Children & Young People in Domestic Abuse Cases
The legal protections, safeguarding frameworks, and support services for children affected by domestic abuse — for survivors, parents, and safeguarding professionals. Covers both the England and Wales systems, with local referral routes for Wrexham, Shropshire and Telford.
If you are concerned about a child right now
If a child is in immediate danger, call 999 and ask for police. For non-emergency concerns, contact your local authority children’s services (numbers below) or the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000.
You do not need proof. Reasonable concern is enough to make a referral. It is not your job to investigate or to be certain — it is your job to pass the concern on.
England or Wales — which system applies to you
Family law is largely shared across England and Wales, but child safeguarding is devolved and the two systems diverge in ways that matter practically. If you are on the border, what applies depends on where the child lives and which local authority holds the case.
- Shared across England and Wales: Children Act 1989, Domestic Abuse Act 2021, Family Procedure Rules, Practice Direction 12J, and all family court forms (C100, C1A, C8, FL401)
- England only: Cafcass, and the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children
- Wales only: Cafcass Cymru, the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, Working Together to Safeguard People, and the Wales Safeguarding Procedures
Children Act 1989
The cornerstone of child protection law in England and Wales
The Children Act 1989 is the primary legislation governing child welfare and protection across England and Wales. It places the child’s welfare at the heart of all decisions, recognises that children are usually best cared for within their families, and provides mechanisms for intervention when children are at risk of harm.
Key principles
- Paramountcy principle — the child’s welfare is the court’s paramount consideration
- Parental responsibility — defines who has legal rights and responsibilities for a child
- No order principle — courts should only make an order if doing so is better for the child than making none
- Delay is harmful — delay is presumed to prejudice the child’s welfare
- The welfare checklist — courts must consider the child’s wishes and feelings, physical and emotional needs, and any harm suffered or risk of harm
Relevance to domestic abuse
- Section 31 — enables local authorities to apply for Care or Supervision Orders where a child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm
- Section 47 — places a duty on local authorities to investigate where there is reasonable cause to suspect significant harm
- Empowers courts to restrict or supervise contact between children and perpetrators of abuse
Important: Since the Adoption and Children Act 2002 amended the definition of harm, “harm” explicitly includes impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another. Exposure to domestic abuse is legally recognised as damaging to a child’s welfare — it is not a lesser category of harm.
In Wales: the Children Act 1989 still applies, but sits alongside the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. Section 130 of the 2014 Act creates a duty on relevant partners to report a child at risk to the local authority.
Cafcass — England
Domestic Abuse Practice Policy
Cafcass represents children in family court cases in England. Its Domestic Abuse Practice Policy, published in October 2024 and updated in January 2025, sets out what Family Court Advisers and Children’s Guardians must do where domestic abuse is raised. It was a direct response to the 2020 Harm Panel report.
What the policy requires
- Practitioners must not use qualifying language such as “claims” or “alleges” — they must record what was actually said and let the court determine facts
- Abuse must not be dismissed or minimised as “historical” or as a one-off incident
- Where a parent is under police investigation for, or convicted of, a sexual offence, the starting point is that the child should not spend time with them
- A clear, unequivocal and compelling rationale must be given in reports if a practitioner departs from these starting points
- The application of Practice Direction 12J must be set out explicitly in reports to court
If a report does not follow the policy: Cafcass states it can be held accountable through its complaints process, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, referral to Social Work England, or judicial review. You can also raise concerns directly with the court and ask for clarification or further assessment.
Cafcass Cymru — Wales
Domestic Abuse Practice Guidance
Cafcass Cymru is a separate organisation, part of the Welsh Government, and covers all family court proceedings in Wales. If your case is in a Welsh court, it is Cafcass Cymru — not Cafcass — that will be involved. They have an office in Wrexham.
