Child First
Help us stop avoidable child deaths and make sure children are put first in the family courts.
What is the Child First campaign about?
Since our campaign began in 2016, we have been calling on the government and all family courts agencies to make the family court process safer for women and children survivors of domestic abuse. We want an end to avoidable child deaths as a result of unsafe child contact with dangerous perpetrators of domestic abuse. For this to happen, domestic abuse must be taken seriously and survivors must receive the right response.
Eight years on, the campaign has seen critical changes – including the government leading an expert review on domestic abuse and the family courts (the ‘Harm Panel’ report), which Women’s Aid sat on the panel for. As a result of this review, the government banned perpetrators from directly cross-examining survivors and are piloting a more safety-focused, trauma-aware and investigative court model.
Despite these developments, survivors still tell us that they have been re-victimised and traumatised by their abusers through the family court process. We won’t stop fighting for the culture change which is urgently needed to guarantee the safety of women and children in the family courts.
Campaign news
Women’s Aid patron Melanie Brown MBE launches petition on training for judges
Melanie Brown MBE is passionate about family court reform, having gone through the system herself in the USA. She hears from women across England who have their experiences of abuse minimised, ignored or used against them by family court judges – and says: ‘It’s not good enough and we cannot wait any longer.’
She says:
Judges need to know what they are talking about when they make decisions, and to do this they need training – not training they have designed themselves, but training with domestic abuse experts like Women’s Aid.
Her petition calls on the Judicial College to introduce this training and the government to be accountable for this, as well as for taking forward the recommendations in the ‘Harm Panel’ report.
You can support the campaign and sign the petition here.
Compulsory mediation plans deemed unsafe for survivors and dropped
As covered in our June 2023 update, the government consulted on plans to make mediation compulsory before attending the family court. Even though this would technically not apply to survivors, we know that many survivors do not have accepted forms of ‘evidence’ of their abuse and may end up in mediation with their perpetrator regardless.
Women’s Aid responded to this consultation, setting out how compulsory mediation could harm survivors and give perpetrators more opportunities to abuse and control. In addition, we coordinated a letter signed by 30 women’s sector organisations to the Justice Minister.
We are very pleased that our concerns have been heard. The government response to the consultation said:
Many respondents to the consultation were concerned that the proposed exemptions would not be enough to adequately protect survivors of domestic abuse from being required to attend mediation when it is not suitable or safe for them. We are not proposing to change the law to introduce a requirement on parties to attend mediation before applying to court at this time. Instead, we will focus on delivering the package of measures that helps parents/carers resolve their issues at every stage of the process.
These measures include better domestic abuse training for mediators and screening processes, which Women’s Aid is supporting the Family Mediation Council to develop. This should help ensure mediators are better equipped to identify domestic abuse and respond appropriately.
Government consults on dangerous proposals to make pre-court mediation compulsory
The Ministry of Justice is considering making mediation compulsory for separating partners before they can go through the family courts. It claims the proposals will reduce the number of cases in the strained family justice system and ensure better outcomes for children.
We don’t agree – these plans would be dangerous for survivors and their children. Whilst there would be an exemption from compulsory mediation in cases of domestic abuse, we know that many survivors will not be able to access it – because they are afraid to disclose abuse or because they do not have one of the required forms of evidence.
Mediation is likely to be unsafe for many survivors. Perpetrators may use the process to further abuse them and force them into decisions about child contact which they don’t believe are safe. Survivors need the protection of court from abusers’ strategies of coercion and control.
These plans go against the government’s commitment to make the family courts safe for child and adult survivors. In our response to the consultation, we are urging the Ministry of Justice to reconsider and to instead prioritise implementing the Harm Panel’s recommendations to make the family courts safer, trauma-aware and child-centric.
Government publishes progress update on the Harm Panel report
Three years on from the ‘Harm Panel’ report, a landmark review of domestic abuse and the family courts, the government has published an update on their progress towards the recommendations.
