"Cafcass’s ability to respond to the surge in
demand for its services was limited by the known problems within
the organisation which, had management made more and faster
progress in dealing with them, could have reduced the negative
effect of the rise in demand.
“Cafcass’s transformation
programme brings together plans for major organisational
improvements and offers the opportunity to improve its capacity and
responsiveness to future fluctuations in demand. However, the
programme needs further work if Cafcass is to rise to the enormous
challenge it still faces and improve how it serves vulnerable
children and families.”
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, 28 July
2010
The Children and Family Court Advisory and
Support Service (Cafcass) could have responded more quickly and
cost effectively to the large and sustained increase in care cases
from local authorities following the Baby Peter tragedy, had it
fully resolved known organisational challenges, according to a
report today by the National Audit Office. But Cafcass’s management
could not have predicted the sustained increase in care cases from
November 2008. In April 2009 they realised that the flow of care
cases was not slowing and that they had to act.
Cafcass had to deal with an extra 200 new care
cases each month from November 2008 – around 40 per cent more.
Simultaneously, the courts needed advice on hundreds more children
involved in family breakdowns. Consequently, the allocation of
dedicated family court advisers to children’s cases slowed, and
delays in providing advice to the courts increased. Between
November 2008 and July 2009, the number of children involved in
care and other public law proceedings without a dedicated family
court adviser grew from around 250 to 1,250. Delays in allocating
family court advisers can cause stress to children and
families.
Cafcass was not well placed to respond
efficiently and effectively because it had only partly resolved
known organisational challenges around management information, IT
systems and staff engagement by the time demand started to
increase.
Cafcass increased its capacity and, between
August 2009 and June 2010, reduced the proportion of children
without a family court adviser, from 10 per cent to 2 per cent in
care cases and from 34 per cent to 5 per cent in family breakdown
cases. The Department allowed Cafcass to bring forward £4.6 million
from the 2009-10 and 2010-11 budgets and gave Cafcass an extra £4.8
million. The cost increases do not represent a failure of value for
money.
Cafcass continues to face enormous challenges in meeting the
needs of vulnerable children and has responded with a major rethink
of how it manages their cases. It is now implementing a £10 million
transformation programme that should allow it to improve how it
deals with future fluctuations in demand. In order to be
successful, these changes will require greater organisational
cohesiveness and improvements in staff morale.
Publication details:
HC: 289, 2010-2011
ISBN: 9780102965452