Courts lack system to assess risk to children in unsafe homes

Children are being forced to stay in “unsafe” contact with parents suspected of child abuse and domestic violence because there is no system for family courts to adequately assess the concerns.

The crisis has been revealed by an independent two-year pilot review of court supports during family separation cases. However, the review itself has since been scrapped due to a lack of funding.

The major review, conducted by children’s charity Barnardos and single parent family group One Family, discovered half of the children assessed were being ordered by the courts to stay in contact with parents they no longer live with and, furthermore, a “current risk of domestic violence or child abuse”.