While the Government continues to introduce measures aimed at improving child safeguarding and closing gaps between services, a significant gap still remains between family courts and schools, who are often the frontline of safeguarding for children and families.

 

The Ministry of Justice Harm Panel Report found that allegations of domestic abuse are raised in around 62% of private law children cases, while more recent research commissioned by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner identified evidence of domestic abuse in up to 87% of cases reviewed.

 

Despite this, there is currently no standard mandatory system for sharing key safeguarding and court information between family courts and schools.

 

This can leave schools without important context around:

• contact arrangements
• parental responsibility
• court restrictions
• safeguarding concerns
• identified risks

This petition calls on the Government and Ministry of Justice to introduce a mandatory safeguarding information-sharing framework between family courts and education settings.

 

This would not involve sharing full court bundles or sensitive private documents.

 

Instead, schools would receive a concise safeguarding summary containing relevant factual information, including:

 

• who has parental responsibility
• contact and collection arrangements
• interim and final court orders
• safeguarding risks or restrictions
• and any important guidance needed to support the child safely.

This framework could be introduced as part of an update to Practice Direction 12J (PD12J), which already sets out mandatory guidance for family courts in cases involving allegations of domestic abuse.

 

Access to this information would remain restricted to appropriate safeguarding staff only.

 

The framework should also include specialist training for designated safeguarding leads (DSLs) and relevant school staff on:

• understanding family court processes
• safeguarding within private law proceedings
• the impact of domestic abuse and trauma on children and protective parents.

Schools simply cannot properly support children if vital information and understanding risk remains fragmented between courts, CAFCASS, local authorities and education settings.

 

Please support this petition to better protect children involved in family court proceedings.