Definition: Research that studies the relationships between involvement in family court proceedings and the physical and mental health of parents and children.
Who we are: The Family Law and Health Research Group at University College London is a research team using anonymised data from courts, hospitals, and social services to understand these health impacts and identify ways to better support families.
To provide evidence that directly informs policy and practice improvements, helping create better support for families before they reach crisis point and making the family court system work better for everyone involved.
Scale: Family courts in England handle approximately 70,000 cases involving children per year*, involving thousands of families facing crisis situations.
Health relevance and impacts documented: Research shows that families involved in court proceedings experience significantly higher rates of:
Evidence-based solutions: Understanding these patterns helps create better early intervention services and support systems. Our analysis can shape better services and early intervention programmes.
We analyse anonymised health records of families involved in court proceedings. Read more about anonymised data.
Research shows the connections between family court involvement and wider health and social services.
We track the relationship between health and family court involvement over time using anonymised data.
Our findings directly inform health, social care and family court law and policy.
We are very grateful to the Wellcome Trust for funding this research.
Common questions about Family Law and Health Research
