Cafcass failed to deal with surge in caseloads, says audit office report
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) has been criticised for failing to swiftly deal with a surge in its caseload following the Baby Peter scandal.
A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) said that Cafcass could have responded more quickly and cost effectively to the surge in cases.
The NAO concedes that Cafcass could not have predicted the increase, which started in November 2008, but it was not until six months later that it realised the increase was not slowing down.
The report says that Cafcass was also "not well placed to respond efficiently and effectively" as it had not properly resolved a major organisational change of teams and IT systems.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: "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."
The service had to deal with an extra 200 new care cases a month from November 2008. As a result, the allocation of court advisers slowed down and there were delays in advice being given to courts.
Between November 2008 and July 2009 the number of children involved in care proceedings without a dedicated court adviser grew from 250 to 1,250.
The report acknowledges steps taken from July last year to tackle this backlog and Cafcass is now involved in a £10m project to improve the way it deals with future surges in demand.
But the NAO warns that Cafcass will need to ensure its management and organisation are better co-ordinated. It also calls on Cafcass to improve staff morale.
Among those to give evidence to NAO was family court union Napo, which criticised efforts by Cafcass to address backlogs. It also said that advisers were spending 80 per cent of their time on paperwork rather than with families and children.
Cafcass chief executive Anthony Douglas said: "The NAO has recognised the steps that we have taken to improve our ability to provide a service to so many more children than ever before.
"In June this year, 11,243 care cases were allocated to a Cafcass children’s guardian. That’s 2,496 more care cases than in July last year and a 28.5 per cent increase in our allocated care case workload."
The NAO concedes that Cafcass could not have predicted the increase, which started in November 2008, but it was not until six months later that it realised the increase was not slowing down.
The report says that Cafcass was also "not well placed to respond efficiently and effectively" as it had not properly resolved a major organisational change of teams and IT systems.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: "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."
The service had to deal with an extra 200 new care cases a month from November 2008. As a result, the allocation of court advisers slowed down and there were delays in advice being given to courts.
Between November 2008 and July 2009 the number of children involved in care proceedings without a dedicated court adviser grew from 250 to 1,250.
The report acknowledges steps taken from July last year to tackle this backlog and Cafcass is now involved in a £10m project to improve the way it deals with future surges in demand.
But the NAO warns that Cafcass will need to ensure its management and organisation are better co-ordinated. It also calls on Cafcass to improve staff morale.
Among those to give evidence to NAO was family court union Napo, which criticised efforts by Cafcass to address backlogs. It also said that advisers were spending 80 per cent of their time on paperwork rather than with families and children.
Cafcass chief executive Anthony Douglas said: "The NAO has recognised the steps that we have taken to improve our ability to provide a service to so many more children than ever before.
"In June this year, 11,243 care cases were allocated to a Cafcass children’s guardian. That’s 2,496 more care cases than in July last year and a 28.5 per cent increase in our allocated care case workload."
