Bi-Borough Care Proceedings Project
The Bi-Borough Care Proceedings Project was a joint initiative between the London Boroughs of Camden & Islington. The project was established to implement the recommendations of the Family Justice Review 2012, the Children and Families Act 2014, the Public Law Outline 2014, and recommendations from the Munroe Review. The aims of the project were to strengthen the system to reduce unnecessary delay and improve decision-making for children subject to care proceedings.
To address systemic issues, the project formed multi-agency partnerships between key professional stakeholders, including Her Majesty's Courts & Tribunal Service (HMCTS), Child & Family Court & Advisory Service (CAFCASS), Public and Private Legal Representatives, local authority’s, specialists and service providers.
As senior project manager I led on:
System strengthening as a member of the London Family Justice Board Performance Improvement Sub-Group, an interagency forum lead by HMCTS.
Production of quarterly reports for the Steering Group and Family Justice Board Performance Improvement Sub-Group.
Quality assuring social work assessments and evidence for care proceedings,
Building the capability of social workers to engage children and families, develop their assessments, submit written evidence to court and provide verbal evidence in court through training, coaching and workshops,
Developing policy and best practice guidance to resource social workers and other stakeholders.
Design and maintenance of a data collection tool to track timescales and outcomes in pre-proceedings and care proceedings. The tool provided a rich source of quantitative data that was used in conjunction with qualitative data from stakeholders to identify themes, progress against objective, risks and issues.
Outcomes & Impact
Part I of the evaluation indicated that there was a substantial reduction in the average time taken for a case to reach final hearing in comparison with the average duration of cases issued in the previous year - 25.5 weeks compared to an average duration of 59 weeks in the previous year (a reduction of 57%). Part II of the evaluation indicated that a 44% reduction in timescales had been maintained over two years.
Learning
It was important to tackle systemic delay while simultaneously developing the standards of pre-proceedings assessment and early intervention to protect the child’s right to family life and to ensure that decisions were just and in the child’s best interests. Learning from the project was used to enhance practice, child & family assessment and pre-proceedings work and informed aspects of Islington’s Doing What Counts Measuring What Matters Innovation Project and the development of the Statutory guidance on court orders and pre-proceedings.