Delay for children as result of longer case durations is “single most pressing issue” for family justice system, warns Cafcass in new strategic plan

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) has published its strategic plan for 2023-26, in which it warns that delay for children as a result of longer case durations is now the “single most pressing issue” for the family justice system.

Ambitious for Children, published last week (8 November), sets out the organisation’s strategic ambitions on practice, people and partners.

Looking at its progress in relation to practice, Cafcass noted that while the number of new children’s cases is reducing (there were 10.9% fewer applications in the year 2022-23 compared to 2019-20), the number of open children’s cases has increased and they are taking longer to close.

However, the quality and impact of practice with children and families has “continued to improve” - evidenced in feedback, practice quality audits and quality assurance data, Cafcass suggested.

Cafcass’ Practice ambition is to provide all children and young people with an “exceptional experience, everywhere and every time”.

The strategic plan sets out that this will be achieved by:

• Making further improvements to practice by using the Together for Children and Families practice framework and practice and management quality standards as a foundation.
• Actively and regularly asking for feedback from the children and families.
• Sharing recommendations with children and their families where this is in children’s best interests, giving them an opportunity to express their views in response.
• Offering effective management support, supervision and oversight.
• More efficiently and consistently progressing children’s cases from application to decision.

Looking at its progress in relation to people, Cafcass said that it has introduced a wider range of reward and recognition options.

The organisation also developed an updated Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Strategy with “more explicit objectives”.

Cafcass noted it has managed increasing staff turnover, which for its social work employees is 15% and for its business and corporate services teams is 12%.

Cafcass said: “Our People ambition is to provide the leadership, professional development and working environment our people need. We will invest in career and learning pathways, maximise our reward, recognition and wellbeing offer and build capability to drive efficiency, further improvement and system reform.”

The priorities to achieve this outlined in the strategic plan include:

• Attracting, retaining and engaging diverse, skilled and highly motivated people.
• Providing flexible, in-person and online working environments that enable people to do their best work in effective, well-led, and well-connected teams.
• Working to enable leaders to remain visible, effective and clear in their decisions about strategic priorities and how teams will achieve them.

Lastly, turning to its Partner progress, Cafcass warned that delay for children as a result of longer case durations is now the “single most pressing issue” for the family justice system.

The average length of Cafcass involvement in public law care and supervision proceedings is 46 weeks (+10 weeks compared to March 2020), and in private law work after first hearing is 61 weeks (+22 weeks compared to March 2020), the organisation revealed.

Cafcass noted that it has been developing data on court outcomes, starting with an analysis of what happens to children at the end of public law care proceedings.

The work identified that in just over a third of section 31 care proceedings, but with “significant” local variation, children remain or return to the care of their parents.

Cafcass said: “Our Partner ambition is to continue to collaborate and to work together on system recovery, specifically delay for children in proceedings.

“We will also seek the views and perspectives of partners on improving children’s and families’ experiences of proceedings and associated support services."

One of Cafcass’s key priorities, it stated, is to reduce delays in all types of proceedings and conclude more children’s public law cases within 26 weeks in support of the Public Law Outline (PLO).

Other priorities include:

• Improving the experience of children and families in proceedings where domestic abuse is known or alleged.
• Making recommendations for how children should be told the outcome of their proceedings.
• Working closely and clearly with partners to make more positive changes in support of national Family Justice Board priorities.

Jacky Tiotto, Cafcass Chief Executive said: "The priorities we have confirmed in this new strategic plan for 2023 - 2026 are rightly ambitious for children, their families and carers. I am so pleased that we are able to share our 2023-26 strategic plan, Ambitious for Children, with you all and in so doing, set out how we intend to build on the unrelenting commitment and work of everyone who works at and partners with Cafcass.

“As you all know, our key responsibilities include safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in proceedings, supporting our family court advisers and children’s guardians to assess what life is like for children and to advise the family court about what is in their best interests. We want to do this well for children, every time and everywhere. We asked children what they thought this would mean we need to carry on doing and what we need to change. Their words form the basis of our plan and the associated priorities. As ever, we feel privileged to serve them to try to offer them and their families an exceptional experience when they need our help.”

Lottie Winson