More than 70,000 applications for child arrangements were made through the family courts in England and Wales in 2025 alone, and the number of cases taking over a year to resolve has nearly doubled in the last decade.

This report is based on 10 years of first-hand data obtained via Freedom of Information requests to CAFCASS and HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), covering who applies for child arrangements, how long cases take to resolve, and how domestic abuse features in the family courts, with a specific breakdown of the data for Kent.

• Applications for child arrangements orders in England and Wales rose by 69.2% between 2015 and 2025, from 41,468 to 70,178.
• Despite the rise in applications, the number of orders actually made fell by 7.9% over the same period, from 59,268 in 2015 to 54,600 in 2025.
• Fathers made 54.4% of applications recorded by CAFCASS in 2025, compared with 35.7% from mothers and 9.9% from other family members or carers.
• Applications made by mothers grew far faster than those made by fathers over the decade, up 45.2% compared with a 2.9% rise for fathers.
• More than half of all cases nationally (51.6%) in 2025 involved domestic abuse being flagged as a child’s need, up from 13.8% of cases in 2015.
• In Kent, cases handled by CAFCASS rose by 55.2% between 2015 and 2025, faster than the national increase of 14.3%.
• In Kent, domestic abuse was recorded as a child’s need in 806 cases in 2025, more than five times the 142 cases recorded in 2015.
• London has the slowest average resolution time in England and Wales, taking 67.7 weeks on average from application to final order in 2025.
• Wales was the only region where wait times fell over the decade, dropping from 21.6 weeks in 2015 to 16.3 weeks in 2025.
• Nationally, the number of cases taking longer than a year to resolve nearly doubled (+96.1%) between 2015 and 2025, while cases dragging on for two years or more rose by 61.1%.

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS), is involved in every private law family case in England where the court is asked to decide arrangements for a child. Our data, obtained via CAFCASS’s national case database, shows the number of cases received each year has grown substantially over the past decade, climbing from 36,498 in 2015 to 41,725 in 2025, a rise of 14.3%.

That national CAFCASS figure isn’t the full picture though. Court data from HMCTS shows a much steeper rise in the number of applications being made for child arrangements orders, up 69.2%, from 41,468 in 2015 to 70,178 in 2025.

What’s notable is that this rise in applications hasn’t translated into more orders being granted. The number of child arrangements orders actually made by the courts fell by 7.9% over the same period, from 59,268 to 54,600. Read alongside the rise in applications, this points to a growing backlog within the family court system, rather than more parents successfully reaching a resolution.

The South East, which includes Kent, recorded the highest volume of applications of any region in both years, and remains the busiest region for private law family cases in England and Wales.

CAFCASS data shows fathers remain the most frequent applicant nationally, accounting for 54.4% of cases in 2025, compared with 35.7% for mothers and 9.9% for other relatives or carers such as grandparents.

That said, the gap has narrowed considerably over the decade. The number of cases where the mother was the applicant rose by 45.2% between 2015 and 2025, far outpacing the 2.9% rise among father-led applications. 

Cases involving other family members or carers as the applicant fell slightly, down 1.3% over the same period. It’s worth noting this data reflects who initiates an application to the court, not the outcome of the case or who a child ultimately lives with.

Domestic abuse is a significant factor in a growing share of private law children cases nationally. CAFCASS data shows the number of cases where domestic abuse was recorded as a child’s need rose from 5,034 in 2015 to 21,523 in 2025, a 327.6% increase, with the sharpest rises seen in the early part of the decade as recording practices became more established.

As a proportion of all cases, domestic abuse was flagged in 13.8% of cases in 2015, rising to 51.6% of cases in 2025. In other words, more than half of all private law children cases handled by CAFCASS now involve domestic abuse concerns.

It’s worth flagging that this figure should be read with some caution, as domestic abuse is a non-mandatory field on CAFCASS’s case system, and the early years of the data (2015 to 2016) likely reflect a period when the field was newly introduced and not yet consistently completed, rather than a genuine year-on-year spike in cases. This means the true proportion of cases involving domestic abuse concerns may, in practice, be even higher.

CAFCASS breaks its data down to Local Family Justice Board level, which allows us to isolate figures for Kent specifically.

