Learning from the Private Law Pathfinder Pilot Evaluations  

Thursday 30th April  2026, 9:30 - 11:00am

Speakers: Dr Charlotte Barlow, Dr Clare Scollay and Dr Helen Richardson Foster

SIG Chair: Dr Helen Richardson-Foster, University of Central Lancashire

This webinar will present findings from the two evaluations of the Private Law Pathfinder Pilot conducted by Dr Charlotte Barlow and team at the University of Lancashire.

In 2020, the UK Government published the Harm Panel Report which highlighted how family courts and child arrangement proceedings often increased existing domestic abuse and led to traumatisation of adult and child victim-survivors. Subsequently, two pilot Pathfinder Integrated Domestic Abuse Courts were established to improve the experiences for families in child arrangement disputes in private family law. The model is designed to bring a more problem solving, investigative approach which enables the system to ensure the voices and experiences of children are central to the decision making.

The webinar will include reflections from a two-stage evaluation of these courts, incorporating the perspectives of professionals working across the two areas and families who have been through the Pathfinder process. The presentation will focus on the extent to which the new process has improved the court experience for families and reduced re-traumatisation for victim-survivors of domestic abuse.  

Special Interest Group | Domestic Violence and Abuse

Practitioners understanding of technology-facilitated violence and abuse (TFVA)

Thursday 26th February  2026, 9:30 - 11:00am

SIG Chairs: Dr Helen Richardson-Foster, University of Central Lancashire & Professor Michaela Rogers, The University of Sheffield

Speaker: Dr Loren Parton

Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is a specific form of technology-facilitated violence and abuse (TFVA).

Whilst scholarship in this area is growing, and has value in drawing into focus the ways that technology is shifting the mode and means of harm, it is also uncovering issues in terms of practice and policy responses. This presentation reports the findings of a study conducted in 2025 in which a range of practitioners were interviewed on the topic of TFVA and IBSA to understand their professional experiences and knowledge around this type of abuse.

Implications for practice and policy are that, although IBSA appears to be prevalent, frontline practitioners are not equipped to respond confidently nor effectively, suggesting a training need and research to inform the multidisciplinary practice contexts that respond to IBSA.