Judges writing to children toolkit published: a positive step for ensuring children feel valued in family court proceedings

In February 2025, the President of the Family Division, The Right Honourable Sir Andrew McFarlane published guidance for helping judges writing to children during family court proceedings. The guidance is intended to offer support to judges and assist them in the process, recognising why judges may often be hesitant to do this and tackling these issues head on. 

The toolkit offers practical advice on structuring letters, with examples and tips throughout and Sir Andrew McFarlane sets out his hopes that it will pave the way for judges writing to children becoming the new norm.

The toolkit has been developed after input from a range of experts, but most notably that of 21 children and young people, whose feedback has been referenced throughout.

The toolkit begins by providing context on the evidence of children’s experiences of family court proceedings generally, whereby children describe “feeling like they are being ‘done to’ rather than ‘worked with’ (Rehill et al., 2022)” and how evidence suggests that writing to children during proceedings can be empowering for them, helping them to feel valued.

We have reported on the importance of ensuring children feel heard during family proceedings previously and we welcome the publication of the toolkit.

How can writing to children help?

The purposes of judges writing to children is explored in great detail, and judges are advised that it can be purposeful in the following ways:

• to produce an accurate and informative account of what was decided and why;
• to support the child to feel their views and experiences are considered important and valued by the court;
• to support children’s ability to accept decisions made about them;
• to support future understanding and life story work.

A positive step

It's hoped that the toolkit will prove extremely beneficial and helpful to judges when deciding if and how to write to children. We hope that this piece of guidance empowers judges to write to children more often and where appropriate, thereby becoming the norm rather than the exception.

This initiative, alongside the roll out of programmes such as FFC Pathfinder programme can help to facilitate a more child-centric approach that allows children to feel valued, important and heard.

Mills & Reeve have a number of lawyers specifically trained in children proceedings. If you want to find out how our team can support you, contact us today. 

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