Cafcass: A year of innovation and good performance
20 July 2006
Cafcass today presents to Parliament its annual report for
2005-2006. In its annual report, “A Voice for Children”, Cafcass
reports on its performance and the development of new services for
children and their families involved in cases in the family
courts.
Introducing the report, Chief Executive
Anthony Douglas outlined Cafcass’ major achievements for the
year:
“We balanced our budget and delivered
efficiency savings while the cases we worked on became more complex
and the number of public law (care) cases increased. The demands
onCafcass are changing. We are modernising our practice to develop
early intervention and conflict resolution services to deliver
better outcomes for the children and families we work with at a
critical stage in their lives. In the coming year we will be
developing new national standards to ensure all our work is at the
level of the very best”.
Chair of the Cafcass Board, Baroness Jill
Pitkeathley OBE said:
“No organisation is more committed to
providing the best possible service to vulnerable children. The
children we work with need and deserve the most efficient as well
as the most effective service we can deliver and we are determined
to ensure they receive it.”
Key points:
- Cafcass promoted the interests of 61,239
children involved in legal proceedings in 2005-2006. If children
involved in dispute resolution work are included the figure is
nearer 100,000.
- The overall number of court applications
involving Cafcass is reducing but the number of public law
(care) cases is increasing – up 4.7%. The reduction in private law
cases (disputes between parents) is a welcome consequence of new
approaches to dispute resolution – down 7.2%. However, Cafcass
practitioner capacity is fully absorbed by the demands of the
complexity of public law and complex private law cases involving
the separate representation of young people.