• Kent recorded 1,561 cases in 2025, up from 1,006 in 2015, a rise of 55.2%, well ahead of the 14.3% national increase.
• Of Kent’s 2025 cases, fathers were the applicant in 55.2% of cases, mothers in 35.2%, and other family members in 9.6%, broadly in line with the national split.
• Domestic abuse was flagged as a child’s need in 806 Kent cases in 2025, up from 142 in 2015. As a share of all Kent cases, that’s a rise from 14.1% to 51.6% over the decade, mirroring the national pattern above.

Kent’s growth in case numbers, both overall and where domestic abuse is a factor, has outpaced the national average throughout the decade. This is a trend worth keeping in mind for anyone in Kent currently going through, or anticipating, a child arrangements case, particularly given what the data shows about resolution times below.

Family court data shows that private law cases are, on average, taking considerably longer to resolve than they did a decade ago. This varies significantly by region.

London remains the slowest region in England and Wales to resolve child arrangements cases, taking an average of 67.7 weeks, nearly 16 months, from application to final order in 2025. The South East, which covers Kent, saw the steepest increase of any region: average resolution times nearly doubled, up from 24.9 weeks in 2015 to 45.8 weeks in 2025.

Wales bucks the national trend entirely, and is the only region where average case times fell over the decade, down from 21.6 to 16.3 weeks. This suggests that longer waits are not inevitable, and that regional differences in court resourcing and case volume likely play a role.

The rise in average case times is reflected in how many cases are dragging on well beyond a year. Nationally, the number of cases taking more than 52 weeks to resolve rose by 96.1% between 2015 and 2025, from 5,112 to 10,024. Cases taking more than 100 weeks, close to two years, rose by 61.1%, from 1,639 to 2,640.

In the South East, the increase was far steeper still: cases taking longer than 100 weeks to resolve rose by 396%, from 150 in 2015 to 744 in 2025, while cases exceeding 52 weeks rose by 295.7%.

Of course, every case is different, and how long a case takes will depend on its individual circumstances, including whether it’s contested, whether domestic abuse or safeguarding concerns are involved, and how busy the local court is at the time. Anyone concerned about delays in an ongoing or upcoming case may find it helpful to speak with a family law solicitor about what to expect for their specific circumstances.

Advice from Aneeta Kaur Kang LL.B (Hons), Family Law Director at Manak Solicitors:

• • A Child Arrangements Order isn’t automatic: Many separated parents assume the court will step in by default, but a CAO is only made where an application is filed and the court agrees it’s in the child’s best interests. It sets out who a child lives with and who they spend time with, but it doesn’t cover financial support, which is dealt with separately.
  • Kent parents should plan for a longer timeline than they might expect: Our data shows average resolution times in the South East nearly doubled over the past decade, from around 25 weeks to 46 weeks. Cases involving safeguarding checks or a contested hearing will typically take longer still, so it’s worth building this into any wider plans, such as childcare or housing arrangements.
  • Where domestic abuse is a factor, tell your solicitor early: Courts take a different approach to cases involving domestic abuse, including additional safeguarding checks by CAFCASS and, in some cases, special measures at hearings. Raising this at the outset, rather than partway through proceedings, helps ensure the right protections are in place from the start.
  • Court should usually be a last resort, not a first step: Mediation is often quicker, less costly, and less adversarial than court proceedings, and in most cases parents are required to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) before applying to court. Manak Solicitors offer mediation services in house for any of our clients looking to explore this option.
  • First hearings are shorter than most parents expect: A first hearing is typically a dispute resolution appointment rather than a full hearing, focused on identifying the issues and setting a timetable, not resolving the case there and then. Bringing a clear, written summary of the arrangements you’re proposing helps the hearing run smoothly.

Data on child arrangements order applications, orders made, case durations and case volumes by region was obtained via Freedom of Information request to HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), covering the years 2015 to 2025. Figures are sourced from HMCTS’s FamilyMan and CCD case management systems, and are subject to the caveats set out by HMCTS: figures may differ slightly from published Family Court Statistics Quarterly releases as they are drawn from a live administrative system, and some smaller figures have been suppressed under HMCTS’s Data Protection Act obligations.

Data on case volumes by applicant relationship (mother/father/other) and by domestic abuse child need was obtained via Freedom of Information request to CAFCASS, covering the years 2015 to 2025, and is drawn from CAFCASS’s live national case database. CAFCASS note that relationship, gender and domestic abuse fields are non-mandatory, and that values below 6 have been anonymised for data protection purposes.