for the courts within the LFJB area is to be agreed with the DFJ by 21 June (if starting on 1 July) or 5 July (if starting a little later).” My strong view is that we should implement the pilot sooner rather than later. I have two reasons for saying that.

Firstly, the FJB guidance makes it clear that “Not everything has to be perfect at day one”. This is a pilot. We all have much to learn. The learning needs to have been completed by 1st April 2014. It is from that date that, pursuant to the Children and Families Bill, we shall be under a statutory obligation to complete care cases “without delay…and in any event within twenty-six weeks…” To make the changes work will require more than becoming familiar with the new PLO; it will require a change of approach and a change of culture. We need to give ourselves enough time to make those changes.

Secondly, in my opinion the best way of learning is by doing. I am reminded of the ancient Chinese proverb, attributed to the philosopher Confucius: I hear and I forget I see and I remember I do and I understand

Whilst I commend our training event on 17th June, I am in no doubt that it is only as we put the revised PLO into operation that we shall become proficient at making it work. The sooner we put them into operation the sooner we shall become proficient.

2 June 2013 Allocation and gate-keeping Allocation decisions will continue to be made in accordance with the Allocation and Transfer of Proceedings Order 2008, the Practice Direction Allocation and Transfer of Proceedings (3rd November 2008) and the Family Proceedings (Allocation to Judiciary) Directions 2009. However, guidance on their application is to be set out in a President’s Practice Direction to be published shortly.

The Practice Direction will require the DFJ to lead a gatekeeping team of allocation judges, the team to include an equal number of District Judges (County Court) and legal advisers. Allocation is to be undertaken jointly by a District Judge and a legal adviser. This is to be listed work. Locally, four District Judges and four legal advisers have been nominated. It has been agreed that a District Judge and a legal adviser will meet daily, from 10.00am to 10.30am, to consider the allocation of any cases issued the previous day. To assist them, on issue, local authorities will be required to file an ‘Allocation Proposal’ form setting out a reasoned proposal for the allocation of that case.

Inevitably, the volume of allocation work is unpredictable and will vary from day to day. Sometimes, because the circumstances of the case are urgent, the local authority will have little choice about when to issue. However, in other cases – those involving chronic neglect, for example – the local authority does invariably have a degree of choice about when to issue. To assist the allocation judges it would be extremely helpful if, where possible, cases are issued singly and not in batches. It is my intention to discuss with our local authorities the possibility of agreeing particular days of the week for each local authority to issue its non-urgent cases.

Initially, the allocation judges will only be dealing with the allocation of public law cases. It is expected that by the end of the year their remit will have been expanded to include private law Children Act cases.

The new gate-keeping and allocation arrangements will be implemented in Leicester from Monday 1st July irrespective of the date at which the revised PLO is to be implemented locally. This will include a requirement that local authorities use the new Allocation Proposal form from that date.

3 June 2013 Single Family Court 1 HMCTS has produced a Single Family Court operating model upon the basis of which every DFJ is required to develop a plan – a DFJ Area Implementation Plan – for implementing the single Family Court in his or her area. This must be returned to the President by 14th June.

The Leicester Implementation Plan has been completed. The ‘highlights’ which may be of interest are that:

 the Designated Family Centre (DFC) will be at Leicester County Court and the majority of hearings will take place there;

 there will be two other family hearing locations – Leicester Magistrates Court and Loughborough Magistrates Court;

 for all new work there will be a single point of entry, Leicester County Court;

 all applications will be routed through, issued from and gate-kept at Leicester County Court;

 there will be a centralised gate-keeping and allocation team as described above.

The Family Court will include High Court Judges, Circuit Judges, Recorders, District Judges (including District Judges of the Magistrates’ Court), magistrates, justices’ clerks and legal advisers. All family work presently dealt with in the County Court and Family Proceedings Court will be dealt with in the Family Court. From 1st April 2014 the Family Proceedings Court will cease to exist.

The Magistracy I am aware of the fact that here in Leicester, as in many other parts of the country, there has been some concern that a consequence of the modernisation reforms is that the role of the magistracy in family work will be diminished. The President has been very clear indeed. In his first newsletter, published in April, he said: “I do not accept, I have never accepted, that Magistrates are unsuited for family work or, in particular, for public law cases. Quite the contrary. So Magistrates will play a vitally important part as judges in the Family Court. And I must make

1 The term ‘single Family Court’ is used as a convenient and informative shorthand. The correct statutory title is “the family court”.

4 June 2013 clear that there is no agenda that Magistrates should in future concentrate only on private law cases. Given the great discrepancies at present in the balance of public and private law work being done by different Family Proceedings Courts, there is likely over time to be a rebalancing in some places between the two kinds of cases. But Magistrates are going to continue doing significant amounts of public law work.” I share the President’s views and echo his commitment. Family magistrates will continue to have an important role to play in the Family Court in Leicester.

26 weeks Some progress is being made in reducing the length of public law cases in Leicester. Statistics concerning the average length of a care case in Leicester show: 2011/12 61.5 weeks in the County Court 48.8 weeks in the Family Proceedings Court. 2012/13 54.4 weeks in the County Court 45.6 weeks in the Family Proceedings Court 2013/14 (April) 41.8 weeks in the County Court 25.8 weeks in the Family Proceedings Court The statistics are encouraging. We are moving in the right direction. However, we still have a long way to go. There is no room for complacency.

Official Solicitor As is the case with all other agencies working in the Family Justice System, the Official Solicitor is under pressure as a result of the volume of work. Sometimes referrals to the Official Solicitor can lead to delay in progressing a case. In order to minimise that risk it is important that practitioners are familiar with the role of the Official Solicitor, the procedure for enlisting his assistance and how to contact him. All of these issues are dealt with in a recently updated Practice note: The Official Solicitor to the Senior Courts: Appointment in Family Proceedings and Proceedings Under the Inherent Jurisdiction in Relation to Adults. The Practice Note can be found at http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/about/ospt/ospt-practice-note.pdf

5 June 2013 Newsletter If we are going to make the modernisation reforms work it is essential that we establish good communication and that we collaborate with each other. The monthly newsletter is prepared with those two objectives in mind.

In future editions it is my intention to cover issues such as the use and instruction of experts, the preparation of threshold documents and identifying the need for a finding of fact hearing. If would like to suggest other topics to be addressed or if you have suggestions of ways of making the newsletter more helpful, please either e-mail me or contact Justine Blackwell or Emma Holyoak.

6 June 2013