Making children visible in the court process

Overview

A new operational process will begin on 3 March 2025 to improve information available to the criminal court about the existence of dependent children.  Information will be more consistently provided to the District Court about the existence of dependent children when a primary caregiver is potentially facing a custodial remand or sentence.

As part of the new process, approved by Heads of Bench, several court forms have been updated to enable information about the existence of dependent children to be captured and shared with the court. These changes sit alongside existing processes that can also support identifying dependent children, such as oral submissions.

Impact on practice 

All counsel should consider making inquiries of their client, to understand whether they are the sole or primary caregiver of a dependent child or vulnerable adult. With consent from their client, Counsel has opportunity to bring this information to the attention of the court through written or oral submission and should inform the court of the existence of dependent children where the defendant is potentially facing a custodial remand or sentence.

Counsel can expect judges to ask questions about parental responsibilities at an early stage, including at the time of bail and when setting bail conditions.

Both the Duty Solicitor Instruction sheet and the PDS Client Information Sheet have been amended to prompt and record this information.

Summary table

A summary table has been prepared which outlines the process and relevant forms at each stage of criminal proceedings. The summary table is available to view in full on this page and can be downloaded in PDF format at the link below.

Making children visible in the court process - summary table