Pre-proceedings is the phase in the involvement of children’s services in the lives of children, young people and their families at which a decision is made about whether or not professionals will apply to start care proceedings in the Family Court.
A new suite of open access resources draw on practice expertise, research findings and the voice of lived experience and are designed to support robust and family-focused systems and practice in pre-proceedings. They are intended for use by social workers, practice leaders and those with strategic responsibility for pre-proceedings work.
The materials have been developed with support from the Department for Education COVID-19 Recovery and Building Back Better fund, and in partnership with Essex County Council and regional leads for pre-proceedings across England.
The materials on the resource hub are structured around a child and family’s journey – into pre-proceedings, diverted away from or moving through Family Court proceedings and beyond. They include briefings, guidance, practice tools, videos and podcasts. Alongside this, editable template documents can be downloaded and incorporated with local policy and practice materials.
Resources include:
- Pre-proceedings: Messages from research and policy: Strategic Briefing
- Ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion in the Family Court: Frontline Briefing
- A podcast looking at a parent's experience of care proceedings
- Care planning for children in proceedings: Frontline Briefing
- A toolkit of templates to support practice through pre-proceedings
- Completing social work chronologies: Practice Tool
- A podcast looking at young people's experience of care proceedings
In the coming months we will continue to add more materials to the resource hub. These will include guidance on PLO, pre-proceedings, the process within the Family Court and further tips including the voice of families. New publications on assessing children, parents and sibling relationships are also in development.
We hope these resources provide flexible and dynamic support for robust and family-focused systems and practice in pre-proceedings.
View the resource hub (open access).
Pre-proceedings and family justice hub
An open access resource hub to support family-centred practice and decision-making in pre-proceedings (PLO) and the Family Court, including guidance, practice tools, publications, videos and podcasts.
Ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion in the Family Court: Frontline Briefing (2022)
This resource is intended to provide guidance for social workers and their managers to support equality, diversity and inclusion to be considered alongside court and pre-proceedings.
Pre-proceedings: Messages from research and policy: Strategic Briefing (2022)
This strategic briefing provides an overview of messages from research that are relevant for pre-proceedings work with children and families. The brief aims to support the development of strategies and practice to ensure that best use is made of the formal pre-proceedings period.
Care planning for children in proceedings: Frontline Briefing (2022)
This resource supports practitioners in making care plans for children, highlighting the key legislation and case law, care planning regulations and research to inform these decisions.
A parent’s experience of court and pre-proceedings: Laura
This podcast discusses the parent's perspective on pre-proceedings and Family Court and offers learning for practitioners around communication, transparency and preparation.
A parent’s experience of court and pre-proceedings: Rebecca
In this podcast Hannah Scott, Research and Development Officer at Research in Practice, speaks to Rebecca about her experiences in social care with her two daughters. They reflect on key messages for social workers and families to consider around preparing for family court and in care planning.