“Experts by Experience”: The Involvement of Service Users and Families in Designing and Implementing Innovations in Family Justice

Drawing on international research, policy and practice this paper explores what is meant by service user involvement, how it has developed and how it has been implemented across different areas of practice. Using examples from across the health and social care fields, it reflects on how the learning from other areas of practice where service user involvement has been successful may be applied to the family justice field. The arguments presented highlight the value of taking a bottom-up approach in designing and implementing innovations in family justice, which would embrace the views of family members including children, as “service users”. It is important, however, to balance both the challenges and the opportunities offered by involving those who are ‘experts by experience’ in the Family Justice processes, in order to lead to improved services and experiences

Why Listening to Children and Young People is Important in Family Justice

During the last thirty years there has been a growing body of evidence indicating that children and young people often feel marginalised when their parents are making critical decisions which will shape their young lives, and calling for family justice professionals to hear their voices. This article explores the research evidence, examines the relevant theories about child development, and demonstrates how a focus on age-related competency fails to take account of children’s subjective meanings about their lives. The authors consider a model of participation first designed to understand adult participation in government, and show how this can be usefully applied to understanding children’s participation in family justice

COVID-19 and beyond: From (forced) remote teaching and learning to “the new normal” in higher education

Editorial on the Research Topic COVID-19 and beyond: From (forced) remote teaching and learning to “the new normal” in higher educatio