Ministry of Justice 2020 family courts harm accountability

What the Ministry of Justice Found in 2020, and What Happened Next

June 05, 2026•2 min read

In June 2020, the Ministry of Justice published the findings of its Expert Panel on how the family courts in England and Wales identify and respond to risks of harm in private law children cases. Drawing on over 1,200 submissions from individuals and organisations, the report exposed deep-seated systemic problems.

The Panel found that allegations of domestic abuse were frequently minimised, disbelieved, or inadequately assessed. A strong “pro-contact culture” often appeared to take precedence over individual safety concerns. Critically, it highlighted thatchildren’s voices were frequently unheard or muted.

What the Ministry of Justice Found in 2020, and What Happened Next

Many children had no direct involvement in proceedings, with their views filtered and “selective listening”: children’s wishes

Submissions also raised fears that raising legitimate safeguarding concerns could trigger counter-allegations of parental alienation, shifting focus away from safety and reframing protective parents (often mothers) as the problem.

The state itself named these harms — in its own report, published by its own ministry, in 2020.

Five years later, the central question remains: what has meaningfully changed?

Subsequent scrutiny has echoed many of the same concerns. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s 2023 report and later updates highlighted the ongoing lack of proper consideration for the voice of the child, especially when allegations of alienating behaviours arise.

The Commissioner noted that children’s resistance is sometimes reframed as evidence of manipulation rather than explored as potentially justified by their experiences. Broader reviews, including from the United Nations and the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee in 2025, have continued to point to harmful delays and systemic pressures affecting families.

This connects directly to a deeper issue in family proceedings: judges are not clinically qualified psychologists or psychiatrists,yet they routinely make authoritative findings about a parent’semotional fitness, psychological state, and parenting capacity. In 2019, for example, a family court judge determined that Kate was an “emotionally unfit parent” — without a formal clinical assessment by a regulated expert using validated tools. On that basis, her son Gabriel was later separated from her.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) research has long documented the long-term harm caused by unnecessary disruptions to secure caregiving relationships, just as it shows the damage of exposure to abuse or unresolved conflict.

However, a government report naming the harm is not accountability. Five years on, many families and children are still waiting for consistent, systemic change that truly prioritises safety, hears children’s voices without selective filtering.

We owe it to children like Gabriel — and mothers like me navigating these proceedings — to move beyond naming the problems and deliver meaningful reform.

Sources

Ministry of Justice (2020).Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases.
Domestic Abuse Commissioner (2023).The Family Court and Domestic Abuse: Achieving Cultural Change.
Family Justice Council (December 2024). Guidance on responding to a child’s unexplained reluctance, resistance or refusal to spend time with a parent and allegations of alienating behaviour.

Kate

Kate Markland is a former award-winning physiotherapist with twenty years of clinical experience, the founder of StoryQuest Global, and the co-author of the international bestselling Adventures of Gabriel children's book series. She developed the StoryQuest methodology from clinical listening principles built across two decades of practice. Taken into schools across the UK, it achieved 100% engagement across 465 children in nine schools with zero behavioural incidents, including children with SEND, EAL learners, and reluctant writers. The research was conducted using Classic Grounded Theory across 318 children, identifying seven self-leadership transformations. It has been presented to the British Psychological Society, accepted by UK Parliament, and submitted to UNICEF. The methodology was built during the hardest period of Kate's life. One hour a week on FaceTime with her son. No desk. No classroom. No permission. What came out of that constraint became an Amazon number one bestseller, a validated research framework, and a movement now reaching schools and families across the UK, India, Pakistan, Canada, the United States, Nigeria, and Australia. Kate has been featured on BBC News, Times Radio, and in international publications across multiple countries. She has submitted evidence to the Justice Committee, the Independent Review of Social Work Regulation, and the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. She was awarded the PhysioTimes Women in Leadership Award. She was told she was the danger. She built the proof that she was the answer.

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