A justice minister claimed the government has made ‘huge strides’ and ‘delivered cultural changes across the family justice system to ensure domestic abuse victims feel supported and protected’. But we are still hearing reports of survivors who raise domestic abuse being disbelieved and discriminated against, experiencing trauma and further abuse throughout the process.
Whilst there have been positive changes in the three years – like support workers being allowed to accompany survivors into court and the ban of direct cross-examination by perpetrators – these have not been enough to transform survivors’ experiences.
We are continuing to push for all 32 of the Harm Panel’s recommendations to be implemented to ensure safety in the family courts for adult and child survivors.
Read our full comment on the Harm Panel progress update here.
Women’s Aid report marks two years since the Harm Report’s publication
In June 2020, the Ministry of Justice published the final report of its expert panel on assessing risk of harm to children and parents in private family law children cases. The report concluded that the family courts do not effectively protect many child and adult victims of domestic abuse from further harm. It made a number of recommendations which, if implemented, would transform the family court response to domestic abuse.
Two years later, Women’s Aid has published a new report: Two years, too long. In the report we ask what progress has been made since the publication of the Harm Report, and what work remains to be done. Our report is informed by the experiences of survivors who have been in court since 2020, and the specialist services supporting them.
On 29th April 2021, the Domestic Abuse Act reached royal assent and finally became law. The Act contains a number of new provisions that will help to make the family courts safer for survivors and their children. These include:
- The first ever statutory definition of domestic abuse which recognises children as victims in their own right.
- Victims of domestic abuse will be automatically eligible for special measures in the family courts. There will also be provisions in the civil courts for some survivors to access special measures.
- Perpetrators or alleged perpetrators of abuse will be prohibited from directly cross-examining their victims in person in the family and civil courts, where there are convictions or evidence of domestic abuse. The courts will also have discretion to prevent cross-examination in other circumstances.
- Clarity that the family courts should use barring orders (an order under section 91(14) of the Children Act) to prevent the family courts from being used to continue abuse.
These changes have been hard fought for throughout the Child First campaign, but we recognise that systemic change is still needed throughout family justice. As we reach the first anniversary of the Ministry of Justice expert harm panel’s report, we continue to push for implementation of the report’s recommendations, which highlighted the importance of redesigning the family justice system to respond safely to survivors and their children.
Women’s Aid, along with Rights of Women, Rape Crisis England and Wales, and Welsh Women’s Aid, intervened in four joined appeals relating to domestic abuse and the family courts. These appeals were from mothers who had experienced domestic abuse and sexual violence and were challenging unsafe contact decisions. The Court of Appeal judgement noted the importance of judges and magistrates having proper understanding of the nature of domestic abuse – in particular the impact of controlling and coercive behaviour on victims and children.
Over the last few years, the terms “parental alienation” and “alienating behaviour” have been used more and more – in the family courts, in children’s social work, on social media, and even in debates about the new domestic abuse bill. This blog discusses why “alienation” such a dangerous term when it comes to domestic abuse.
Ministry of Justice publishes its panel’s report on assessing risk of harm to children and parents in private law children cases
On Thursday 25th June 2020, the report of the panel appointed by the Ministry of Justice to review the family courts’ handling of cases involving domestic abuse and other forms of harm to children and parents was published. The findings of the panel mark major progress for our Child First campaign.
Women’s Aid was represented on the panel of experts guiding the review of evidence and has fought to ensure survivors voices are heard at every stage. The panel’s report concludes that family courts do not effectively protect many child and adult victims of domestic abuse from further harm. In fact, the courts’ pro-contact culture result in children and non-abusive parents being put at risk of often severe harm. The report shines a light on the sexism, racism and class prejudice that survivors face in the family courts.
The panel calls for fundamental reform of the child arrangements programme – calling for a redesign of the system to be safety-focused and trauma-aware, taking an investigative, problem-solving approach, working in a joined-up, connected and consistent manner with other areas of justice and agencies, and with adequate resources.
- You can read the panel’s report, along with an accompanying literature review and the government’s implementation plan, here.
- And you can read a blog from Lucy Hadley, our Campaigns and Policy Manager, about why this report is such a breakthrough for Child First.
