Children’s Order Quarterly Bulletin

April - June 2008 (Provisional Figures)

Table 1a: Applications entered and disposed
Table 1b: Applications entered and disposed by processing office
Table 1c: Applications entered and disposed
Table 2: Reasons for transfer
Table 3: Total own motion orders
Table 4: Total interim orders
Table 5: Sitting times and applications disposed of by venue
Table 5: Sitting times and business disposed of in Northern Ireland
Table 6: Orders Made
Table 7a: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal of cases by processing office
Table 7b: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal of cases in Northern Ireland
Table 8: Age and gender of children
Appendix 1 - Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal by venue for Care Cases
Appendix 1 - Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal for Care Cases
Appendix 2 - Average time in weeks spent at the court tier in which the case was finally disposed

Summary

There were 1,005 applications entered during the period, of which:
93 = Public
912 = Private
There were 1112 applications dealt with during the period, of which:
168 = Public
944 = Private
There were 74 cases transferred during the period.
Of the own motion orders made, 22% were in relation to Care issues.
The majority of interim orders made were in relation to Contact and Care issues.
Court time spent on Children Order business between April to June 2008:
Total time = 1041 hours 03 minutes
Ave. sitting time = 2 hours 10 minutes
There were 2,779 orders made between April to June 2008.
The average waiting time in weeks between lodgement to disposal for public law cases was 29 weeks.
The average waiting time in weeks between lodgement to disposal for private law cases was 24 weeks.
There were 1,425 children involved in Children Order Proceedings during the period, of which 37% were under the age of five.

Number of applications received by court tier Reasons for Transfer

Table 1a: Applications entered and disposed

		Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
Private Law	Family Proceedings Court	837	801
	Family Care Centre	38	89
	High Court	37	54
	Total	912	944
Public Law	Family Proceedings Court	80	107
	Family Care Centre	5	47
	High Court	8	14
	Total	93	168

Private law = residence, contact, specific issues, prohibited steps, parental responsibility, financial contribution, guardianship, family assistance, non-molestation and occupation orders

Table 1b: Applications entered and disposed by processing office

		Public Law		Private Law
		Number of applications entered	Number of disposals	Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	0	0	3	1
	Ballymena	5	11	65	60
	Belfast	17	24	201	244
	Coleraine	0	0	5	1
	Craigavon	10	9	81	50
	Downpatrick	0		1
	Dungannon	17	19	59	73
	Larne	0	0	2	1
	Lisburn	6	6	82	69
	Londonderry	6	6	113	96
	Newry	10	9	102	83
	Newtownards	9	22	117	119
	Omagh	0	1	6	4
	Venue total	80	107	837	801
Family Care Centre	Craigavon	0	17	28	47
	Londonderry	1	3	4	20
	Belfast	4	21	4	21
	Dungannon	0	6	2	1
	Venue total	5	47	38	89
High Court	Probate & Matrimonial	0	0	5	11
	Wardship & Adoption	8	14	32	43
	Venue total	8	14	37	54

[1] Private law = residence, contact, specific issues, prohibited steps, parental responsibility, financial contribution, guardianship, family assistance, non-molestation and occupation orders. [2] Ballymena also sits at Antrim, Coleraine and Larne

Table 1c: Applications entered and disposed

	Public Law		Private Law
	Number of applications entered	Number of disposals	Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
Northern Ireland	93	168	912	944

Table 2: Reasons for transfer [1]

Transferred from								Total
Transferred from		Urgency	Convenience	Gravity	Complexity	Case linked - Consolidation	Other	Total
Family Proceedings Court	Ballymena	.	2	.	.	2	1	5
	Belfast	.	.	.	4	5	2	11
	Craigavon	.	.	.	.	3	2	5
	Dungannon	.	.	.	2	1	.	3
	Larne	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
	Lisburn	.	.	.	2	.	4	6
	Londonderry	.	1	.	2	2	3	8
	Newry	.	1	.	3	2	2	8
	Newtownards	.	.	.	.	4	7	11
	Omagh	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
	Venue total	.	4	.	13	20	22	59
Family Care Centre	Belfast	.	.	.	8	1	1	10
	Craigavon	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
	Dungannon	.	.	.	1	1	2	4
	Londonderry	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
	Venue total	.	.	.	9	2	4	15
Northern Ireland Total		.	4	.	22	22	26	74

Where a court tier / venue is omitted, this indicates a nil return for the period to date.
[1] Total number of reasons for transfer. There may be more than one reason for each case.

