Suffering from cuts

I read with interest the comment made by district judge Roger Bird (see [2001] Gazette, 12 April, 35) on the difficulties being experienced in setting up the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS).

As a member of the Society's children panel, I have been intimately concerned with the progress of the negotiations that led up to its formation.It is right that the CAFCASS service merges the entirely separate services provided for children previously delivered by the Court Welfare Service and the Guardians ad litem and Reporting Officers (GALRO).

It is also right that the government announced that there would be no new money and that the services were expected to merge utilising the budgets set aside for them as before.One of the difficulties is that the budget for the GALRO service has never been fixed.

All children panel lawyers know why.

The cases that involve GALRO are those that concern the most vulnerable, abused and disadvantaged children in our society, and no-one has yet been able to plan expenditure and make provision exactly either on a case-by-case basis or by area.

The representations made by GALRO have been supported by the judiciary and have always concentrated on the need for the service to be independent, in order to preserve the independent expert status of the guardian as a witness for the court, and to ensure quality.

It is only those who are the most experienced social workers and child care specialists who have been able to fulfil that role.

But the Lord Chancellor's department now seeks to introduce financial certainty by limiting the funds payable for each case on a fixed fee basis, thus putting at risk all those points previously accepted.

It is not correct that most guardians are self employed.

Those who are employed are provided with support.

Self-employment means what it says and the service benefits from those who have other roles in the social field.

The Lord Chancellor is using this tactic to reduce costs.

Is it right that these children should suffer the cuts? Peta Malthouse, Hart Brown, Guildford, Surrey