Written evidence submitted by the Children
and Family Court Advisory and Support Service CAFCASS (CAF 24)
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 CAFCASS was set up from 1 April 2001
as an national executive Non Departmental Public Body for England
and Wales to provide services that support children in family
law proceedings. We bring together work previously undertaken
in three separate services—the Family Court Welfare Service,
Guardians Ad Litem and Reporting Officers, and the Children's
Division of the Official Solicitor.
1.2 The first year, in particular, was not
easy for us. We faced a range of problems stemming from the challenge
of set-up, judicial review proceedings brought by the National
Association of Guardians Ad Litem and Reporting Officers (NAGALRO)
on behalf of our self employed guardians over proposed changes
to their contracts, budget uncertainty, and a lack of infrastucture.
However, over the last year we have made significant progress
on a number of key issues.
1.3 This memorandum provides more information
about what has happened in our first two years.
2. THE STRATEGIC
FRAMEWORK IN
WHICH CAFCASS OPERATES
2.1 We contribute to the Lord Chancellor's
aims and objectives for family justice. The relevant objective
in the current Public Service Agreement is:
— "To increase continued contact
between children and the non-resident parent after a family breakdown,
where this is in the best interests of the child".
2.2 The relevant objective in the Public
Service Agreement published in July 2002 as part of the Spending
Review 2002 outcome is:
— "Reduce social exclusion, protect
the vulnerable and children, including maintaining contact between
children and the non-resident parent after a family breakdown,
where appropriate."
2.3 In addition the Lord Chancellor has
set us six key objectives: In establishing, developing and maintaining
the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, CAFCASS
will:
Key Objective 1
Represent, safeguard and promote the welfare
of children involved in family court proceedings. It will aim
to deliver demonstrable improvements in the outcomes of the child's
experience of the CAFCASS intervention and develop, in consultation
with the department, effective measures to monitor and demonstrate
this.
Key Objective 2
Improve the services offered to the family courts.
There should be demonstrable improvements in the timeliness and
quality of the advice and support given to courts. CAFCASS should
develop and agree with the department ways for this to be monitored
and assessed, including a proxy of quality.
Key Objective 3
To improve the efficiency and effectiveness
of the services offered through increased value for money. Any
resources thus freed can be used to improve quality, extend services
or fund additional provision of core services.
Key Objective 4
To improve the services offered to families
and other key stakeholders. There should be demonstrable and measurable
improvements in the services offered, for example, through improved
access to information. Again, effective measures of performance
should be developed in consultation with the department.
Key Objective 5
To develop the skills of staff. CAFCASS should
develop and implement personnel policies and training/development
strategies that are fair and allow all officers and staff to fulfil
their potential, individually and collectively, to contribute
most effectively to the aims of the organisation. The process
of harmonisation of skills and terms of the various officers brought
together under CAFCASS should begin by the beginning of Year 2.
Key Objective 6
CAFCASS should play a full role in delivering
the wider government agenda of improvements in service. It should
have in place plans and mechanisms to deliver key government objectives
such as Chartermark, Investors in People, modernising government
etc.
2.4 We are accountable, through our Chairman
and Board, to the Lord Chancellor for ensuring that our policies
are compatible with those of the Lord Chancellor and for probity
in the conduct of our affairs. The Lord Chancellor is accountable
to Parliament for our activities and performance.
2.5 More information on the statutory and
financial framework between the Lord Chancellor and CAFCASS is
set out in an agreed Framework Document (comprising a Management
Statement and Financial Memorandum).
3. ABOUT CAFCASS
3.1 We employ nearly 1,900 staff and use
390 self employed guardians. Our 2002-03 operating budget is £84.5
million.
3.2 We work from 133 buildings across England
and Wales (with a further 13 properties where we have interview
facilities only). We also support 250 home workers who are being
provided with the same computer facilities as our office workers.
3.3 Our service delivery is structured through
nine English regions, Wales and CAFCASS Legal. We have a small
Headquarters, of some 60 staff, providing overall management of
our operations and corporate support on finance, human resources
and communications.
3.4 Further information about workloads
and staffing is given in Annex A.
