Child Focus Is Biggest Change to Family Courts in 30 Years

Published: March 30, 2026. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online—Providing trusted news and professional analysis for the UK.

The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has hailed the nationwide rollout of a new “child-focused” court model as the most significant structural shift in the family justice system since the introduction of the Children Act 1989. Speaking at a landmark conference for legal professionals and social workers this morning, the UK’s most senior family judge described the transition as a “fundamental game-changer” that finally moves the court away from an adversarial, parent-led battleground toward a system that prioritizes the lived experience and safety of the child from the very outset of proceedings. The new model, which has been piloted over the last two years under the “Pathfinder” initiative, is now being expanded to every family court across England and Wales following evidence that it significantly reduces delays and helps protect victims of domestic abuse.

Under the traditional system, which has been the subject of intense criticism for decades, family court proceedings often functioned as a “he-said, she-said” contest where parents and their legal teams competed to “win” custody or contact time. Sir Andrew argued that this approach frequently left children as “silent victims,” their voices drowned out by adult conflict and their well-being secondary to the procedural demands of the court. The new child-focused model flips this script by mandating an early “Child Impact Report” produced by Cafcass or local authority social workers. This report requires professionals to meet with children—often before the first formal court hearing—to understand their feelings, fears, and daily realities, ensuring that the judge has a clear picture of the child’s needs before any long-term decisions are made.

One of the most profound changes accompanying this rollout is the effective removal of the “presumption of parental involvement” in cases where there are credible allegations of domestic abuse. For years, campaigners have argued that the court’s “pro-contact” culture forced children into dangerous situations with abusive parents because the law presumed that seeing both parents was always in the child’s best interests. Sir Andrew emphasized that the new investigative approach allows judges to identify safeguarding risks much earlier, often bypassing the need for harrowing, months-long “fact-finding” hearings that leave families in limbo. By front-loading information and focusing on the child’s safety as the primary metric, the pilot schemes have already shown a dramatic reduction in the number of cases returning to court due to broken-down arrangements.

However, the senior judge also issued a stern warning regarding the use of unregulated “experts” in these sensitive cases. Following a series of high-profile appeals where mothers were wrongly separated from their children based on flawed evidence of “parental alienation,” Sir Andrew reiterated that the courts must strictly vet the qualifications of any psychologist or assessor involved in a case. He noted that the child-focused model is designed to rely on verified, professional social work rather than the “pseudo-science” that has occasionally plagued the family justice system. As the rollout continues through the 2026-2027 financial year, the focus remains on ensuring that every child caught in the middle of a separation is treated not as a piece of property to be divided, but as a person with a right to be heard and a right to be safe.

Read More At>>