If the government acts to implement these recommendations, the family court response to survivors of domestic abuse could be transformed forever. We look forward to working with the Ministry of Justice, the Family Division and HMCTS to take forward these recommendations and deliver a safe family court system for survivors and their children.
Women’s Aid partnered with Queen Mary University of London on research looking at the experiences of survivors of domestic abuse in the family courts through the lens of human rights. The research uncovers a glaring gender gap in the way human rights are used and understood in the family courts and highlights new evidence of gender discrimination within the institutional culture of the courts. Find out more here.
We are delighted that the government established a panel of experts to review how the family courts protect children and parents in cases of domestic abuse and other serious offences, which is a significant win for our campaign. Women’s Aid has been part of the panel, which published an update report in October. We look forward to the panel’s final report later this year.
In March 2020, the domestic abuse bill returned to parliament. We were pleased that the government listened to our calls for a wider ban on cross-examination to protect all survivors who face this traumatising practice in the court system. But there remains a long way to go before the family courts will be truly safe for women and children. The law must make survivors automatically eligible for special protection measures in the family and civil courts, not only the criminal courts. Tackling the culture of ‘contact at all costs’ in the family courts remains a fundamental priority in order to keep survivors and their children safe after separation.
We are pleased to have provided support to Louise Haigh MP on a Bill that would: “Remove the parental rights of fathers of children conceived through rape; to make provision for an inquiry into the handling by family courts of domestic abuse and violence against women and girls in child arrangement cases; and for connected purposes.” The Bill has cross-party support, and backs a key call of our campaign for a statutory inquiry into the family court response to domestic abuse. Louise’s speech introducing the Bill can be watched here.
The government and the President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, have issued new guidance for judges and magistrates for child contact cases where there are allegations of domestic abuse. Find out more here.
The campaign has secured a promise from the government to create a new law to ban perpetrators of domestic abuse from being able to cross-examine their victims in the family court.
This new law is part of the Prison and Courts Bill which was originally stopped due to the snap General Election.
On the 4th January the government announced an emergency review to find the quickest way to ban abusive ex-partners from cross-examining their victims in the family courts.
On 20th January, the President of the Family Division announced Mr Justice Cobb’s review of Practice Direction 12J: Child Arrangement and Contact Orders: Domestic Violence and Harm. The Practice Direction outlines what judges and magistrates must do when overseeing child contact cases where domestic abuse is alleged or has taken place. The review makes various suggestions to improve the practice direction including a clear definition of ‘harm’, addressing the ‘contact at all costs’ culture of the family courts and always putting children’s interest and safety first.
Women’s Aid marked the first anniversary of the launch of the Child First campaign and report Nineteen Child Homicides by handing the Child First petition into Number 10 Downing Street. It has been signed by over 42,000 people.
On the same day we released our report Child First: A Call to Action One Year On, which shows what we have achieved and what we still have to do to make children safe.
A debate in the House of Commons Chamber took place on 15 September 2016. Claire Throssell’s MP, Angela Smith, told the stories of Claire’s two sons, Jack, 12 and Paul, 9, who were both killed by their father, a known perpetrator of domestic abuse, in Parliament for the very first time. MPs from all political parties made moving and powerful speeches about the need for change. Read or watch the debate.
The Ministry of Justice has also asked Women’s Aid to review the training provided to family court staff on domestic abuse, and the guidance (Practice Direction 12J) issued to the judges and magistrates when there is an allegation of domestic abuse in child contact cases.
Research and statistics
View and share our infographics that support the campaign.
Read Claire’s story
Survivor Claire Throssell’s two sons were both killed by their father, a known perpetrator of domestic abuse.
Children and the law
The Rights of Women website has information on children and the law and the family court process.
Further support
If you have concerns about your safety or anyone you know, please contact the police on 999 in an emergency or contact us for information and support.
Take Action – become a Campaign Champion
Support our national campaigns on a local level, give survivors of domestic violence a voice and help to ensure that politicians and other key decision makers are listening.