Practice guidance suite (2025)
- Published as a suite of documents covering the lasting impact of abuse on children and adults
- Frames domestic abuse as a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour, not a series of incidents
- Includes specific guidance on listening to the child and assessing lived experience in family time arrangements
- Includes dedicated guidance on domestic abuse and so-called “parental alienation”
- Aligns with the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 definition and the 2020 Harm Panel report
Contact: Cafcass Cymru Central Administration and Processing Team, 03000 255600. Calls welcomed in Welsh or English. They cannot give legal advice or discuss a case with anyone who is not a named party.
Child Arrangements Orders
Deciding where children live and who they spend time with
A Child Arrangements Order decides where a child lives and how much time they spend with each parent. The C100 form is used to apply when parents cannot agree. These forms and rules apply in both England and Wales.
Orders available
- Child Arrangements Order — who the child lives with and time with the other parent
- Specific Issue Order — settles a particular dispute such as schooling or medical treatment
- Prohibited Steps Order — prevents a parent taking a specified action, such as removing a child from the country
- Section 91(14) Order — prevents repeated applications without the court’s permission, which can protect victims from litigation abuse
Protections where abuse is a factor
- Form C1A — must be filed alongside C100 wherever there are allegations of harm or domestic abuse
- Practice Direction 12J — governs how courts must handle child arrangements cases involving domestic abuse
- Special measures — separate waiting areas, screens, and evidence by video link
- Safeguarding checks — Cafcass or Cafcass Cymru check with police and local authorities
- Fact-finding hearings — held to establish whether abuse occurred before final decisions are made
Mediation (MIAM) — read this carefully. Domestic abuse has been a recognised exemption from attending a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting since 2014. However, changes to the Family Procedure Rules that took effect on 29 April 2024 made the process stricter, not easier. Supporting evidence for the exemption must now be filed with your application, and the court will examine at the gatekeeping stage whether the exemption was validly claimed. If it decides the exemption does not apply, it will direct you to attend a MIAM and may stay the proceedings while that happens. Gather your evidence before you apply.
Safeguarding frameworks
Statutory guidance on how agencies must work together to protect children. This is where England and Wales differ most.
Working Together to Safeguard Children
Statutory guidance setting out how organisations and individuals must work together to safeguard children. It applies to all professionals working with children and families — schools, police, health services and local authorities.
- Children’s needs and views at the heart of safeguarding practice
- Early help — support as soon as problems emerge, before they escalate
- Effective collaboration and appropriate information sharing between agencies
- Clear roles and responsibilities for all professionals involved
- Read the guidance
Wales Safeguarding Procedures
Wales has its own framework. Part 7 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 provides the legal basis; Working Together to Safeguard People is the statutory guidance; and the Wales Safeguarding Procedures set out what practitioners must actually do.
- Section 130 — duty on relevant partners to report a child at risk to the local authority
- Regional Safeguarding Children Boards coordinate local practice — in your area, the North Wales Safeguarding Board
- Volume 5 covers handling individual cases to protect children at risk
- Child Practice Reviews were replaced in 2024 by the Single Unified Safeguarding Review (SUSR)
- Wales Safeguarding Procedures · North Wales Safeguarding Board
Section 47 enquiries
Where there is reasonable cause to suspect a child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm — including from domestic abuse — the local authority must make enquiries to decide whether action is needed. In practice this means coordinating with police and other agencies, seeing the child and speaking with them alone where appropriate, considering their wishes and feelings, and assessing whether protective action is required.
Anyone can refer. Any professional or member of the public can raise concerns with children’s services or the police. You do not need proof, and you do not need to be certain.
The parental involvement presumption
Section 1(2A), Children Act 1989 — and why it is contested
Section 1(2A) creates a presumption that the involvement of both parents in a child’s life will further the child’s welfare, unless there is evidence to the contrary. This has been heavily criticised in domestic abuse cases, where contact with an abusive parent may harm rather than benefit the child. It has been the subject of Ministry of Justice review following the 2020 Harm Panel report.
