Union and Cafcass renew war of words over workloads, head office costs
Hostilities between NAPO and Cafcass have broken out again after the union claimed that the family court service was in “meltdown”.
NAPO released a report claiming that frontline staff were struggling with workloads after a 21% rise in care proceedings over the last 12 months. The union said Cafcass had become increasingly reliant on agency workers, with three operational areas spending £3.8m on their services between April and October 2009.
The report pointed out that Cafcass’ head office budget had tripled in four years, with the number of staff more than doubling in this time.
NAPO said that:
- Staff in different parts of the country report that work practices are now “chaotic”
- In several offices staff have been told that cases where the court report filing date has passed should be closed. “Administrative staff have been instructed therefore to close the files, even when it is clear that the cases have not been allocated nor has a report for the court been prepared”
- The allocation of work has been severely impacted by a wave of resignations.
The union also criticised the timescales set by Cafcass for completing different cases as being inaccurate.
In a statement NAPO said: “The Cafcass front line 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 that they are being monitored and inspected, which diverts them from work with families and children.
“The threefold growth in expenditure by the centre is therefore quite extraordinary. If ministers reduce the bureaucracy at head office to the level of three years ago, this will make available 180,000 additional hours for frontline practitioners.”
Cafcass dismissed NAPO’s claims as “baseless”, arguing that it is making good progress in tackling the unprecedented increase in cases. It also warned that the union risked undermining the good work being done by frontline Cafcass practitioners.
Chief executive Anthony Douglas said all those working in the family justice system accepted that demand was at an all-time high.
He said: “The President of the Family Court Division introduced a new way of working so that Cafcass could work on more cases and focus on those children and families most in need of support.
“We operate a triaging system whereby we guarantee an initial safeguarding analysis for all children rather than providing a premium service for a smaller number of children. All public bodies have to use taxpayer resources wisely and as our figures show our efforts to tackle the increase in cases are yielding results.”
Cafcass said it was disappointed that NAPO was unhappy, particularly as it has just signed a workload agreement with its trade union partners.
The family court service also described NAPO’s figures as “incorrect”, adding that some were taken out of context. Staff turnover is one of the lowest in the children’s social care sector, while its increased spend on its head office was part of a drive to save money through centralisation and reduced duplication.
Cafcass pointed out that the number of unallocated cases would have been higher had it not used agency workers.
