Child Focused Courts: What the New Family Court Reforms Mean for Children
The family justice system is undergoing significant change with Child Focused Courts - formerly known as Pathfinder courts - being introduced across England and Wales in an effort to improve outcomes for children and families involved in disputes over child arrangements.
This change is a result of a successful trial period which saw family court cases be resolved up to seven and half months faster and family court backlogs halve. The Government hopes this model will aid courts in identifying any risks to the children’s welfare more quickly – for example, when they’re experiencing domestic abuse - while streamlining court processes to reduce delays and spare children the pain of drawn-out proceedings. To achieve this, coordination between the family court and agencies such as the local authorities and police is to be bolstered and the Child Focused Court is to adopt a less adversarial and more investigative approach in the hope of focusing more sufficiently on the lived experiences of children subject to abuse.
The judgement of Re C [2026] is the first Court of Appeal decision to consider the Child Focused Court model and provides guidance on how the model will operate where domestic abuse is involved in children's proceedings. The case concerned the child arrangements for four children whose parents separated following a relationship of domestic abuse. In concluding that supervised contact remained in the children's best interests, the Court stressed a number of broader principles relevant to cases being heard under the Child Focused Court model. The court stressed that whilst the introduction of this new model has changed both procedure and culture, the substantive law remains unchanged. Where domestic abuse is involved, the welfare of the child remains paramount and Practice Direction 12J continues to apply in full. Whilst the Court of Appeal believe this new model is favourable, the Court iterated that the model does not diminish the requirement for procedural fairness. The Family Court should continue to recognise and sufficiently analyse domestic abuse whilst also exercising robust case management and ensuring that proceedings remain fair and proportionate.
After the decision in Re C [2026], it will be interesting to see how the Child Focused Courts operate in practice. This new court model does not currently operate in London but as the Government continues to expand this model across the UK, we hope to see the length of children's proceedings shorten significantly.