Why Family Court Delays Are Leaving Children in Limbo.

The average family court case now takes around 39 weeks to resolve, leaving thousands of children caught in unresolved arrangements.

This prolonged uncertainty affects not only the legal process but also the emotional and developmental well-being of children involved.

The delay creates a hidden crisis that demands urgent attention.

This article looks at what impact family court delays have on parents and children, and what's causing them.

If you are a parent currently going through family court, it is important that you join PAPA Plus and make use of our courses and other resources, including PAPA AI.

If you require direct assistance with your case, you can also book a call or one of our family law workshops with PAPA as a 'Plus' member. 

What’s Causing Family Court Delays?

Several systemic issues contribute to the slow pace of family court cases:

• Chronic understaffing of judges and social workers

Courts and social services face significant shortages, limiting their ability to handle cases promptly. Fewer judges mean fewer hearings scheduled, and social workers stretched thin struggle to complete necessary assessments on time.

• Surging numbers of private law cases

Cuts to legal aid have pushed many parents to represent themselves in court, increasing the volume of private law cases. This surge adds pressure to an already overwhelmed system.

• Increasing complexity of cases

Many cases now involve domestic abuse allegations and safeguarding assessments, which require detailed investigations and expert input. These complexities extend the time needed to reach decisions.

• Backlog worsened by pandemic-era disruption

Court closures and delays during the COVID-19 pandemic created a backlog that continues to slow proceedings. Even as courts reopen, the accumulated cases strain resources.

Each of these factors compounds the overall gridlock, making it difficult for courts to clear cases quickly.

The Human Toll on Children

Delayed decisions create instability for children caught between households.

Many feel stuck “in limbo,” unsure where they belong or what their future holds.

This uncertainty can harm mental health, leading to anxiety, depression, and behavioural issues.

School performance often suffers as children struggle to focus amid family conflict and changing living arrangements.

Experts from organisations like CAFCASS and child psychologists observe that prolonged court processes disrupt children’s sense of security and normalcy.

Children need clear, stable arrangements to thrive, and equal opportunity to spend time with both parents in most cases.

When courts take months or even years to decide, children pay the price.

Parents Under Pressure

Parents face intense financial strain during drawn-out proceedings.

Legal fees, lost work time, and the cost of self-representation add up quickly.

Emotional burnout is common as parents navigate complex legal procedures while managing conflict with the other parent.

Self-represented parents who don't use PAPA often struggle with court rules and paperwork, causing further delays.

Without legal aid, many cannot afford professional advice, which increases the risk of mistakes and prolongs cases.

The stress of ongoing court battles can escalate conflict, making cooperation harder and slowing resolution.

Impact on Safeguarding

Delays are especially dangerous in cases involving abuse or risk of harm.

When courts take months to act, children may remain in unsafe environments longer than necessary.

Particularly when children are forced to spend all of their time with an abusive, alienating parent, the emotional harm is catastrophic.

Prolonged processes can leave children unprotected or trapped in harmful arrangements.

Safeguarding assessments require timely completion to ensure children’s safety.

When these are delayed, the risk to vulnerable children grows.

The system’s inability to act quickly undermines its primary goal: protecting children.

Attempts at Reform: Are They Working?

Recent reforms aim to address delays, including:

• Digital hearings to reduce scheduling bottlenecks

• Increased mediation efforts to resolve disputes outside court

• New transparency rules to improve case management

  
  

While these initiatives offer some improvements, they do not solve the root problem: a lack of sufficient judicial and social work resources.

Digital hearings help with logistics but cannot replace the need for more judges and social workers.

Mediation works for some cases but is not suitable for all, especially where abuse is involved.

Without addressing capacity, reforms risk only scratching the surface.

What Needs to Change?

We at PAPA recommend several key solutions to reduce delays and improve outcomes:

• Increase judicial resources by hiring more family court judges

• Restore legal aid to help parents access professional advice and representation

• Speed up assessments by providing more social workers and streamlining procedures

• Improve early intervention to resolve disputes before they reach court

• Enhance triage systems to prioritise urgent safeguarding cases

  
  

These changes require political will and funding but are essential to protect children and support families.

Time Is Childhood

Every year, thousands of children become trapped in the slow turning wheels of the family court system.

What begins as a dispute too often becomes a sentence — years of separation from a parent, years of memories never made, years of love turned into longing.

In that time, children grow taller, voices change, faces mature.

Parents watch from a distance, counting birthdays instead of candles.

By the time the court reaches its decision, the little hands that once reached out for comfort may no longer fit inside their own.

The PAPA Lost Years campaign confronts this silent tragedy — the unseen cost of a system that forgets that childhood cannot wait.

In need of help or support?

If you are an alienated parent reading this article and feel you are in need of help and support then please make sure to join PAPA today by signing up here on our website.

This will give you access to our community support forum as well as our Resource Centre, which includes downloadable guides and on-demand courses to help through the process of being alienated and regaining contact with your children.

We also have our Facebook support group that you can join here.

Our Facebook support group has several dedicated chat rooms where you can get immediate support.

If you are a member of PAPA you can also send us a message here on the website and we will try to get back to you as soon as possible but please bear in mind, we have hundreds of messages weekly so it may take us a while to get back to you.

We are currently prioritising PAPA Plus members due to high demand.

Regardless of circumstance you are not alone and at PAPA we are here to support you.

Become a PAPA Ambassador

If you like our resources, articles and support networks and agree with what we stand for then why not get involved and help us push PAPA further by joining our Ambassador Program?

We would love for you to join us and help spread awareness for parental alienation and all of the dynamics involved so that we can continue to help parents and children towards a better future.

Our Ambassador Program allows you to grow your involvement with the cause by earning points on your membership.

To earn points we have created rewards for actions such as completing one of our courses, booking a case review, or ordering supply.

We will be adding new rewards and actions to our Ambassador Program as we continue to grow our awareness efforts.

We want our members to feel rewarded for their support as we continue to look for new ways to improve the lives of those impacted by parental alienation.

You can also become a PAPA Plus member, which will give you exclusive access to even more help and resources.

Each PAPA Plus membership makes a huge difference to the cause as it really helps us to improve our services and our awareness campaigns.

Proceeds from memberships and supply allow us to push the cause much further towards raising awareness and improving our services and resources so that we can continue to help more and more parents and children.

Thank you for reading and for your continued support of PAPA and our mission to end parental alienation.