What is changing?
Over the past 12 months the Family Public Law project at HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has been testing the first phase of a new digital service for care and supervision applications with Cafcass, a number of local authorities and the respective family courts in pilot sites across the country. The service allows for the online submission and case management of care and supervision applications (C110a form) which will support efficient and effective inter-agency working and enable the process to be conducted digitally from start to finish. On 31 January 2020 the service opened to all legal professionals in those sites and from March 2020, the digital system will be rolled out nationally to the remaining sites, taking a phased approach.
The digital system allows local authorities to complete and submit a C110a application for care and supervision orders along with the supporting documents required by the family court to issue and progress the case online. Case bundles can be uploaded, annotated and presented in court and standard directions, case management and final orders can all be created within the system from a digital template to increase consistency at a national level. All legal professionals in a case, including parents’ solicitors and Cafcass, will now also be able access orders and confirm the status of individual tasks before a hearing, via the task compliance function. This will better enable early sight of the parties’ readiness for a hearing.
From March 2020, in line with the rollout of the system, the service will move into the courts & tribunal service centre (CTSC) in Stoke. This means support for some of the more administrative tasks involved in the case management of a digital public law case will move to a central function. Local courts will continue to support the offline process as they do now, and we will give you details on how to contact the CTSCs and the level of support it will provide at a later date.
How will we achieve this?
Since January 2019 we have been building and testing the new digital system with 10 pilot sites across England and Wales. To date, we have received over 500 applications through our digital system from these sites and, using their feedback, have continually improved the system and features now available to you. We are now ready to release this system to the rest of England and Wales, and will continue to collect feedback to improve how the system operates with a wider user base.
When is it changing?
The service has been open to all legal professionals in the existing pilot sites since 31 January 2020. From March 2020, we will expand the service to all remaining courts and local authorities in England and Wales, and hope to have completed this roll out by the summer. We’ll do this in a phased approach by designated family judge area to help new courts and local authorities become familiar with the new system, while allowing us to act on feedback.
What is the Family Public Law project?
The Family Public Law project is part of the wider HMCTS reform programme. Our overarching vision is “To make the overall court process in relation to family public law more efficient, ensuring the court, parties and their representatives have access to the right information at the right time to support the court in its role to decide on the best outcomes for the children involved in public law cases”.
You may have heard about our project at one of the roadshows we have delivered across the country, at our recent webinar, or in our frequent blog articles and newsletters.
What happens next?
Roll out timetable and training – Roll out begins from 30 March 2020 until June 2020. Please check with your local care centre for when they are due to join the new service.
Sign up to fee account for paying application fees – For local authorities and other organisations (such as legal representatives) to use the digital service, you will need to pay for application fees with a fee account, which is known as pay by account (PBA). By registering for our PBA service, you will receive weekly invoices following automatic payment taken by Direct Debit.
It is a free service and available for local authorities, solicitors and other regular users to make payments relating to family cases.
Register your organisation – You’ll need to register your organisation with HMCTS to access and manage family public law cases and complete the required fields.
Guidance on how to use the new system – The regional implementation lead for your area will coordinate delivery of guidance packages with local authorities and solicitors.
Helpful guidance and information
For information containing the service terms and conditions, frequently asked questions and the application form to set up an account visit: www.gov.uk/government/publications/form-feeaccount-application-form-fee-account-customer-application-form
To registering your organisation with HMCTS to access and manage family public law cases head to: https://manage-org.platform.hmcts.net/register-org/register
For further information about the Family Public Law Project please visit our GOV.UK page: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hmcts-reform-update-family
To watch a recent webinar about how we’re reforming Family Public Law, you can visit our GOV.UK event page: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hmcts-reform-online-event-23-january-2020-familypublic-law-and-adoption
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