NAO estimates the cost of family justice for the government to be more than £1.8bn in 2023/24 but highlights that due to the number of organisations involved “the government does not know how much is spent” in this area.
"Delays can mean children waiting longer for permanent care and living or contact arrangements, increasing risk of harm, anxiety, instability and disrupted friendships or education, all of which were reinforced to the NAO by other stakeholders in the family justice system," says an NAO statement accompanying the report.
Although the government has a range of initiatives designed to improve children’s experiences and the number of outstanding cases having reduced by over a quarter since the pandemic, “many cases still take too long to complete and further action is needed to remove the barriers to a more efficient system, including poor quality data and fragmented decision-making”, said NAO head Gareth Davies.
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