The Courts Service: Future State Family Law Buildings and Facilities
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The Courts Service: Future State Family Law Buildings and Facilities
Source: Action Plan for Designing Better Public Services
The Courts Service ten-year Modernisation Programme commenced in 2020. An aspect of transforming how the Courts Service delivers services includes adopting new ollaborative ways of working, taking a court-user centred approach and making evidence-based decisions. One of the workstreams of the Programme focuses on Family Law Reform. Its vision is for a system focused on best outcomes that empowers people, children and families to take the best path for their individual circumstances. To take account of the Modernisation programme and learning from our response to Covid-19, the team were tasked with developing a future state for Family Law buildings that identified user need but was not an architectural specification.
Approach
Over a 4-week period, using both agile project methodology and a design approach, three key activities were performed: requirements gathering, design workshops and user testing / feedback. Design principles were agreed for the work. The type of spaces needed were categorised. Pain points and insights were gathered through interviews with a wide range of people including Courts Service staff, judiciary, legal practitioners, members of the public and related support services. Data was also gathered in relation to court application types and building usage.
Key issues such as uncomfortable waiting areas, lack of privacy, lack of space and poor signage were identified. Workshops, using detailed personas and journey maps, were held with key stakeholder groups to validate future state requirements. All feedback and additional insights were incorporated into the final document.
As part of the final output, detailed cards for each of the 31 spaces identified were developed. Information includes the purpose, user type, space requirements, adjacency considerations and any other key points to note.
Impact
The Future State Document was adopted by the Courts Service Building Committee, to be used to inform design or redesign of family law court buildings and the individual spaces within them.
The future state design document has been used to inform the design of the new Dublin Family Courts, located at Hammond Lane. This will be the first purpose-built Family Law court building in Ireland
Meeting pods have recently been installed as a pilot in Limerick Court office to support family court users to have more privacy when engaging with their legal practitioner/support worker.