Family Justice System

Our work within the Family Justice System involves intervention with any children who have been removed from their parents or family.

These may be either on Interim Care Orders or Voluntary Care Orders (Section 20).  JSA provides Expert Witness Assessments to assist the Court in decision making. These are full Psychological Assessments or Psychotherapeutic Assessments of any adults, children or families involved. In all cases, assessment is instructed by a formal Court Order.

Psychological assessments are conducted by our Chartered Independent Psychologists. As part of their work they will carry out cognitive assessment and personality profiling of the client to assess emotional and psychological wellbeing. Our Child Psychologists will work specifically with anyone up to the age of 16, our Clinical Psychologists will work with cases regarding mental health, and our Forensic Psychologists will work with cases regarding criminal behaviours, sexual offending, and/or non-accidental injury.

Psychotherapeutic assessments involve the expert witness from our team carrying out an assessment of a client’s capacity to engage in a programme of therapy. This is followed by a formulation of appropriate treatment planning for them, including identification of the most appropriate model of therapy.  The assessment can be carried out on any member of the family, whether child, adolescent, or adult.  It can also be carried out across the family as a whole.

It is important that each member of our team uphold the most professional of standards and qualifications in their fields, and retain ongoing access to training and updated/innovative models of treatment. This is particularly of those acting as as expert witnesses.  Our Court Skills training programme ensures that every member of JSA is as skilled, confident and professional in providing the court with informed decisions as they are within their own clinical practice.

The onus is always on the therapist to keep abreast of changes and developments in their area, and we encourage them to personally deliver training. We believe that our team must remain actively practising clinicians in the field in order to do the best by their clients.