The concerns
- Can be misread as a parental right to contact rather than a child-welfare principle
- Contributes to a “contact at all costs” culture identified by the Harm Panel
- May not adequately account for risk posed by perpetrators
- Children’s voices can be displaced by parental claims
- Contact arrangements can become a vehicle for continued coercive control
Where you stand now
- The presumption is rebuttable — evidence of harm can displace it
- The child’s welfare remains the paramount consideration
- Courts can order no contact, or supervised contact only
- Practice Direction 12J requires the court to consider whether contact would expose the child or parent to further harm
- You can put evidence of abuse and its impact on the children before the court
Domestic Abuse Act 2021 — children’s provisions
Children recognised as victims in their own right
The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 applies across England and Wales and represents the most significant change to domestic abuse law in decades.
Key provisions for children
- Children as victims — a child who sees, hears, or experiences the effects of domestic abuse, and is related to the victim or perpetrator, is a victim in their own right. Not a witness, not a bystander
- Prohibition on cross-examination — prevents victims and perpetrators cross-examining each other in family proceedings, with court-appointed advocates instead
- Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) — can include provisions protecting children
- Statutory definition — includes coercive control, economic abuse, and psychological and emotional abuse
When the abuse comes from your child
Child-to-parent abuse is a hidden and frequently misunderstood form of domestic abuse. Parents experiencing it often meet disbelief, blame, or an assumption that it reflects poor parenting. It is not covered by the statutory definition in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 where the child is under 16, which leaves many families without a clear route to support.
PEGS (Parental Education Growth Support) provides national specialist support for parents, carers and guardians experiencing abuse from their children — one-to-one guidance, peer support, wellbeing sessions, and training for professionals.
Reporting concerns about a child
999 — Immediate danger
Call immediately if a child is in immediate danger. Ask for police.
NSPCC Helpline
0808 800 5000 — free, 24/7, for any adult worried about a child. They can make a referral on your behalf.
Childline
0800 1111 — free and confidential, for children and young people. 24/7, with online chat.
Meic (Wales)
0808 80 23456 — free, confidential helpline for children and young people up to 25 in Wales. Welsh or English. Daily 8am–midnight.
Police — 101
For concerns that need police involvement but are not immediately urgent.
School or GP safeguarding lead
Every school and GP practice has a designated safeguarding lead with a statutory duty to act on concerns about a child’s welfare.
Local authority referral routes
Wrexham
01978 292039Children’s Single Point of Access, office hours. Out of hours Emergency Duty Team (covering Wrexham, Flintshire and Denbighshire): 0345 053 3116
Shropshire
0345 678 9021First Point of Contact / Compass — children’s social care front door. Out of hours Emergency Social Work Team: 0345 678 9040, option 1
Telford & Wrekin
01952 385385Family Connect, Monday to Friday 9am–5pm. Out of hours Emergency Duty Team: 01952 676500
Referral thresholds and local processes change. If you are unsure whether a concern meets the threshold, ring anyway and describe it — deciding the threshold is their job, not yours.
How domestic abuse affects children
Impacts vary by developmental stage, but no age group is unaffected. The absence of visible distress does not mean a child is unharmed.
| Age group | Common impacts |
|---|---|
| Babies & toddlers 0–3 years | Disrupted attachment and bonding · Developmental delays · Sleep disturbance and feeding difficulties · Heightened startle and fear responses · Difficulty self-regulating |
| Preschool 3–5 years | Regression such as bedwetting or baby talk · Nightmares and sleep problems · Aggression or withdrawal · Difficulty separating from the safe parent · Emotional dysregulation |
| Primary school 5–11 years | Concentration and academic difficulties · Anxiety, low mood, low self-esteem · Behavioural difficulties at school · Headaches and stomach aches with no medical cause · Difficulty forming friendships |
| Teenagers 11–18 years | Risk-taking behaviours · Depression, anxiety, PTSD · Relationship difficulties · Academic underachievement · Going missing from home · Normalisation of abusive relationship patterns |
| Longer term | Increased risk of entering or repeating abusive relationships · Mental health conditions including PTSD, depression and anxiety · Attachment difficulties · Difficulty trusting others · Physical health effects · Intergenerational transmission of trauma |
Increased risk is not destiny. Protective factors — set out below — change outcomes substantially.
