Private Family Law Applications by Non-Parents – Nuffield FJO Research

The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (NFJO) and the Family Justice Data Partnership have published new research (here). The study explores the types of orders applied for by non-parents in England and Wales over four years (2017/18 to 2020/21). Non-parents include grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, step-parents, special guardians, foster carers, intended parents in surrogacy cases and putative fathers.

The research found that approximately 10% of private law applications, around 5,800 applications in England and Wales, are made by or in conjunction with people who are not parents. A wide variety of orders were applied for, but most applications were for Child Arrangements Orders at 56% in England and 59% in Wales. Grandparents accounted for 58% of all non-parents in England and 63% in Wales.

Overall, applications disproportionately involved people living in the more deprived areas of England and Wales.

Other highlights of the research include:

• There was an overlap in applications for private and public law proceedings (care proceedings) involving the same child(ren) by at least 38%;
• The overlap between private and public law applications happened when there were concerns for children’s safety or welfare;
• 9% of applications in England and 6.0% in Wales were special guardianship applications;
• 16% of applications in Wales were adoption applications;
• 2% of applications in England and 2.2% in Wales were parental responsibility applications; and
• 7% of applications in England and 2.3% in Wales were parental orders in surrogacy cases.

If you are a grandparent, aunt, uncle, sibling, step-parent, special guardian, foster carer, intended parents in a surrogacy case or a putative father and are seeking a private law application; please contact us for a 30-minute free video chat, web chat or telephone call to start the conversation and to see how we can help. We are available 24/7 through the following platforms:

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