CAFCASS a 'disaster' because of unmet targets, say MPs

An influential Parliamentary committee has this week branded the Children and Family Court Advisory Service (CAFCASS) a near disaster owing to inadequate funding, management problems and disputes with self-employed guardians.

The Lord Chancellor's Department select committee said that although CAFCASS had done good work since its inception in 2001, it had been doomed from the beginning because it was rushed in without proper consideration as to how it should be run.

It highlighted particular concerns about delays in allocating guardians and reporters to cases.

'The target should be allocation within 48 hours, or sooner where necessary,' it said.

The committee recommended a fundamental review of the membership of CAFCASS's 'inexperienced' board.

It called on it to address staff shortages by allowing a 'mixed economy' of employed and self-employed practitioners, with more training for staff and implementation of a full case management system.

Committee chairman and Liberal Democrat MP Alan Beith said the body should adopt a complete culture change.

'CAFCASS is there to protect vulnerable children at a critical time in their lives, but its first two years have been close to disaster,' he said.

'It needs to dispel the impression that organisational priorities dominate its thinking and show that it is really putting children and young people first in all that it does.'

CAFCASS chief executive Jonathan Tross agreed that more could be done in training and recruitment, and said he hoped to work with other organisations in the system to improve the service and create a 'positive climate'.

But he regretted that the committee had placed so much emphasis on CAFCASS's history despite its acknowledgement that the views of witnesses, in many ways, reflected the CAFCASS of a year ago, not today.

Katherine Gieve, a partner at Bindman & Partners who gave evidence on behalf of the Solicitors Family Law Association, said that with adequate funding and a skilled workforce, CAFCASS could fulfil its objectives.

Paula Rohan