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Our call on the Govt to protect victim-survivors of domestic abuse in the family justice system
We have called on the new Government to start the work of improving protections for victim-survivors of domestic abuse in the family justice system now and have set out 11 recommendations for meaningful change.
We advise over 1500 women annually on family law queries and have unique frontline experience of the issues faced by survivors of domestic abuse in the family justice system.
The parties who come to court in both private and public law are disproportionately from lower socio-economic backgrounds, more likely to have experienced multiple disadvantage and have experienced domestic abuse. The Family Justice System should play an important role in reducing and preventing domestic abuse. Despite this, too many professionals within the system do not see reduction and prevention as a key role of the court, especially within private law, both in relation to children and financial arrangements. Family justice reform will play a key role in the Government’s commitment to halve violence against women and girls.
The Harm Report published by the Ministry of Justice in June 2020 concluded that the Family Court was making orders that place victims of domestic abuse and their children at risk of harm. However, changes to improve the system have been needlessly slow. Justice delayed is justice denied for survivors of abuse.
We have called on the Government to:
- Properly implement and evaluate pilots and innovations offering new models to improve the family justice process.
- Specialist trauma-informed training on domestic abuse for the Judicial College, social workers and lawyers.
- Special measures, including a qualified legal representative scheme (QLR), the introduction of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and Family procedure rules, and confirm they will be available on the day of hearing.
- Introduction of new processed, forms and template information to improve accessibility and that survivors and unrepresented parties are meaningfully consulted before they are introduced.
- Investment in specialist IDVA roles across England and Wales. Professionals who work within the domestic abuse sector provide invaluable support to women fleeing abuse and helping them rebuild their lives. This should include targeted investment in specialist ‘by and for’ organisations who support Black and minoritised women and women with other protected characteristics.
- Review of the presumption of parental involvement. The presumption of parental involvement embeds the pro-contact culture identified as a key barrier to safe decision making in Harm Report. Our clear view is that it should be removed from the legislation.
- The adoption of discredited and controversial theories around parental alienation within the Family Court has led to decision making within the Court that has caused significant trauma to both adult and child survivors of domestic abuse. The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls has called on States to take action to prevent its use in Family Court.
- One of simplest and most effective ways to combat the worst outcomes in cases where allegations of alienation are made against survivors of domestic abuse would be to introduce legislation that places restrictions on who can provide psychological assessments in the Family Court.
- Prioritising cohabitation reform. This will include laws to deal with the finances and property of cohabiting couples when they separate, in parity with laws for divorcing and civil partnership couples.
- We advise survivors on non-molestation orders and occupation orders. There are a number of issues w in relation to the way risk is assessed and trauma is overlooked when decisions are made. The proposed DAPO scheme is ambitious but seems likely to inherit the issues with the current protective order regime. We are a member of the sector reference group for the DAPO DAPN pilot and look forward to hearing from those that lead that group once they have a steer from the Government on launching the pilot. We cannot impress enough how important it is that survivors feel heard, empowered and that their safety is centred, especially for police or third party led applications. We hope to see this reflected in the evaluation.
- A system-wide data strategy to improve the surprising lack of reliable data in relation to the Family Justice System. Without reliable data, it is very difficult to fully understand the extent of the problems or to monitor the impact of changes to Family Justice.