Cheshire and Merseyside was one of five areas awarded Department for Education funding as part of the Designated Family Judge (DFJ) trailblazer project which aimed to reduce delays in court proceedings and improve the quality of practice. Audit activity and collaborative solution-finding sessions identified the need to tackle challenges in availability, timeliness and quality of external independent assessments, as well as late presentation of family members. This led to the concept of developing our own Assessment Hub to complete better quality, more timely independent assessments. The Hub focused specifically on Parenting and Kinship assessments instructed during court proceedings and was hosted by Cheshire West & Chester (CWAC) on behalf of the nine local authorities involved.
