Children’s Order Quarterly Bulletin

January - March 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 [1]
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 for cases with an initiating document of ‘Care’ by Processing Office
Appendix 1: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal for cases with an initiating document of ‘Care’ in Northern Ireland
Appendix 2 - Average time in weeks spent at the court tier in which the case was finally disposed

Summary

There were 1,260 applications entered during the period, of which:
113 = Public
1147 = Private
There were 945 applications dealt with during the period, of which:
133 = Public
812 = Private
There were 72 cases transferred during the period.
Of the own motion orders made, 28% 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 January to March 2008:
Total time = 880 hours 00 minutes
Ave. sitting time = 2 hours 05 minutes
There were 2,306 orders made between January to March 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 29 weeks.
There were 1,233 children involved in Children Order Proceedings during the period, of which 34% were under the age of five.

Table 1a: Applications entered and disposed

		Number of applications entered	Number of disposals
Private Law	Family Proceedings Court	1033	703
	Family Care Centre	52	70
	High Court	62	39
	Total	1147	812
Public Law	Family Proceedings Court	99	96
	Family Care Centre	4	26
	High Court	10	11
	Total	113	133

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	5	2
	Armagh	0	0	0	1
	Ballymena	6	11	92	70
	Belfast	28	28	274	196
	Coleraine	0	0	1	1
	Craigavon	13	11	94	49
	Downpatrick	0	0	1	0
	Dungannon	18	10	68	64
	Larne	0	0	3	1
	Lisburn	6	7	90	52
	Londonderry	7	7	162	78
	Newry	12	11	101	69
	Newtownards	8	10	139	119
	Omagh	1	1	3	1
	Venue total	99	96	1033	703
Family Care Centre	Craigavon	1	4	35	34
	Londonderry	0	2	5	3
	Belfast	3	18	10	28
	Dungannon	0	2	2	5
	Venue total	4	26	52	70
High Court	Probate & Matrimonial	1	1	9	9
	Wardship & Adoption	9	10	53	30
	Venue total	10	11	62	39

[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	113	133	1147	812

Table 2: Reasons for transfer [1]

Transferred from								Total
Transferred from		Urgency	Convenience	Gravity	Complexity	Case linked - Consolidation	Other	Total
Family Proceedings Court	Ballymena	.	.	.	1	.	2	3
	Belfast	.	1	.	8	2	2	13
	Craigavon	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
	Dungannon	.	.	.	1	.	1	2
	Enniskillen	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
	Lisburn	.	.	.	4	.	3	7
	Londonderry	.	.	.	6	3	10	19
	Newry	.	.	.	3	1	4	8
	Newtownards	.	.	.	2	1	.	3
	Omagh	.	.	.	1	.	.	1
	Venue total	.	1	.	26	7	24	58
Magistrates Court	Bangor	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
Magistrates Court	Venue total	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
Family Care Centre	Belfast	.	.	.	1	.	9	10
	Craigavon	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
	Dungannon	.	.	.	1	.	1	2
	Londonderry	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
	Venue total	.	.	.	2	.	11	13
Northern Ireland Total		.	1	.	28	7	36	72

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	5
Contact: Permission	69
Contact: Refusal	0
Residence	53
Prohibited Steps	2
Specific Issues	3
Family Assistance	0
Care	126
Supervision	0
Education Supervision	2
Declaration of Parentage	1
Child Assessment	2
Emergency Protection	8
Extension of EPO	0
Recovery	0
Secure Accommodation	10
Article 53 Contract	0
Appointment of Guardian under Part XV	22
Contribution and other Financial	0
Non-Molestation Order	0
Occupation Articles	0
Article 56 Investigations	0
Exclusion Requirement	0
Other orders, applications etc	143
Total	446

Table 4: Total interim orders

	Interim orders
Parental Responsibility	3
Contact: Permission	1086
Contact: Refusal	0
Residence	251
Prohibited Steps	46
Specific Issues	9
Family Assistance	0
Care	805
Supervision	32
Education Supervision	0
Child Assessment	0
Emergency Protection	0
Extension of EPO	0
Recovery	0
Secure Accommodation	4
Article 53 Contract	0
Appointment of Guardian under Part XV	0
Contribution and other Financial	0
Non-Molestation Order	2
Occupation Articles	0
Article 56 Investigations	0
Exclusion Requirement	0
Other orders, applications etc	0
Total	2238

Table 5: Sitting times and applications disposed of by venue

		Total sitting time	Average sitting time	Total sittings
Family Proceedings Court	Antrim	13:45	2:45	5
	Armagh	-	-	-
	Ballymena	40:25	2:53	14
	Belfast	162:25	2:57	55
	Coleraine	19:35	3:55	5
	Craigavon	20:23	2:02	10
	Dungannon	19:30	4:52	4
	Larne	14:40	2:27	6
	Lisburn	30:40	2:47	11
	Londonderry	55:30	3:42	15
	Newry	47:50	3:11	15
	Newtownards	73:55	2:07	35
	Omagh	50:00	3:51	13
	Venue total	548:38	2:55	188
Family Care Centre	Belfast	111:00	1:19	84
	Craigavon	42:32	2:01	21
	Dungannon	3:36	1:12	3
	Limavady	0:50	0:25	2
	Lisburn	0:15	0:15	1
	Londonderry	15:48	0:43	22
	Magherafelt	1:00	1:00	1
	Omagh	1:51	1:51	1
	Venue total	176:52	1:19	135
High Court	Probate & Matrimonial	30:15	1:46	17
	Wardship & Adoption	124:15	1:30	83
	Venue total	154:30	1:33	100