Table 3: Total own motion orders

	Own motion orders
Parental Responsibility	3
Contact: Permission	96
Contact: Refusal	0
Residence	40
Prohibited Steps	8
Specific Issues	8
Family Assistance	1
Care	108
Supervision	7
Education Supervision	1
Declaration of Parentage	3
Child Assessment	0
Emergency Protection	0
Extension of EPO	0
Recovery	0
Secure Accommodation	7
Article 53 Contract	0
Appointment of Guardian under Part XV	29
Contribution and other Financial	0
Non-Molestation Order	0
Occupation Articles	0
Article 56 Investigations	0
Exclusion Requirement	0
Other orders, applications etc	174
Total	485

Table 4: Total interim orders

	Interim orders
Parental Responsibility	5
Contact: Permission	1079
Contact: Refusal	1
Residence	202
Prohibited Steps	50
Specific Issues	4
Family Assistance	0
Care	828
Supervision	38
Education Supervision	0
Child Assessment	0
Emergency Protection	0
Extension of EPO	0
Recovery	0
Secure Accommodation	0
Article 53 Contract	0
Appointment of Guardian under Part XV	0
Contribution and other Financial	0
Non-Molestation Order	7
Occupation Articles	0
Article 56 Investigations	0
Exclusion Requirement	0
Other orders, applications etc	0
Total	2214

Table 5: Sitting times and applications disposed of by venue

		Total sitting time	Average sitting time	Total sittings
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	7:00	2:20	3
	Ballymena	33:38	2:24	14
	Belfast	152:35	2:53	53
	Coleraine	17:45	2:32	7
	Craigavon	29:20	2:27	12
	Dungannon	24:35	4:06	6
	Larne	9:55	1:39	6
	Limavady	2:35	2:35	1
	Lisburn	43:40	3:22	13
	Londonderry	80:55	3:41	22
	Newry	54:50	3:14	17
	Newtownards	81:00	2:05	39
	Omagh	59:45	3:44	16
	Venue total	597:33	2:51	209
Family Care Centre	Belfast	182:57	1:48	102
	Craigavon	68:29	2:51	24
	Dungannon	6:38	0:44	9
	Enniskillen	5:50	1:10	5
	Londonderry	22:25	0:48	28
	Magherafelt	2:15	2:15	1
	Omagh	0:46	0:46	1
	Venue total	289:20	1:42	170
High Court	Probate & Matrimonial	9:40	1:56	5
	Wardship & Adoption	144:30	1:28	98
	Venue total	154:10	1:30	103

Table 5: Sitting times and business disposed of in Northern Ireland

	Total sitting time	Average sitting time	Total sittings
Northern Ireland	1041:03	2:10	482

[1] Total sittings include both minority and majority sittings

Table 6: Orders Made

		Orders Made		Total
		By Consent	Other	Cons
Orders Made	APPLICATION REFUSED	0	26	26
	ART 53 CONTACT ORDER WITH CHILD IN CARE	0	2	2
	ARTICLE 20 NON MOLESTATION ORDER	0	2	2
	ARTICLE 3 LEGAL AID CERTIFICATE	133	246	379
	ARTICLE 8 CONTACT ORDER	1	25	26
	AUTHORITY TO KEEP CHILD IN SECURE ACCOMMODATION	22	34	56
	C18 - FINAL ORDER	371	240	611
	C2 LEAVE GRANTED TO COMMENCE-FINAL ORDER	0	8	8
	CARE ORDER	17	47	64
	CASE WITHDRAWN	0	17	17
	CONTACT ORDER	376	167	543
	CONTACT WITH A CHILD IN CARE	0	7	7
	DECLARATION OF PARENTAGE	8	5	13
	DECLARATORY JUDGEMENT	0	1	1
	DISCHARGE CARE ORDER	2	0	2
	DISCHARGE/VARIATION OF A SUPERVISION ORDER	0	3	3
	DISCHARGING A CARE ORDER	6	1	7
	DISMISS ORDER (CHILDREN ORDER)	0	1	1
	EDUCATION SUPERVISION ORDER	0	9	9
	EMERGENCY PROTECTION ORDER	0	6	6
	EMERGENCY PROTECTION ORDER - OUT OF HOURS	0	3	3
	FAMILY ADJOURN GENERALLY	0	10	10
	LEAVE TO CHANGE SURNAME BY WHICH CHILD IS KNOWN	1	4	5
	LEAVE TO WITHDRAW	0	22	22
	FREE TEXT FORMAL ORDER	0	1	1
	ORDER FOR LEAVE OF COURT(ART 179(14))	0	22	22
	ORDER FOR RECOVERY OF A CHILD	4	1	5
	ORDER OR DIRECTIONS FINAL	41	124	165
	ORDER TERMINATING APPOINTMENT OF GAL	54	55	109
	PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY ORDER	50	19	69
	PROHIBIT FURTHER PROCEEDING FOR SET PERIOD	3	9	12
	PROHIBITED STEPS ORDER	8	25	33
	REFUSAL OF ARTICLE 3 CERTIFICATION	0	3	3
	RESIDENCE ORDER	248	141	389
	SCHEDULE 1 FINANCIAL PROVISION DIRECT PAYMENT	0	3	3
	SPECIFIC ISSUES ORDER	19	24	43
	STRIKE OUT	0	18	18
	SUPERVISION ORDER	4	3	7
	VARY CONTACT ORDER	0	3	3
	WITHDRAWN	0	74	74
Total		1368	1411	2779

