Pathfinder pilot to support abuse victims extended

A “pioneering” family court pilot scheme to reduce delays and support victims of domestic abuse is to be expanded.

“Pathfinder” will be used in all family courts in Wales, with West Yorkshire becoming an additional area for England.

According to the Ministry of Justice, the plan has led to the completion of cases sooner, and halving the number of cases waiting to be heard.

It was first launched in some family court proceedings in 2022 after a review by the family justice system in 2020 found processes often worsened conflict between parents, retraumatising victims of abuse and impacting children.

When parents have separated, and cannot agree how to share their caring responsibilities, they turn to the family court.

The family court can have a huge impact on a family’s life, as the judge can decide who the children will live with, how their holidays are organised, as well as issues such as where the children go to school.

Pathfinder tries to resolve problems between parents sooner, and place more emphasis on hearing children’s voices, where appropriate, earlier in the process.

In 2022, north Wales and Dorset were the first courts to use the scheme and in May 2024 it was extended to Birmingham and South East Wales.

Statistics from the Ministry of Justice show that the time taken to take a case through the system reduced from 29 weeks on average to 18 weeks in north Wales.

From March 2025, Wales will become the first country to be wholly using the Pathfinder Pilot for all private children proceedings, and it is being extended in England to West Yorkshire in June.

Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs said: “I believe this approach is essential to ensuring the protection of victims in the family justice system. I welcome the government’s commitment to this pilot and look forward to seeing its influence on all family courts.”

I have been attending cases at the family court in Cardiff, to report on under the Transparency Pilot, and have seen Pathfinder in action.

A case in November 2024 involved separated parents with three children.

The father applied to allow contact between his new partner and the children.

Comments from the children showed the eldest did not want to see the father.

Both parents agree that only the two younger children should see more of the dad.

However they couldn’t agree on how quickly that should happen and whether his partner should be present.

The middle child wanted to see the dad without having to see the dad’s new partner – his former childminder.

The court heard the middle child was visibly upset when they told a social worker: “she took my daddy”.

The parents couldn’t find a solution as requested by the judge, so he made a ruling.

A staged increase in contact over time was confirmed for the younger two siblings.

If that goes well consideration to progressing to overnight contact would be given, and the involvement of the dad’s partner.

With the existing pre-Pathfinder court process, parents would expect to wait weeks or even months to have their first interaction with the court, or the court’s social work service, CAFCASS Cymru in Wales or CAFCASS in England.

Cases would usually take six months or more to conclude, and would involve multiple court hearings.

Under the Pathfinder Pilot, within a day or two of the application being issued at court, a judge or court legal adviser will consider the application and make case management decisions.

Usually, the judge will order an officer from CAFCASS Cymru to prepare a Child Impact Report, which would involve the officer speaking to both parents, and if appropriate, the children and any other relevant people, such as the children’s school.

The officer would identify any areas of agreement and disagreement, before making recommendations to the court for the children.

This allows judges to make informed decisions, much earlier than previously.

David Gareth Evans is a family law barrister based in Cardiff and said Wales being the first nation to fully adopt Pathfinder would be “good for Welsh families”.

Mr Evans said: “For the families involved, they really like it. It’s much quicker and they speak to people who are interested in investigating the welfare of their children at a much earlier stage in the case and that makes a real difference to them.

“Litigation is incredibly stressful for the children and for the parents, it’s also incredibly expensive, so on a very practical level getting the case over and done with quicker is better for everybody.”

He said the faster pace of proceedings had been a new challenge for lawyers.

The Ministry of Justice said the announcement came with a £12.5m funding boost.

Lord Ponsonby, the Minister for Family Justice, said: “Pathfinder has been welcomed as a less adversarial approach, and early evidence shows it’s working.

“This is another important step to achieving our promise of halving violence against women and girls.”