Family Rights Group secures funding to improve early and pre-proceedings work with families
Family Rights Group has been successful in securing a major three-year grant from The Legal Education Foundation.
This funding is being awarded to enable Family Rights Group (FRG) to develop an approach that will promote, support the implementation of, and embed the key policy and practice messages regarding pre-proceedings work arising from:
- The Care Crisis Review
- The reports and guidance produced by the Public Law Working Group and
- Relevant academic and voluntary sector research.
All elements of the work to be undertaken will be co-produced, in design and delivery, with families and we will be working closely with a range of practitioners. The grant will also fund an academic evaluation of the approach FRG develops and the impact it makes. The evaluation will be led by Caroline Thomas, Independent Researcher and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Stirling.
This initiative has had the endorsement of both Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division and Mr Justice Keehan, Chair of the Public Law Working Group.
The work undertaken with this funding will include:
- A national legal and practice programme for the judiciary, co-produced with families. This will be delivered to the magistry in partnership with The Magistrates Association
- In two family justice areas in England, piloting focused and in-depth work which will aim to:
o Engender a re-emphasis on early and effective partnership working with families and for this to be demonstratable in the system
o Promote greater insight into the experiences of families interacting with the child welfare and family justice systems.
- Working with a small number of local authorities and the judiciary in the pilot areas, engaging with a range of decision makers and practitioners. This will include directors, service managers, judges and magistrates, team managers and others. The project will facilitate peer challenge, learning and change through activities that cross professional, team, hierarchy and geographical boundaries
- As appropriate, disseminating more widely the resources produced both for the judicial legal and practice programme and the local pilots. This will enable these materials to be adapted and utilised by local agencies and multi-agency partnerships including local family justice boards
- Producing accessible, tailored advice resources for families, including easy read versions of the Public Law Working Group best practice guidance.
For more information, click here.
12/9/21