Recognising signs in children
No single sign confirms abuse. Patterns, changes from a child’s baseline, and clusters across categories are what should prompt a safeguarding response.
- Aggression or violence towards others
- Marked withdrawal or extreme shyness
- Difficulty regulating emotions
- Taking on adult responsibilities — caring for siblings or a parent
- Regression to earlier developmental behaviours
- Hypervigilance or persistent anxiety
- Low self-esteem and self-worth
- Persistent low mood
- Anxiety or panic
- Marked fear of making mistakes
- Difficulty naming or expressing emotions
- Emotional numbing or detachment
- Unexplained injuries — a child may have witnessed or tried to intervene
- Frequent headaches or stomach aches with no medical cause
- Sleep disturbance or nightmares
- Changes in eating patterns
- Bedwetting beyond the expected age
- Isolation from friends and activities
- Excessive people-pleasing
- Reluctance to go home
- Declining grades or attendance
- Difficulty concentrating
- Frequent absence or lateness
Role of professionals & agencies
All professionals working with children have a statutory duty to safeguard and promote their welfare. That includes identifying children living with domestic abuse and acting on it.
Police
- Welfare checks on children present during incidents
- Safeguarding referrals to children’s services
- Considering Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and Orders
- Documenting children’s presence and observable impact
- MARAC referral in high-risk cases
- Operation Encompass — police notify a child’s school before the next school day following a domestic abuse incident. Participation varies by force; check with yours
Schools & education
- Designated Safeguarding Lead trained in domestic abuse
- Acting on Operation Encompass notifications
- Trauma-informed approaches to behaviour rather than purely punitive responses
- Safe, private opportunities for a child to disclose
- Relationships education covering healthy relationships
- Monitoring attendance, behaviour and wellbeing for change
Health services
- Routine and targeted enquiry in appropriate settings
- Safeguarding training for all staff
- Recognising physical and mental health presentations in children
- Referral to children’s services and MARAC
- Trauma-informed care and clear, factual documentation
Children’s social care
- Assessment under section 17 (child in need) or section 47 (risk of significant harm)
- Child protection planning where the threshold is met
- Support for the non-abusing parent — this is a protective intervention, not a concession
- Direct work with the child
- Multi-agency safety planning
Supporting children affected by domestic abuse
Immediate safety
- Separation from the source of harm, whether by the perpetrator leaving or relocation to safe accommodation
- Re-establishing physical safety before anything else
- Maintaining routine and stability where possible
- Avoiding exposure to further conflict, including in handovers
Emotional support
- Validate what the child felt and experienced
- Be explicit that the abuse was not their fault
- Listen without correcting, minimising or interrogating
- Allow emotions to be expressed safely, including anger
- Keep consistent boundaries — predictability is itself reassuring
Therapeutic support
- Trauma-focused CBT (TF-CBT)
- Play therapy for younger children
- Group work with children who have had similar experiences
- Creative therapies including art and music
- Family therapy only where it is safe and appropriate — never with the perpetrator present
Breaking the cycle
Why early intervention matters, and what makes the difference
Children who grow up with domestic abuse are at increased risk of experiencing or perpetrating abuse in their own relationships. That risk is not fixed. Protective factors and early intervention change outcomes measurably.
