It may be less than six months into the current financial year, butfunding difficulties are already appearing at the Children and FamilyCourt Advisory Service (Cafcass).
The organisation believes it is facing a cash shortfall of up to 4m in the current financial year, thanks to the Government's decision tofreeze its budget, coupled with a rise in demand for its services.
The funding gap has prompted Anthony Douglas, Cafcass's chief executive,to write to junior children's minister Maria Eagle to ask for extra cashto protect its work.
The alternative is likely to be cuts in spending that could forceCafcass to ditch planned improvements to its computer systems, increasestaff workloads and introduce a recruitment freeze. It also has thepotential to force Cafcass to give staff a below-inflation pay rise.
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