Table 7a: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal of cases by processing office

		Public law		Private law
		Average time weeks	Number of cases	Average time weeks	Number of cases
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	.	.	0.0	1
	Ballymena	24.2	11	28.0	60
	Belfast	19.8	24	22.7	244
	Coleraine	.	.	0.0	1
	Craigavon	18.0	9	19.6	50
	Dungannon	16.9	19	22.0	73
	Larne	.	.	0.0	1
	Lisburn	34.0	6	21.0	69
	Londonderry	17.2	6	16.8	96
	Newry	20.3	9	16.4	83
	Newtownards	21.4	22	25.1	119
	Omagh	6.0	1	0.8	4
	Total	20.5	107	21.5	801
Family Care Centre	Belfast	40.0	21	58.6	21
	Craigavon	52.8	17	19.8	47
	Dungannon	26.8	6	0.9	1
	Londonderry	56.4	3	45.9	20
	Total	44.0	47	34.6	89
High Court	Probate & Matrimonial	.	.	82.0	11
	Wardship & Adoption	41.1	14	29.4	43
	Total	41.1	14	40.1	54

Nb Cases disposed will include time spent at the lower court tier.

Table 7b: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal of cases in Northern Ireland

	Public law		Private law
	Average time weeks	Number of cases	Average time weeks	Number of cases
Northern Ireland	28.8	168	23.8	944

Nb Cases disposed will include time spent at the lower court tier.

Table 8: Age and gender of children

	0-4	5-8	9-12	13-16	Total
Male	261	219	157	74	711
Female	265	199	170	68	702
Unknown	3	2	5	2	12
Total	529	420	332	144	1425

Appendix 1 - Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal by venue for Care Cases

		Average time in weeks	Number of cases
Family Proceedings Court	Ballymena	49.2	2
	Belfast	28.1	8
	Craigavon	33.7	1
	Dungannon	45.2	5
	Lisburn	43.1	3
	Newry	28.7	6
	Newtownards	34.0	8
	Total	35.1	33
Family Care Centre	Belfast	46.2	15
	Craigavon	64.9	13
	Dungannon	26.8	6
	Londonderry	84.4	2
	Total	51.9	36
High Court	Wardship & Adoption	54.1	7
High Court	Total	54.1	7

Appendix 1 - Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal for Care Cases

	Average time weeks	Number of cases
Northern Ireland	44.8	76

Nb Cases disposed will include time spent at the lower court tier.

Appendix 2 - Average time in weeks spent at the court tier in which the case was finally disposed

		Public Law	Private Law
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	.	0.0
	Ballymena	22.2	26.2
	Belfast	19.8	21.7
	Coleraine	.	0.0
	Craigavon	18.0	18.6
	Dungannon	16.9	22.0
	Larne	.	0.0
	Lisburn	34.0	21.0
	Londonderry	17.2	16.7
	Newtownards	21.4	24.3
	Newry	20.3	15.9
	Omagh	6.0	0.8
	Total	20.3	20.8
Family Care Centre	Belfast	23.6	44.9
	Craigavon	22.8	12.6
	Dungannon	14.1	0.9
	Londonderry	10.7	19.1
	Total	21.3	21.6
High Court	Probate & Matrimonial	.	76.6
	Wardship & Adoption	30.7	29.4
	Total	30.7	39.1
Northern Ireland		21.4	21.9