While most families can resolve their issues between themselves without the need to go to court, too many still end up in conflict – more than 60,000 private law children and contested finance cases ended up in the courts in 2022 alone.
Families encounter a justice system that can, at times, reinforce that conflict, pitting parents against each other to ‘win’ an unnecessary and destructive legal battle. Evidence clearly shows that these strung-out separations are especially damaging for children with effects that can last a lifetime.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is determined to change the justice system to support families to resolve their issues earlier and outside of court, where it is appropriate and safe to do so.
For the last two years the MoJ has worked with the Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE) to design and develop a new online tool for parents/carers to bring together authoritative information to support them when a dispute arises.
The ambition is that the information provided will be shaped by their individual circumstances and will make it easier for parents/carers to identify and access support services.
ACE undertook user research to identify the specific challenges that parents/carers faced in accessing accurate and trusted information, when the most appropriate point to receive that information was, and how to find information that was relevant to their individual needs.
Building on the user research where user needs and pain points were identified, ACE focused on developing prototypes for a ‘guided pathway’ that will help people to find the most appropriate options for them to resolve their child arrangement disputes.
Creating a guided pathway
Stakeholder engagement workshops were conducted across internal MoJ teams, cross government departments and wider ecosystem stakeholders of private family law, technology sectors and academia.
The aim of these workshops was to take the pain points identified and understand from the current ecosystem, what capabilities are required of a ‘one-stop shop’, and what existing and what future technologies can be leveraged to support this work.
These workshops lead to ACE developing two new digital services to provide early improvements for families.
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ACE prototyped and Alpha tested a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) AI chatbot, that allows users to ask questions in their own words and provides them with the correct advice and guidance at the right point in their journey. Chatbots are currently being trialled on GOV.U; due to sensitivities in family law ACE has been working closely with MoJ AI leads developing and testing safeguarding measures.
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Based on user-centred design and Government Digital Service principles, ACE has developed and deployed a self-help tool for making child arrangements plans (CAP) to enable conflict resolution, negating the need for attending court. The CAP service is currently in private Beta testing and initial results are positive; 17 new users and a 36% completion rate.
To encompass these new services, ACE developed a proof of concept (PoC) demonstrating how an AI-driven solution can address pain points and users’ needs within private family law.
The PoC aimed to simplify information and user tools access, centralise support, personalise guidance and enhance user confidence while ensuring scalability for broader government applications.
ACE also completed a full review of the relevant GOV.UK pages and established a “Content Team” to action updates to ensure families are aware of a broader range of ways to resolve disputes outside of court and strengthen how information appears in search engine results.
This has delivered quick wins, driving a 72% increase in user engagement time and an increase in usefulness ratings from 67% to 80%.
The MoJ also faced difficulties in effectively analysing court backlog data. Existing processes involved laborious manual data handling, complicated legal procedures, inconsistent data formats and prolonged delays, severely affecting timely decision-making.
By leveraging expertise in AI in government, ACE designed and developed a secure, sophisticated AI solution aimed at improving data accessibility, streamlining analysis and enhancing decision-making capabilities.
To deliver these innovative solutions, ACE worked with eight suppliers from the ACE community: Hackmasters, Wyser, Softwire, Servita, Accenture, Methods, Create Change and Solerius, often in rainbow teams, learning and innovating together.
