Department for Constitutional Affairs Family Justice Division Forum

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Method(s) Used

ePanels (Methods)
Focus Groups (Methods)
Online Forums (Methods)
Webcasting (Methods)
Webchat (Methods)

Name of person who posted the project:

Kerry Ryan

Location of project:

United Kingdom

Date when the project started:

2006

Date when the project ended/project ongoing:

2006

Background to project:

The Department for Constitutional Affairs was responsible in government for upholding justice, rights and democracy. Its stated objectives were to:

Provide effective and accessible justice for all;
Ensure people's rights and responsibilities;
Enhance democratic freedoms by modernising the law and the constitution.

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Her Majesty's Courts Service (HMCS) was an executive agency of the DCA. Its purpose was to deliver the administration of the civil, family and criminal courts in England and Wales.
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The Family Justice division of the DCA covered the national policy on family law.
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Purpose of project:

The forum was set up as part of the DCA's consultation on proposed changes to the workings of the family courts. These aimed to:

Improve confidence in the family courts through public scrutiny;
Improve public understanding of court decisions;
Protect the privacy of those in court;
Provide rigorous enforcements of sanctions where privacy is breached;
Make simple, easily understood, consistent and workable arrangements.

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Discussion topics in the forum were set out by the policy team; they were:

Attendance of MPs, Lead Members and Inspectors in court;
Adoption Cases;
Media Attendance;
Providing Information to Children;
Protecting Privacy;
Practical Considerations.

Project activities:

Online deliberative forum.
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Discussion was structured around topics that related to the consultation. Pre-moderation was carried out by the consultation team who logged on to the forum to post follow-up questions and address issues raised by participants.
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The forum was readable by anyone, but registration was required to contribute. The intended core user-group was court users from England and Wales.
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PUBLICITY
The forum was advertised on the DCA and Family Courts websites and via stakeholder meetings.
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Press releases were sent out by the DCA and Family Justice division to trade and mainstream press.
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There was no paid-for marketing.
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Project results:

Strengths

The forum engaged people who had experience of family courts;
Discussion remained open, even when contentious views were being put forward;
The consultation report made specific references to the online deliberations;
Participants were informed when the consultation report was published.

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Potential for improvement

The forum would have benefited from better planning and consistency of moderation;
Staff and resource allocation were insufficient to support the forum;
Consultation team could have recruited experts and opinion leaders to participate and facilitate discussion;
Regular feedback to participants via summaries should have been more regular and consistent;
More background information for participants and clearer guidance about policy process could have been provided to orientate users.

Contact details:

www.familycourtsforum.net
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Source: 'Digital Dialogues Second Phase report' - Hansard Society/Ministry of Justice 2007
eDemocracy Programme,
Hansard Society,
40-43 Chancery Lane
London WC2A 1JA
e - edemocracy@hansard.lse.ac.uk
t - 020 7438 1222
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