Client: Department for Education (DfE) Date: June – December 2025 Challenges faced by the client: The DfE was looking to introduce a statutory duty for local authorities to offer Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) to families at the pre-proceedings stage, via the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. FGDM also forms an important part of the 'family networks' pillar of the Families First Pathfinder (FFP) reforms. To this end, the DfE had a requirement for a delivery partner

In this guest article, Dr Beverley Barnett-Jones h.c. MBE argues that racial justice must be treated as central to how the family justice system works, backed by better evidence and culturally responsive, trauma-informed practice. In recent years, conversations about ethnicity, inequality and racial justice within children’s social care and family justice have moved closer to the centre of professional debate. This shift matters because family justice represents one of the mo

Client: Department for Education Date: September 2025 – March 2026 Challenges faced by the client: Across England, many Designated Family Judge (DFJ) areas experience sustained delays in care proceedings, with a significant proportion of cases exceeding the 26-week statutory timeframe for completion. Delays in public law proceedings within the family justice system have significant consequences for children and families. These delays can leave children waiting for stability a

Introducing The Journey Through Proceedings We are proud to announce the launch of Series 2 of The Journey Through Proceedings. This mini-series brings the lived experiences of fathers at the heart of care proceedings. It is an essential listen for anyone working in, or affected by, the family justice system. Through honest accounts, the series explores the emotional realities fathers face, alongside the moments of strength and hope that can emerge in even the most difficult

Client: Cheshire East Council, in partnership with Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse Date: 2025 Challenges faced by the client: Domestic abuse survivors often face a heightened risk of homelessness, with support typically focused on crisis response rather than prevention. Cheshire East Council and its partners were piloting the Whole Housing Approach (WHA), a coordinated model bringing together housing, health, and local services to improve outcomes for survivors. Howe

In this article, Ben Rosie explores why it is essential to look at more than timeliness when measuring success in the family justice system. Since 2014, the family justice system has relied on the Public Law Outline’s 26‑week statutory limit as its primary indicator of success in care proceedings. While this brought a focus to streamlining processes and procedures, and ensuring cases do not drift, a system can meet the 26‑week limit and still deliver outcomes that are unstabl

The public family justice system is a complex network of professionals, legal frameworks, and administrative bodies designed to protect children and support families. Understanding how these components interact is vital for anyone working within or navigating the court ecosystem. To provide clarity on this intricate landscape, we have developed an interactive system map that visualises the connections between key stakeholders and processes. An interactive overview of the syst

As learning from the DFJ Trailblazer Programme continues to shape thinking across the sector, many local authorities are beginning to focus on what this means for data, analysis and performance reporting. With changes on the horizon, including a new statutory pre-proceedings dataset, analysts and data leads are increasingly being asked to think ahead about how data is designed, interpreted and used across systems. To support this, Mutual Ventures and Data to Insight ran two D

In our end‑of‑programme webinar series, we took a deep dive into the most pressing family justice and children’s social care topics, sharing learning from across the programme and the wider children’s services sector, and explored what this means for professional practice, system working, and the future of the sector. Through the series we brought together practitioners, analysts, and system leaders to explore real‑world learning, share local experiences, and examine approach

Join us for two data deep dive sessions , 24th February 1-2pm and 10th March 1-2pm. As learning from the DFJ Trailblazer Programme continues to shape thinking across the sector, many local authorities are beginning to focus on what this means for data, analysis and performance reporting. With changes on the horizon, including a new statutory pre-proceedings dataset, analysts and data leads are increasingly being asked to think ahead about how data is designed, interpreted and

Morgan Nasir-Finlayson highlights the importance of lived experience and kindness. Reflecting on her work leading the Designated Family Judge Trailblazers programme , Morgan shares how including people with lived experience in decision-making is crucial to meaningful change. Thank you to graduates of the Pause programme and Family Justice Young People’s Board who helped us with our work. Click here to listen to The Journey Through Proceedings podcast. If you'd like to discu

In this article, Ben Rosie argues that the family justice system remains too complex and inaccessible for the families it serves. There is a need for clearer communication, more inclusive practices, and a culture that enables families to understand and participate meaningfully in decisions that shape their lives. For many families, involvement in the family court is often their first interaction with the legal system and one of the most distressing experiences they will ever

Building on the success of the DFJ Trailblazer and Guided Learning programmes, Mutual Ventures has been commissioned by the Department for Education to help all DFJ areas in England participate in the National Learning Support programme. In a series of articles, the Mutual Ventures team summarises the DFJ Area Trailblazer Pilot, sharing insights from the five pilot areas to inform others developing their own solutions. In the fourth article, Ross Murray, explores efforts to i

Building on the success of the DFJ Trailblazer and Guided Learning programmes, Mutual Ventures has been commissioned by the Department for Education to help all DFJ areas in England participate in the National Learning Support programme. In a series of articles, the Mutual Ventures team summarises the DFJ Area Trailblazer Pilot, sharing insights from the five pilot areas to inform others developing their own solutions. In the fifth article, Ross Murray, explores efforts to be

Building on the success of the DFJ Trailblazer and Guided Learning programmes, Mutual Ventures has been commissioned by the Department for Education to help all DFJ areas in England participate in the National Learning Support programme. In a series of articles, the Mutual Ventures team summarises the DFJ Area Trailblazer Pilot, sharing insights from the five pilot areas to inform others developing their own solutions. In the third article, Ross Murray, explores efforts to st

Following the success of the DFJ Trailblazer programme and subsequent Guided Learning programme, Mutual Ventures has been commissioned by the Department for Education to support all DFJ areas across England to take part in the National Learning Support programme. In a series of articles, Luke Bevir provides an overview of the previous DFJ Area Trailblazer Pilot, the five pilot areas’ journeys to share learning that will be relevant for other DFJ Areas beginning to develop the

Following the success of the DFJ Trailblazer programme and subsequent Guided Learning programme, Mutual Ventures has been commissioned by...

This week, we are releasing the third and final episode of The Journey Through Proceedings, our new mini-series that brings the lived...

This week, we are releasing the second episode of The Journey Through Proceedings, a brand-new mini-series that brings the lived...

Drawing on our work across the justice system and wider children’s services, this report explores the conditions and actions needed to...