Data First: Family Court linked to Cafcass and Census 2021 - England and Wales
The Data First family court - Cafcass linked dataset came about from a data sharing agreement between the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, Ministry of Justice and Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service). The de-identified dataset contains information on adoption, divorce, Family Law Act, public law and private law cases, and their legal outcomes, in England and Wales. Public law cases include local authority intervention to protect children, such as care or supervision proceedings, and private law cases include parental disputes concerning the upbringing of children, for example arrangements for contact, access or custody.
The census is undertaken by the Office for National Statistics every 10 years and gives us a picture of all the people and households in England and Wales. The census asks questions about residents and their household and your home. In doing so, it helps to build a detailed snapshot of our society. Information from the census helps the government and local authorities to plan and fund local services, such as education, doctors' surgeries and roads. Census 2021 has been made available in the SAIL Databank for standalone access and linkage to other datasets. The Data First family court - Cafcass linked dataset is the first ADR England flagship dataset to be made available with Census 2021 data.
Component datasets and linkage
Ministry of Justice family court data has been linked to Cafcass data. The dataset includes adoption, divorce, Family Law Act, public law and private law cases, family law applications and legal outputs, marriage and divorce characteristics, personal-level information, case events, timeliness, number of hearings and legal representation. The dataset includes a unique ID for each party. The de-identified family court and Cafcass data has been linked to the Census 2021. The census provides additional personal information such as age, gender, education qualification, country of birth, religion, and ethnicity as well as family information such as household composition and occupancy.
| Timeframe | Family court data: January 2011 - March 2023. Cafcass: April 2007 - January 2023. Census: 2021 |
|---|---|
| Update Frequency | |
| Population | Individuals who have interacted with the family court |
| Coverage | England and Wales |
| Size |
Introduction to the Data First: Family Court linked to Cafcass and Census 2021 dataset
The family justice system in England and Wales
Research evidence gaps on children and families in the family justice system
Stakeholder webinars
If you would like your research to be informed by organisations representing the interests of crime and justice system users, then watch our stakeholder webinars. You will hear from a variety of community stakeholders about their organisation’s priorities and how your research outputs could support their work.
The first webinar features:
The second webinar features:
Examples of research questions
- What is the household composition of families in the family justice system and how does this change over time?
- How do socio-demographic characteristics; education and qualifications, or employment of family court users compare with the general population? Does this vary by case or role type?
- Who are the repeat users of family courts and which characteristics are more common among repeat users?
- Which proportion of private cases have had previous public law proceedings and vice versa?
- What variation (by local authority and/or court area) is seen in the way family courts are dealing with cases?
This list is illustrative only and intended to demonstrate the research potential of the dataset. For research priorities, see the areas of research interest (exernal website).
Core documentation
Data dictionary
The data catalogue for Census 2021 will be available soon.
Other supporting resources
| Resource | Description |
| Explainer webinar | This explainer webinar gives an overview of the family justice system and how the family court - Cafcass linked dataset can be used to address key evidence gaps. |
| Ministry of Justice ARI 2020 | The Ministry of Justice ARI 2020 sets out the department’s critical evidence gaps. |
| Research evidence gaps webinar | Research evidence gaps on children and families in the family justice system. |
| Infographic | The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory children in the family justice system infographic summarises evidence and evidence gaps. |
Accessing the data
1. Apply to become an accredited researcher under the Digital Economy Act 2017
- Apply for researcher accreditation through the People & Projects Service: How to access: Apply for researcher accreditation.
2. Project application and scoping
- View details of the dataset in the family court data catalogue and Cafcass data catalogue
- Contact the SAIL Databank to discuss your research project and its viability
- Complete the scoping document setting out SAIL Databank related activities, timescales, resource usage and costs.
3. Information governance
- Sign and submit a project scoping document
- Complete the online Information Governance Review Panel application form. Contact help.saildatabank.com for access
- SAIL will also help you to complete a UKSA Research Accreditation Panel application.
4. Gain approval to use the SAIL Gateway
- Complete the SAIL Gateway Account Request Form: New User Application (ukserp.ac.uk)
- Sign and return the SAIL data access agreement (this will be e-mailed to you)
Containing billions of person-based records, the SAIL Databank is a rich and trusted population databank. Following application and approval, it provides researchers with secure, fully linkable and anonymised data that can be accessed and analysed from anywhere in the world. SAIL can also anonymously link new data uploaded by users to existing routinely-collected data within SAIL (subject to approvals).
Costs are dependent on support and infrastructure needs related to your project (such as time for data preparation and use of computing resources). In practice, this means that there is a cost for most projects. This varies based on the complexity of the project, the support you would like from us, and the type of funding. These costs are detailed during the scoping process. Find out more.
ADR UK Research Fellowships
ADR UK funds policy-relevant research using ADR England flagship datasets. Research fellows address priority research questions, generate insights and demonstrate the value of ADR England data. These datasets are held securely within the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service or other trusted research environments.
“The Data First project is likely to be the most significant step forward in the provision of hard and reliable information about the family justice system for a generation. It breaks entirely new ground and the fruits of the data that will be provided are likely to inform policy and practice and identify important trends for decades to come. Its advent could not be more welcome.”
Find out more
More information about this linked dataset can be found on the ADR UK website.
