Children and Family services

Children and Family Services Division

The Children and Family Services Division was set up in March 2004 to integrate the LSC's work on legal issues concerning children, young people and families.

In the last financial year, the LSC spent around one quarter of its legal aid budget - just under £500 million - on family work. This allowed it to fund 'Legal Help' for just over 300,000 family cases and an additional 133,000 court cases.

The primary aim of the Children and Family Services Division is to ensure that publicly-funded legal services meet the needs of children, young people and families. The Division's objectives are to:

Develop a national strategy for publicly-funded information, support and advice to meet the needs of children, young people and families.
Continue to work with legal professionals delivering Family Advice and Information Service to adopt a more holistic approach, sign-posting and referring clients with other problems on to appropriate sources of local help.
Develop a new level of family service (Family Help) that encourages settlement-led practice and discourages litigation.
Continue to develop cost-effective and quality-assured family mediation services.
Provide strategic support to the LSC's regional offices to further their understanding of local family needs and help them develop a level of family services to meet local needs.
Disseminate best practice for the profession by encouraging communication and partnerships with specialist family practitioners at a national and regional level.

The activities of the Children and Family Services Division are being driven forward by a Programme Board, which draws together representatives from across all relevant LSC departments, as well as from the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).

The Programme Board develops and co-ordinates policy in key areas, such as child protection and domestic violence, as well as areas covered under the wider social inclusion agenda.

The Children and Family Services Division are currently delivering a number of services including the:

It is also piloting new services and initiatives that explore ways of helping children, young people and families.

For further information, please contact:

Children and Family Services Division
Legal Services Commission
4th Floor, 12 Roger Street
London WC1N 2JL

Tel: 020 7759 1132
Fax: 020 7759 1149
Email: family@legalservices.gov.uk