Family law reform ups ante on workers

The Public Law Outline will mean social workers will have to do more preparation work before a family law case goes to court. Speaking at a Parents for Children conference last week, children's solicitor Pat Monro said the regulations will lead to a significant change in how care cases are dealt with.

"Next year care cases will be of a completely different nature," she said. "The Public Law Outline is a streamlined process. The final hearing has to be within 40 weeks and there is an increased emphasis on pre-hearing preparation. This is going to create an enormous amount of additional pressure on local authorities."

She said that for cases to successfully go through the system, all research on the child will have to be done at an early stage, and should include options for support for the child and adoptive family once the case is complete.

"A court may not make a placement order unless it's satisfied there is support in the future," she said. "The crucial things are the collection of information, analysis of information and ensuring everyone that needs it has support so they can make decisions from the start."

Statutory guidance for local authorities on the Public Law Outline, which was under consultation between July and September, is due to be published in November.

It aims to speed up the family law system and improve work done by local authorities before family law cases reach court.

Monro added: "There's likely to be a dearth of care cases coming into the system while social workers try to get the hang of the Public Law Outline."

She also raised concerns that many lawyers who deal with family law are near retirement age and there are no younger lawyers coming into the field. "It's an extremely serious situation because young people going through care proceedings don't always want to have older people representing them. They want someone closer to their age who is better able to understand them," she said.

She said that one of the reasons young lawyers are not choosing family law is because pay levels have decreased.

PUBLIC LAW OUTLINE - KEY POINTS

- The Public Law Outline requires more effort to explore alternatives to care proceedings before court hearings

- Parents will be provided with a statement setting out local authority concerns, and have earlier access to legal advice

- There will be a streamlined process for progressing care cases, and enhanced case management procedures and advocacy preparation to support this

- The timetable for progressing cases will be fixed around the needs of the child and final hearing dates will be set when issues in the case have been agreed.