HM Courts & Tribunals Service today welcomed attendees to its headquarters for the third public user event, ‘A future court and tribunal service built for users’. The 2019 event blended a combination of jurisdictional and thematic presentations, with the traditional project-led ‘market stalls’ that have been a feature of previous years.
In addition to covering the latest from the civil, family, tribunals and crime programmes, we acted upon user feedback to get to the heart of answering key questions such as how the programme supports users to access justice, how we will measure if Reform has succeeded, and what going to court will look like in the future.
Through our reform programme, we are redressing the imbalance in areas where members of the public can benefit most from new ways to access justice or redesigned services. A lot of this is done through work we do with a network of organisations – often from the third sector – who specialise in understanding the needs of particular groups of people or who support them when they come to court.
This annual event is an opportunity to showcase how this collaboration has shaped reformed services, and is another way that we are listening to and considering the many and varied needs of our public users.
HMCTS Customer Director Sidonie Kingsmill addressed attendees to open the event, whilst High Court judge Mr Justice Knowles brought proceedings to a close for another year, with his reflections on the day.
During her speech, Sidonie reflected:
Through the HMCTS reform programme we are constantly exploring ways in which we can make the system more accessible. An accessible system is one that is easy to use for everyone, and removes barriers of complexity and delay. We will provide multichannel services and users can choose the right channel for them at any given time.
While we know lots of people prefer online processes – they find them easier and more convenient – we also know there are people who are only able to, or prefer to start their process on paper. So we’re improving paper forms alongside the online process, allowing a better all-round experience of the court or tribunal process for everybody.
Event reflections
During the day, there were several speeches and presentations given by senior leaders from across the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS, who gave their reflections on the event and why continuing to put people at the heart of the reform programme is so vital to its success.
Sidonie Kingsmill and Mr Justice Knowles discuss the event
Presentations
Attendees were given the opportunity to choose from a range of presentations to attend throughout the day, depending on what was most relevant to them. The slide decks from these presentations are below.
Factsheets
Project representatives from across the reform programme were on hand throughout the day to discuss the latest developments in their services with attendees, and listen to their feedback. The factsheets from each of these projects are available to read below (accurate as of 5 November 2019)
Crime
Civil
Family
Tribunals
Cross-Jurisdictional
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