Cafcass reports significant increase in care applications
Neil Puffett
Monday, October 19, 2020
The number of applications for children to be taken into care rose to the highest level in four years during September, Cafcass has revealed.
Cafcass received 1,499 new public law cases in September featuring 2,335 children - an increase of 7.5 per cent (104 cases) and an increase of 5.7 per cent (125 children) on the 1,395 public law cases received and the 2,210 children in those cases in September 2019.
It is the highest number of cases recorded for the month of September since 2016 (1,546), and the second highest September total on record since data was first collected in 2003.
The rise comes after a substantial reduction in new public law cases during the height of Covid lockdown restrictions earlier this year.
In April, there were 1,359 new applications for children to be taken into care - a fall of 9.8 per cent on the 1,506 recorded in April 2019.
There was an even steeper drop in May when there were 1,433 new applications - a fall of 11.4 per cent on the 1,618 recorded in May 2019.
Overall, the total for the first six months (April to September) of 2020/21 is continuing a downward trend with 9,214 new applications recorded for the period compared with 9,321 in 2019/20.
There were 9,548 applications for the first six months of 2016/17 and 9,415 in 2017/18.
Earlier this month, Ministry of Justice figures revealed that the average duration of care proceedings rose by around three weeks during the height of lockdown, while the number of domestic abuse cases was the highest on record.
Charities have previously warned that very young children, including unborn babies, are at greater risk due to scaled-back support services for vulnerable families as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
