CAFCASS 'failing to represent children properly' due to shortage of guardians

DELAY: average waiting time for a guardian is 24 working days, Law Society survey finds

The Children and Family Court Advisory Service (CAFCASS) is failing to represent children properly because of a serious shortage of children's guardians, according to a survey of family lawyers.

The average waiting time for a children's guardian to be appointed is 24 working days, the Law Society survey of 800 children's panel members found.

This rises to more than 70 days in the north-east - almost 15 working weeks.

Almost a third of respondents (31%) said there had been no improvement over the last year, or that waiting times had actually increased.

Just 18% said that the waiting period had gone down.

Law Society President Carolyn Kirby said: 'We are seriously concerned about this shortage of appropriately qualified children's guardians who can deal with public law cases: solicitors are not in a position to undertake the guardian's role.'

In the current 'tandem' model of representation, the child is represented by both a solicitor and a guardian, who deals with welfare and protection issues.

Ms Kirby feared that this model would be eroded.

'The system must safeguard the best interests of children, and the guardian is central to the representation of the child and the conduct of their legal case.'

CAFCASS chief executive Jonathan Tross acknowledged that there are delays, but said the key constraint is availability of practitioners to do the work.

'To tackle that we have recruited more staff, increased fees for self-employed guardians, offered better terms to retain staff and are working with the judiciary to ensure more effective use of practitioners,' he said, adding that these changes should begin to have an effect soon.

He also said CAFCASS had allocated two-thirds of all public law cases within seven days over the last year and that there are wider causes for the delays, such as the increase in the number of care case requests, prolonged proceedings and local authority social worker capacity.

Victoria MacCallum