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United Kingdom

Family law weekly highlights (England and Wales): Child Focused Model rollout, FPR updates, gatekeeping guidance, and key cases on care, contact, surrogacy, financial remedies, costs and Hague Convention

Published on: 02 April 2026

Published by a LexisNexis Family expert
Legal News
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Article summary

In this issue:

  • Practice and procedure
  • Public children
  • Private children
  • Financial provision
  • Costs
  • International children
  • LexTalk®Family: a Lexis®Nexis community
  • Daily and weekly news alerts
  • Updated content
  • New Q&As
  • Useful information

Practice and procedure

Sir Andrew McFarlane’s final View from the President’s Chambers

The closing View from Sir Andrew McFarlane, as President of the Family Division, sets out the nationwide implementation of the Child Focused Model, underpinned by £82 million, as a step-change in private law children work. It brings forward child-centred evidence, ensures more routine input from domestic abuse specialists, and shifts the programme from pilot status to standard practice. The President also notes better system outcomes, with case lengths falling even as demand grows, while calling for unwavering robust case management and firm pre-application rigour. He details adjustments to judicial deployment and fresh gatekeeping guidance to maximise effective judicial time. The View signposts updated guidance on domestic abuse injunctions, acknowledges the increasing significance of AI across family justice, and recognises the vital role of support bodies helping vulnerable court users. It closes by recording the President’s impending retirement, set against continuing reform and steady continuity...

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