Press Release - Cafcass’s response to increased
demand for its services
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.
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said
today:
"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.”
Notes for Editors
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Cafcass was formed in 2001 from three bodies:
the Family Court Welfare Service, the Guardian ad Litem services
and the children’s division of The Office of the Official
Solicitor.
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Cafcass has two main strands of work: public
law and private law. Public law cases arise when local authorities
make care applications, the courts then appoint a Cafcass family
court adviser to represent the interests of the child and to
scrutinize the local authority’s care plan. In June 2010 Cafcass
had 12,500 open care cases. Private law cases arise mostly when
separating parents cannot agree on contact or residence
arrangements for their children. In June 2010 there were 28,500
open private law cases.
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Press notices and reports are available from
the date of publication on the NAO website, which is at http://www.nao.org.uk/. Hard copies
can be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702 3474.
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The Comptroller and Auditor General, Amyas
Morse, is the head of the National Audit Office which employs some
900 staff. He and the NAO are totally independent of Government. He
certifies the accounts of all Government departments and a wide
range of other public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority
to report to Parliament on the economy, efficiency and
effectiveness with which departments and other bodies have used
their resources.
Press Notice 51/10
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7798 5339
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