Guardians warn Cafcass attempts to tackle backlogs pose new risks to children

Emergency measures brought in to deal with backlogs and delays following the sharp rise in child protection proceedings are posing new risks for already highly vulnerable children, the national association of children guardians warned this week.

The chair of Nagalro, Ann Haigh, said its report Time for Children “tells a sad story of skilled and experienced frontline staff demoralised by excessive bureaucracy and oppressive management.”

Nagalro said its research raised serious worries that the changes are damaging the effectiveness of the service. Cafcass is also failing to make the most cost-effective use of the available professional and financial resources, it added.

Among the issues identified are:

• The voice of the child in care proceedings is being lost: more than 80% of respondents said they were now being instructed to prioritise tasks other than their core work they want to do with and for the child
• Duty systems introduced to deal with backlogs are potentially leaving ‘paper children’ at risk: respondents described managers instructing frontline staff to undertake an arms-length, paper exercise of risk assessment where the child is often not seen
• Misuse of scarce resources: Some 40% of the 496 cases reported on were unallocated for more than two months when they should have had a children’s guardian within 48 hours. “Poor workforce management meant that 70% of the self-employed workforce who responded had spare capacity to take on new cases but were not being used, whilst the employed staff were being overloaded with work,” Nagalro said.

Nagalro’s Haigh claimed the role of children’s guardian was being fatally weakened by Cafcass’ changes.

She added: “The confused messages from Cafcass about what constitutes a ‘safe minimum service’ can lead to potentially dangerous practice. Nagalro believes that there are more constructive alternative approaches to making the best use of the resources available.”

Nagalro said it planned to make a positive contribution to the government’s recently announced review of the family justice system.