Green light given for £2.2m project using Cafcass datasets to examine performance of family justice system

The Nuffield Foundation’s Family Justice Observatory (FJO) has established a £2.2m partnership to analyse datasets held by Cafcass and Cafcass Cymru to gain better information about the characteristics and pathways of children and families through these services, and about their outcomes.

It will work with the Centre for Child and Family Justice Research at Lancaster University and the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank at Swansea University.

Nuffield FJO will publish results for practitioners based on regular analyses of the data, and in-depth study of specific trends and issues. 

Sir James Munby, chair of the Nuffield FJO and former president of the Family Division of the High Court, said: “Our mission is to ensure that decisions made about vulnerable children are informed by robust data and research evidence. It is an ambitious goal, and our success is dependent on working collaboratively with all those in the family justice system.”

Teresa Williams, director of strategy at Cafcass, said: “A key priority in Cafcass’s future strategy is to ensure that we unlock the rich insights within our data about the children and families who are unfortunate enough to come into contact with the family justice system. 

“Too often the experience of children and families in the system is ‘too little for too long and then too much too late’.”

Lisa Harker, chief executive of children’s charity The Art Room, was this month appointed the Nuffield FJO’s director.

Mark Smulian