Cafcass in ‘meltdown’, report claims
The organisation tasked with safeguarding the interests of vulnerable children is in ‘meltdown’, a report has suggested.
However, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) has hit back at the claims, which it says are ‘not based on fact’ and undermine the good work being done by its frontline staff.
The National Union of Probation Officers (Napo) has claimed that Cafcass is in crisis, with ‘soaring’ caseloads, ‘chaotic’ working practices, increased delays and low morale.
It said the number of care proceedings has risen by 21% over the past 12 months and delays in preparing reports on children have now risen to 20 weeks rather than the usual 12 to 14 weeks.
In part Napo blamed the bureaucratic demands of Ofsted for diverting staff away from seeing children.
Helen Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, said: ‘The Cafcass frontline is in meltdown. Staff are struggling to cope with workloads and systems that are dysfunctional. Delays before completing reports are unacceptable and are impacting adversely on children. Staff complain they are constantly being monitored and inspected, which diverts them from work with families and children.’
Cafcass said Napo’s claims were not based on fact and were in danger of undermining the good work being done by frontline staff to manage the huge increase in casework.
Its chief executive Anthony Douglas said: ‘Cafcass is facing an unprecedented increase in demand for its services for vulnerable children and families. That much is accepted by all those working in the family justice system.’
He said blaming one part of the system missed the point that demand is at ‘an all-time high’, adding that under the new way of working introduced by the president of the Family Division, Cafcass operated a triage system to identify and focus on those children most in need of support.
But Christina Blacklaws, Law Society council representative for child care, said: ‘These are chronic and longstanding problems. A select committee report in 2003 criticised Cafcass for unacceptably long waiting times for children and families, and eight weeks ago the Ofsted inspection found the overall effectiveness of the service was inadequate… it’s not the frontline workers, but the organisation itself that is failing children.’
Comments
The British Judiciary was
The British Judiciary was once considered to be the greatest in the world. It was based on a concept of all been considered innocent until proven guilty.
Why was there ever a need to introduce a gang of Judges, Juries & Executioners to work independently from within?
CAFCASSs’ court representatives are neither legally nor medically qualified, but they are able to advise the family courts, based on individual’s own interpretations of accounts presented!
Apart from neglecting almost every Human Right in some instances, my personal experience of CAFCASS could only be described as a distinct abandonment of common sense and rational thinking!
The fact that it takes several months for CAFCASS to complete the most rudimentary reports is now almost forgivable. At lease during the unexplained lengthy delays, CAFCASS cannot cause anymore damage…
Now CAFCASS involvement with the UK Family Courts all are viewed guilty without, without the need to prove otherwise. No need to explain interpretations and absolutely no possibility to scrutinise and judgement retrospectively.
JUST ANOTHER OF OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES ERODED!
Make a friend of a CAFCASS
Make a friend of a CAFCASS Worker or Social Worker and between the two of you, you could choose a child from the High Street work the system and the child could be yours within months, the whole system is wide open to Abuse and it certainly is abused, overworked, overworked my
Aunt F***y
CAFCASS ARE A NIGHTMARE!
2 months ago my ex-partner had stopped me from seeing my son for 7 months in total.
5 Moths after I started Court proceedings to re-gain contact. A court representative advised me, that cafcass would recommend supervised visits in a contact centre.
I naturally, asked the representative; how could that be possible, had she read all the papers and evidence previously submitted to the Court? She answered “No”
I then asked; on what ground can cafcass recommend supervised contact?
She then replied, “I will not have you shouting at me.” Then she asked me to leave the Court office. Needless to say my hearing was then immediately adjourned by the Judge, pending the cafcass report.
2 months later and I have still not seen my son! And guess what? No report from cafcass.
I still don’t understand or have had any explanation of why/how my son benefits from not having any contact with his father for over 9 months now.
How is this putting the child first?
Cafcass has a duty of care, but to whom exactly?
Where is the accountability?
Who picks up the pieces years later? Cafcass2?
Ignoring the unexplained lengthy delays, how can we have our civil liberties and human rights bypassed by such a shambles.