Protective factors
- A strong relationship with at least one safe, stable adult — the single most consistent protective factor
- Access to therapeutic support
- Education about healthy relationships
- Opportunities to process and make sense of what happened
- Positive role models
- Engagement in activities and peer groups outside the home
Supporting recovery
- Safety and stability as the foundation for everything else
- Trauma-informed approaches across school, health and home
- Supporting the non-abusing parent alongside the child — their recovery is part of the child’s
- Naming and addressing the abuse explicitly and age-appropriately, rather than avoiding it
- Building coping strategies and resilience
- Long-term support — recovery is not a single intervention
Support resources for children & families
NSPCC
0808 800 5000Child protection advice and support for any adult worried about a child. Free, 24/7.
nspcc.org.uk →Childline
0800 1111Free, confidential support for children and young people. 24/7, with online chat.
childline.org.uk →Live Fear Free (Wales)
0808 80 10 800The national helpline for Wales. Free, 24/7, Welsh or English. Text 07860 077333.
gov.wales/live-fear-free →National DA Helpline (England)
0808 2000 247Run by Refuge. Free, 24/7. Support for women and children, including refuge access.
nationaldahelpline.org.uk →YoungMinds Parents Helpline
0808 802 5544For parents and carers worried about a child or young person’s mental health.
youngminds.org.uk →Family Rights Group
0808 801 0366Advice for families involved with children’s services — child protection, care proceedings, kinship care.
frg.org.uk →The Hideout
Women’s Aid resource written for children and young people, explaining domestic abuse in accessible language.
thehideout.org.uk →Operation Encompass
The scheme through which police notify schools after a domestic abuse incident involving a child. Guidance for schools and parents.
operationencompass.org →Barnardo’s
Services for vulnerable children and families, including domestic abuse recovery work. Local services across the UK.
barnardos.org.uk →Place2Be
In-school counselling and mental health support for children, and support for the adults around them.
place2be.org.uk →Welsh Women’s Aid
Coordinates specialist domestic abuse services across Wales. Use their directory to find your local service.
Find your local service →PEGS
National specialist support for parents and carers experiencing child-to-parent abuse.
pegsupport.co.uk →Family court forms guide
The family court uses specific forms for different applications. Knowing which to use, and when, matters. You do not need a solicitor to apply, though legal advice is strongly recommended where you can get it. Legal aid is available for many domestic abuse family applications.
FL401 — Non-Molestation & Occupation Orders
Applies for a Non-Molestation Order (to stop the abuser contacting or threatening you) or an Occupation Order (regulating who lives in the family home).
- Can be made “without notice” in urgent cases — potentially the same day
- Legal aid is available for FL401 applications in domestic abuse cases, and the domestic abuse evidence requirements apply
- Breaching a Non-Molestation Order is a criminal offence
C100 — Child Arrangements Application
Applies for a Child Arrangements Order, Specific Issue Order or Prohibited Steps Order.
- Always file a C1A alongside it where domestic abuse is a factor
- Since 29 April 2024, MIAM exemption evidence must be filed with the application and will be examined by the court
- Cafcass or Cafcass Cymru will carry out safeguarding checks on receipt
C1A — Allegations of Harm
Completed alongside C100 where there are allegations of domestic abuse, harm to a child, or risk of harm. Sets out the nature of the abuse and its impact on you and the children.
- Do not skip this form — it is what triggers the court’s harm procedures under Practice Direction 12J
- Use your own words. Be specific and factual: dates, what was said, what the children saw or heard
- Cafcass or Cafcass Cymru will see this form and it informs their safeguarding checks
C8 — Confidential Contact Details
Keeps your address and contact details confidential from the other party. Critical where the abuser must not be able to find where you and the children are living.
- Submit at the same time as your C100 or FL401 — not afterwards
- Your details are held by the court only and are not shared with the other party
- Essential if you have moved to escape abuse. File it every time, on every application
Where to get the forms and help: all family court forms are free at gov.uk court and tribunal forms. Find a legal aid solicitor at find-legal-advice.justice.gov.uk. Free family law advice for women is available from Rights of Women — note the advice line runs restricted hours.
All resources by NAAVoices.com — survivor-led, trauma-informed, evidence-informed
