Join us for the first ever Family Court Reporting Week

To encourage more reporting on the life-changing decisions taking place in family courts, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) is running a series of events, mentoring and practical “at-court” support for journalists around the country.

These events are part of our first “Family Court Reporting Week", running for five days from Monday 4 November.

The expansion in January of a judicially sanctioned transparency pilot to nearly half of all family courts provides a prime opportunity for news outlets across England and Wales to scrutinise draconian state powers exercised out of public view. This reporting holds not only judges, but local authorities, Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service), police and other state agencies to account in their interactions with some of the most vulnerable children in the country.

Family courts which are part of the pilot are:

  • North West: Liverpool, Manchester, Carlisle
  • North East: Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Kingston-upon-Hull, Grimsby, Beverley
  • Midlands: Nottingham, Mansfield, Stoke, Stafford, Derby, Chesterfield, Birmingham
  • London: Central Family Court, Croydon, Bromley, Romford, Barnet, Brentford, Willesden, Edmonton, Kingston, Uxbridge, East London Family Court, West London Family Court
  • South West: Bournemouth, Weymouth, Truro
  • South East: Luton, Bedford, Guildford, Milton Keynes
  • Wales: Cardiff

Family courts deal with children and families affected by issues including physical, sexual and emotional abuse, neglect, abduction, female genital mutilation, domestic abuse, deprivation of liberty and disputes around child contact between separating parents.

Louise Tickle, coordinator of TBIJ’s family court reporting week, said: “Ten years of attending family hearings has shown me it is vital for journalists to report on the decision-making of social workers, children’s guardians, court appointed experts and judges – because when draconian powers are exercised out of public view, an independent media presence can be the only check and balance available to families whose lives are indelibly altered by their experience of these courts.”

As part of Family Court Reporting Week, events will take place at the following family courts, to which journalists are invited:

  • Derby Family Court (with judges from Nottingham and Northampton) – Wednesday 6 November. Talk by Louise Tickle, specialist family court reporter, and judges. 4.30pm for 5pm start, 6pm finish. Remote attendance is also possible. Booking via [email protected].
  • Leeds Family Court – Wednesday 6 November. Mock family court trial. 5pm to 6pm. Just turn up.
  • Luton Family Court – Thursday 7 November. Q&A session with the local Designated Family Judge and specialist family court reporter Hannah Summers. 5pm to 5.45pm (TBC).

TBIJ has created a 10-point checklist for journalists wishing to report under the new reporting pilot rules:

Checklist for journalists wishing to report on family courts

1. Entitlement to attend

Do you have an in-date Press Card issued by a body accredited by the UK Press Card Authority? Only holders of press cards are entitled to attend family courts and report under the Pilot rules.

2. Giving notice to the court

You do not need to give the court notice to attend any hearing you are entitled to observe, but it is always appreciated if you can. It also helps the judge prepare the Transparency Order, and gives them time to inform all parties involved in a case. Notice can be given by email to the court office the day before (contact details should be online if you search “X family court”), or as early as you wish to send it.

3. Transparency Order

A Transparency Order (linked to here) must be issued at the start of a case you attend at a pilot court, in order for you to be able to report. It is the mechanism that switches the presumption from journalists not being able to report, to a presumption that we can. Reporting must be strictly anonymous. The terms of anonymisation are set out in the Order, and can be added to – or reduced – upon application to the court. Make sure you follow the terms carefully, and be prepared to provide the order to your legal team.

4. What if someone objects to a journalist being in court?

A party might ask a judge to rule that a journalist must leave a family court hearing either before it starts or once it has begun. The request must meet one of four criteria, as explained in this document (linked to in full here). The test for ruling that a journalist should be excluded – it must be “necessary” – is a high one. If this application is made, you should be asked for your view; you can object, and explain why you don’t agree. The judge will then decide. It is unlikely that a judge will rule that you must leave.

5. Anonymisation

If someone asks for additional exclusions to be added to the Transparency Order – to further anonymise a child, for instance – think about whether you need that detail to make editorial sense of the story. If you don’t, you can opt to agree. If you believe that the detail is editorially necessary for a reader to understand the full import of what has happened, you can say so, and explain why you think so. Are there other facts you don’t need, which are identifying but not editorially crucial? The judge will then decide.

6. Interviewing parties

The Transparency Order gives permission for you to talk to and quote anyone involved in the case who agrees to speak to you outside court. Anything you do quote must not contravene the terms of the Transparency Order.

7. Documents

The Transparency Order entitles you to certain documents, which you can then quote from (abiding by the terms of the Transparency Order). These documents are: case outlines, skeleton arguments, summaries, position statements, threshold documents, and chronologies. It also includes any indices from the court bundle (indices are useful, as it may show you that certain documents exist which you can request the court to permit you to read, and possibly report from).

You should be given these documents by the lawyers/parties at the start of the hearing (usually by email). If you’ve not been given them, stand up before the hearing starts and explain to the judge. Without documents, you will likely struggle to understand what is going on in court, and they help with accurate reporting of the issues in the case.

8. What is a case about?

All family cases have reference, made up of letters and numbers. Within that reference will be a C or a P. C is for a care case. P is for a private law case (ie, disputes about children between separating couples).

Pilot courts should be using the Listings Code (via the Courtserve listings system) to help journalists understand the issues involved in a case. Not all are, yet, but if they do, it will look like a series of numbers after the main case reference.

You need to cross reference this against the Listings Code. For example:

1 = alleged neglect
2 = alleged physical harm
6 = alleged FGM
12 = medical treatment.

There are also letters to look out for which help you understand which cases you have access to:

A = a hearing reporters may not attend
B = a case you may attend but not within the pilot (you can still request for a Transparency Order to be made)
C = a case within the pilot.

9. Key data/stats on the family justice system

The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory has prepared this backgrounder document for the benefit of journalists attending hearings during Family Court Reporting Week.

10. Good luck!

Lead image: Robert Evans / Alamy Stock Photo

Reporter: Louise Tickle
Bureau Local
editor: Gareth Davies
Deputy editors: Katie Mark & Chrissie Giles
Editor: Franz Wild
Production editor: Josephine Lethbridge

TBIJ has a number of funders, a full list of which can be found here. None of our funders have any influence over editorial decisions or output.