The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has published guidance for family judges on when, how and why to write to children in family court proceedings (See attached). The guidance was developed with the Family Justice Young People’s Board, with individuals sharing their own experiences of proceedings and their thoughts on communication from judges. In his foreword to the guidance, the President of the Family Division said:
“The publication of this toolkit for judges writing to children is a most welcome event. The benefit of judges communicating with the child at the centre of proceedings has long been recognised, yet few of us have ever written to a child to explain our decision in their case. There is an understandable judicial reluctance in this regard, partly because of the realisation that the letter will be important and there is a fear of saying the ‘wrong thing’. In addition, judges may be worried that it will take a good deal of time to get the letter ‘right’, coupled with the well-known inertia that comes from staring at a blank page, without a template or previous experience to guide the writer.
“As is made plain throughout by direct quotation from children, a child is entitled to be given an accurate and informative account of what was decided, and why, from the judge who made the decision. This will be important for the young person in understanding that their wishes and feelings have been taken into account by the court, and in supporting them to accept or make sense of the decision as they move forward with their life thereafter.
“This very readable ‘toolkit’ does a great deal to break down the factors that may have inhibited judges in the past. To get past ‘blank page’ inertia, the content of a typical letter is built up, sentence by sentence, with suggestions, explanations and examples, and the whole is rounded off with worked up examples.
“I am very grateful to all who have been involved in developing this most valuable resource, but I would particularly like to thank the young people who have contributed. Their endorsement of what is said here should give judges solid confidence that, if they follow these guidelines, they are likely to produce a message that will be of real and lasting value to the young person who has been the centre of their concern.
“My hope is that, like many things, once judges have used this toolkit and have written to children in a few cases, doing so will rapidly become the norm and no longer a task to be avoided. I would urge all judges to read this guide and to use it from now on in their cases. The publication of the toolkit has the potential to change the culture and to make the sending of a short letter from the judge the norm in all substantive cases; I earnestly hope that it does indeed do so.”
