{"id":1463,"date":"2025-12-08T10:45:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/call-for-judiciary-safeguarding-training-and-accountability\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T10:45:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T10:45:26","slug":"call-for-judiciary-safeguarding-training-and-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/call-for-judiciary-safeguarding-training-and-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for judiciary safeguarding training and accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">DAUK is encouraging people to sign an open letter calling for the introduction across the judiciary of mandatory safeguarding training and systemic learning from cases.\r\n\r\nThe letter is to the Lady Chief Justice, The Right Honourable the Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill.\r\n\r\nIt highlights a critical gap identified in the Government\u2019s 2020 review, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/895173\/assessing-risk-harm-children-parents-pl-childrens-cases-report_.pdf\">Assessing the risk of harm to children and parents in private law children cases<\/a><\/em>.\r\n\r\nThere are no specialist safeguarding focused bodies examining how courts deal with domestic abuse and coercive control in the context of child protection, the letter states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Safeguarding wake-up call<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One survivor said: &#8220;The family court destroyed my family. I escaped an abuser but the court handed my children straight back to him. The judiciary needs a safeguarding wake-up call.&#8221;\r\n\r\nAreas of particular concern include judicial decision-making, conduct, failures to recognise domestic abuse, safeguarding practice in children\u2019s cases, and the handling and assessment of evidence.\r\n\r\n\u201cChildren\u2019s safety must come first,\u201d the letter states. It adds that judges should receive the same level of safeguarding training as other professionals to protect children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Independent authority<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The open letter also calls on the Government to establish an independent judicial standards and safeguarding authority.\r\n\r\nThis authority should be modelled on frameworks used in medicine and nursing. It would be independent, led by safeguarding-trained professionals, and empowered to oversee:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\r\n \t<li>Judicial conduct and misconduct<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Judicial performance, training, and revalidation<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Children and domestic abuse safeguarding<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Enforceable evidence-based standards and rules<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Safeguarding fitness-to-practise and restrictions where a judge demonstrates unsafe practice<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">NHS Domestic Abuse Awareness Day<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The letter is being launched ahead of <a href=\"https:\/\/dauk.org\/campaigns\/compassionate-culture\/nhs-domestic-abuse-awareness-day\/\">NHS Domestic Abuse Awareness Day<\/a> on Wednesday (10 December).\r\n\r\nNHS Domestic Abuse Awareness Day highlights the urgent need to recognise and respond to domestic abuse affecting NHS staff, and to recognise the unique barriers they can face seeking help.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSeb8QVjjtDnEpXBFUZJfTpJzPhhkHW580lwPKDlzD_Q5kEkIA\/viewform\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here to sign the open letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DAUK is encouraging people to sign an open letter calling for the introduction across the judiciary of mandatory safeguarding training and systemic learning from cases.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,723],"tags":[724,726],"class_list":["post-1463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-domestic-abuse","category-nhs-domestic-abuse-awareness-day","tag-domestic-abuse","tag-nhs-domestic-abuse-awareness-day"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}