The supervisory authority found that over the past seven years, the proportion of children who had to wait more than one year to resolve the case was litigated by the nursing process, and their percentage increased by more than 17 times.

According to the National Audit Office (NAO), the average litigation process for local authorities to protect children from harm (called public law cases) is 36 weeks. In 2014, the government set a 26-week time limit, but it was never met.

The proportion of children waiting for public law cases for more than one year has increased from 0.7% in January 2017 to 12% in December last year, the NAO said in a report released Wednesday. These figures are equivalent to approximately 70 and 1,200 children, respectively.

Watchdogs are urging the government to do more to address delays, which could mean kids wait longer to wait for permanent care, life or contact arrangements, increasing the risk of injury, anxiety, instability and friendship or education.

Including private law cases involving parental disputes, such as arrangements for children’s lives or contacts, there were more than 4,000 children in England and Wales in the December 2024 Family Court litigation.

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, Chairman of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said: “There has been too many children due to delays in family court litigation, which is still too long. The case has not been resolved, the more likely the risk of further delays to cause damage, increases the harm to children and increases public costs.

“The responsibility for family justice is decentralized, and no one institution is responsible for overall performance. The government has neither the right data to fully understand the causes or impacts of delays nor the ability to assess the effective management of the system.”

In December, nearly two-thirds of the 4,000 cases opened in London and the Southeast for 100 weeks or more. The average case filed by local authorities in London is 53 weeks, and the average case filed by parents is 70 weeks.

Wales performed best, with an average of 24 weeks and 18 weeks, respectively. In the case of delayed delays, this reflects problems such as lower judicial capacity in these areas.

Private bill cases have no government time limits, and it took an average of 41 weeks last year.

Watchdogs say that due to the need to update evidence and evaluation, delays have a huge impact on costs. Between 2018 and 2022, the average expenditure on legal aid for cases filed by local authorities increased from about £6,000 to about £12,000, an increase of £314 million in legal aid expenditure per year.

Family courts have recovered much better than Crown Courts after the pandemic on August 2021, with 47,662 family court cases issued (of which 37,541 private bill cases), more than a quarter.

But NAO head Gareth Davies said: “Many cases still take too long to complete and further action is needed to remove barriers to more efficient systems, including poor quality data and decentralized decisions.”

A government spokesman said it has inherited the justice system in the crisis, adding: "We are working to further improve their experience in the family court by expanding the successful Pathfinder Pilot's efforts, which has reduced case time by 11 weeks and invested £500 million in early intervention. Cases are now acting faster."