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

	Total sitting time	Average sitting time	Total sittings
Northern Ireland	880:00	2:05	423

[1] Total sittings include both minority and majority sittings

Table 6: Orders Made

	Consent	Other	Total
APPLICATION WITHDRAWN	0	1	1
ARTICLE 3 LEGAL AID CERTIFICATE	68	98	166
ARTICLE 8 CONTACT ORDER	0	17	17
AUTHORITY TO KEEP CHILD IN SECURE ACCOMMODATION	24	24	48
C18 - FINAL ORDER	257	327	584
C2 LEAVE GRANTED TO COMMENCE-FINAL ORDER	0	8	8
CARE ORDER	8	32	40
CASE WITHDRAWN	0	27	27
CHILD ASSESSMENT ORDER	0	1	1
CONTACT ORDER	388	126	514
COURT DEEMS SUMMONS NOT SERVED	0	1	1
DECLARATION OF PARENTAGE	5	8	13
DECLARATORY JUDGEMENT	0	1	1
DISCHARGE CARE ORDER	2	0	2
DISCHARGING A CARE ORDER	7	0	7
DISMISS ORDER (ADOPTION)	0	1	1
DISMISS ORDER (CHILDREN ORDER)	0	2	2
EDUCATION SUPERVISION ORDER	0	5	5
EMERGENCY PROTECTION ORDER	0	16	16
EXTENSION OF AN EPO	1	0	1
FAMILY ADJOURN GENERALLY	0	9	9
LEAVE TO CHANGE SURNAME OF CHILD	1	0	1
LEAVE TO WITHDRAW	0	20	20
ORDER FOR LEAVE OF COURT(ART 179(14))	0	23	23
ORDER FOR RECOVERY OF A CHILD	1	0	1
ORDER FOR SECURE ACCOMMODATION ORDER	0	1	1
ORDER OR DIRECTIONS FINAL	42	118	160
ORDER TERMINATING APPOINTMENT OF GAL	34	32	66
ORDER TERMINATION APPOINTMENT OF GAL	25	16	41
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY ORDER	28	13	41
PROHIBIT FURTHER PROCEEDING FOR SET PERIOD	0	7	7
PROHIBITED STEPS ORDER	7	26	33
REFUSAL OF ARTICLE 3 CERTIFICATION	0	2	2
RESIDENCE ORDER	228	110	338
SCHEDULE 1 FINANCIAL PROVISION DIRECT PAYMENT	0	1	1
SOLICITORS COME OFF RECORD	0	1	1
SPECIFIC ISSUES ORDER	13	17	30
STRIKE OUT	0	23	23
SUPERVISION ORDER	2	4	6
VARY CONTACT ORDER	0	2	2
WITHDRAWN	0	45	45
Total	1141	1165	2306

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	.	.	3.1	2
	Armagh	.	.	16.6	1
	Ballymena	24.6	11	33.1	70
	Belfast	20.9	28	26.9	196
	Coleraine	.	.	62.1	1
	Craigavon	10.1	11	24.7	49
	Dungannon	24.4	10	24.7	64
	Larne	.	.	16.9	1
	Lisburn	33.6	7	27.8	52
	Londonderry	32.6	7	23.0	78
	Newry	34.9	11	31.9	69
	Newtownards	8.2	10	31.4	119
	Omagh	2.0	1	0.0	1
	Total	22.3	96	27.9	703
Family Care Centre	Belfast	53.9	18	53.5	28
	Craigavon	20.8	4	17.5	34
	Dungannon	30.3	2	29.4	5
	Londonderry	28.8	2	21.1	3
	Total	45.0	26	32.9	70
High Court	Probate & Matrimonial	25.0	1	88.5	9
	Wardship & Adoption	45.4	10	37.1	30
	Total	43.5	11	49.0	39

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	28.5	133	29.3	812

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	220	169	131	70	590
Female	199	178	160	96	633
Unknown	1	3	6	0	10
Total	420	350	297	166	1233

Appendix 1: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal for cases with an initiating document of ‘Care’ by Processing Office

		Average time in weeks	Number of cases
Family Proceedings Court	Ballymena	46.4	4
	Belfast	35.6	10
	Craigavon	23.6	3
	Dungannon	42.6	4
	Newtownards	6.0	2
	Lisburn	65.9	2
	Londonderry	60.7	2
	Newry	62.8	5
	Total	42.6	32
Family Care Centre	Belfast	75.4	10
	Craigavon	21.9	3
	Dungannon	30.3	2
	Londonderry	28.2	2
	Total	59.3	17
High Court	Wardship & Adoption	73.0	6
High Court	Total	73.0	6

Appendix 1: Average time in weeks from lodgement to disposal for cases with an initiating document of ‘Care’ in Northern Ireland

	Average time weeks	Number of cases
Northern Ireland	49.8	55

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	.	3.1
	Armagh	.	16.6
	Ballymena	24.6	33.1
	Belfast	20.5	26.9
	Coleraine	.	62.1
	Craigavon	10.1	24.4
	Dungannon	24.4	24.6
	Larne	-	16.9
	Lisburn	33.6	27.8
	Londonderry	32.6	22.0
	Newtownards	8.2	31.3
	Newry	34.9	31.9
	Omagh	2.0	0.0
	Total	22.2	27.8
Family Care Centre	Belfast	44.8	43.1
	Craigavon	16.5	9.9
	Dungannon	10.2	26.8
	Londonderry	20.6	17.4
	Total	35.9	24.7
High Court	Probate & Matrimonial	25.0	86.5
	Office Of Care And Protection	39.9	31.3
	Total	38.5	44.0
Northern Ireland		26.2	28.3