There is still time for people to sign an open letter calling for the introduction across the judiciary of mandatory safeguarding training and systemic learning from cases.
The letter to the Lady Chief Justice, The Right Honourable the Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, highlights a critical gap identified in the Government’s 2020 review, Assessing the risk of harm to children and parents in private law children cases.
Domestic abuse
The letter states that there are no specialist safeguarding focused bodies examining how courts deal with domestic abuse and coercive control in the context of child protection.
Areas of particular concern include judicial decision-making, conduct, failures to recognise domestic abuse, safeguarding practice in children’s cases, and the handling and assessment of evidence.
One survivor said: “The family court destroyed my family. I escaped an abuser but the court handed my children straight back to him. The judiciary needs a safeguarding wake-up call.”
The letter states that ‘children’s safety must come first’.
Safeguarding training
It adds that judges should receive the same level of safeguarding training as other professionals to protect children.
The open letter also calls on the Government to establish an independent judicial standards and safeguarding authority.
This authority should be modelled on frameworks used in medicine and nursing. It would be independent, led by safeguarding-trained professionals, and empowered to oversee:
- Judicial conduct and misconduct
- Judicial performance, training, and revalidation
- Children and domestic abuse safeguarding
- Enforceable evidence-based standards and rules
- Safeguarding fitness-to-practise and restrictions where a judge demonstrates unsafe practice
