Local authorities too quick to bring care proceedings says NAPO leader as CAFCASS strike ballot looms
An overzealous approach among local authorities to bringing proceedings following the baby P case is one of the overwhelming causes for the soaring caseloads faced by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo) has claimed.
Harry Fletcher, Assistant General Secretary of family court union Napo, told LGL the soaring workloads and low morale faced by Cafcass members are “overwhelmingly” a result of local authorities bringing proceedings too quickly.
Compounding to the problem is Ed Balls’ public handling of the situation and vilification of social workers by the press, which did more harm to the reputation of social workers, he said.
“You can’t blame social workers because of the way they have been vilified in the papers,” he added.
According to Napo, following the baby Peter case, many CAFCASS guardians saw a 70% increase in average caseloads from 12 to 20. The rise is even higher in some metropolitan areas.
In a parliamentary briefing paper published on 7 December 2009, Napo outlines the unprecedented crisis faced by Cafcass as a consequence of mounting workloads. Napo expressed concern that child protection issues are suffering because of the meltdown.
“Social workers are being forced to handle cases that should be dealt with face-to-face over the phone,” Fletcher claimed.
In London, NAPO says that cost-saving measures are to blame for managers not utilising the self-employed guardians - which represent around half of the London workforce – meaning that permanent employees have had to take on an additional 400 cases in recent weeks, creating a backlog of a further 250 cases already built up.
Adding extra pressure on staff are the numerous inspections and reviews such as those conducted by Ofsted. In order to address the current crisis, Cafcass chief executive Anthony Douglas announced just over £2.5 million in funding earlier this week, £1.6 million of which would be allocated to addressing the current caseload.
But Fletcher described this funding as “a drop in the ocean” and pointed out that the funding is coming out of next year’s budget, potentially resulting in a deficit post April 2010.
The briefing, ‘Cafcass in Crisis’ was sent by the cross-Party Family Court Unions’ Parliamentary Group and is currently before MPs and Members of the House of Lords.
