Children's Workforce Guide to Qualifications and Training: Family courts

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), the largest employer of social workers in England, recently won a Public Service People Managers' Association award for its approach to recruitment, reward and retention. The organisation focuses on open days and online assessments to identify the most suitable candidates, and give applicants an idea of what working for Cafcass is like.

Cafcass family court advisers work across both private and public law in 18 service areas across the country. When working on care cases the Cafcass worker is known as a children's guardian, making sure the child's voice is heard. Enhanced practitioners within local teams provide additional support to managers through supervision and quality assurance of work.

Family court advisers must have a Health and Care Professions Council-recognised qualification in social work, and a minimum of three years post-qualifying experience. Once working for Cafcass they receive ongoing training, including induction training days and e-learning, delivered by Cafcass's National Improvement Service.

The family court landscape is in constant flux, and training needs to help practitioners keep up with legislative changes and topical issues. "New things are always being thrown up, and it is important to get information to people as and when it comes up," says Helen Abbotts, national improvement manager at Cafcass.

E-learning courses on the organisation's online platform MySkills can be accessed at any time and are updated on a rolling basis to cover the latest issues. Trafficking, child sexual exploitation and radicalisation are three key areas of training, and all new staff must take the e-learning course on CSE. Ambassador groups and staff conferences ensure learning in these areas is regularly shared.

Last year Cafcass launched a three-day parenting and attachment capacity course that has been delivered to more than 300 staff members, and this will be repeated next year. The NSPCC delivered a "train the trainer" course on neglect to 35 staff, who will cascade their learning throughout the organisation. Cafcass has also developed off-the-shelf two-hour training packages, which can be delivered to regional teams. Topics include learning from serious case reviews and understanding Muslim families.

Social work managers are supported through a management development programme, comprising six modules every year. "We add topical modules, such as managing remote teams," says human resources manager Julie Bury. "Our social workers increasingly work from home, which presents challenges to managers."

Most people who want to ask the court to decide a family issue now have to see an authorised family mediator to talk through the options before issuing an application. Mediators need to have been qualified to degree level in the field of family law, social science or therapy/counselling, and must have spent at least half their time working within family law or with families or couples. Mediators must also have successfully completed approved training courses, with specialised courses available for those who wish to practice directly with children. From the beginning of 2015, mediators have had to gain accreditation by the Family Mediation Council within three years of their initial family mediation training.