NW council names chambers to £468k childcare advocacy contract

Halton Borough Council has appointed St Johns Building chambers to a contract worth almost half a million pounds for advocacy in care proceedings and private law children cases.

The authority said it had issued 48 sets of care proceedings in 2013. At the end of that year, Halton had 31 ongoing cases in comparison to 20 ongoing cases at the end of 2012 and 21 ongoing cases at the end of 2011.

So far this year the council has issued 22 care cases to date. “An increase in caseloads has clearly been experienced,” it said.

Halton added that the approximate split of work had generally been two thirds dealt with by district and circuit judges and one third dealt with by magistrates.

The estimated total value of the contract is £468,000. The contract was awarded on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender in terms of price (weighting: 40) and quality (weighting: 60).