4. FIRST YEAR
ISSUES
1. The expectations for CAFCASS, were high
at the time we were set up and continue to be so now. But creating
a cohesive national organisation from 117 previous employing authorities,
with different terms and conditions and cultures, was a huge challenge—one
that was not fully recognised
4.2 We inherited a highly skilled and experienced
workforce, and great commitment to providing an excellent service
to children, families and courts. Most practitioners who dealt
with private law cases were employed; the great majority of those
who dealt with public law cases were at the time self-employed,
although the position varied in different parts of the country.
Many of our staff quite naturally had some anxieties about moving
into a new and unknown organisation. But they have enabled us,
in the main, to continue to deliver our service. This was acknowledged
by the Magistrates' Courts Service Inspectorate (MCSI) in their
report "Setting Up", based on visits in 2001to all our
English regions, Wales, CAFCASS Legal and Headquarters. The Chief
Inspector commented ". . . to the enormous credit of all
concerned, front line services have to a very large extent been
maintained".
4.3 However, our first year was problematic,
and we were unable to make the progress that we had hoped. There
are six issues in particular that had a significant impact:
The challenge of set-up—CAFCASS was a
complex organisation to set up given the number of previous employing
authorities, and the timescale from Royal Assent of the relevant
legislation to go-live was very short. Overall the scale of the
challenge was underestimated.
Budget—there were concerns that our initial
continuing funding level was insufficient. The uncertainty meant
we had to be cautious in our first year about entering into future
commitments. Since then, the Lord Chancellor's Department have
increased significantly our funding.
A lack of infrastructure—we started work
with, and still face, gaps in the financial management and human
resources systems and other policies that all organisations need.
A particular problem has been the lack of adequate management
information, necessary to enable us properly to assess our performance
and improve it. One aspect of this is that we have had largely
to allocate our resources on a historical basis, and not necessarily
related to demand. We also lacked management capacity at headquarters
and in the regions.
The self employed guardians contract—the
need to address the issue of the contract was not initiated by
us but stemmed from an Inland Revenue indication that the arrangements
we inherited were not sustainable. We had, therefore, to review
the position. However, the way a new employed contract was planned,
and the judicial review proceedings lost because of the lack of
proper consultation with those affected, did not aid the culture
of mutual respect and confidence we need with our external contractors.
It also meant that, until the contract issues were resolved, we
were constrained in our ability to recruit practitioners.
Senior management—we started work without
a full senior management team, with number of posts filled on
an interim basis. This, and the departure of the Chief Executive
and the first Director of Operations, inevitably created difficulties.
High expectations—our mission was not
to stand still but to take the opportunities offered by a merged
organisation to improve the service we offered to children and
their families. This meant our own staff as well as our stakeholders
in the courts and other public services were impatient for change.
Problems with performance were seen as all the more disappointing
against the high expectations.
4.4 More information about our performance
in our first year is given in our 2001-02 Annual Report, published
in October 2002.
5. PROGRESS IN
THE LAST
YEAR
5.1 We accept that we still have much to
do. However, we are pleased that, given the difficulties of our
first year, we have been able to make progress on many issues,
covering all six of our key objectives.
5.2 Our improvement agenda over the last
year has had four strands:
Developing our capacity and the cohesion of
our organisation—key issues here have been the recruitment
of permanent staff, particularly practitioners (since April 2002
we have recruited 210 new practitioners), agreeing new contractual
structures for our self-employed guardians, and developing our
proposals for harmonising the terms and conditions of our staff.
Improving quality—key issues here have
been a review of what is needed for professional and practice
development and work on developing a training programme for our
practitioners. We have also undertaken a thorough review of our
service provision and the resources needed to support it.
Infrastructure—key issues here have been
reviewing our estate requirements, as not all the buildings we
have inherited from the Probation Service are suitable for our
needs, and ensuring our staff have the right IT support.
Working with others—key here has been
the consultation with our stakeholders on our aims and objectives,
and the funding we give to our voluntary sector partners for mediation
and contact.
5.3 Some of the specific measures we have
taken within this programme, and their links to our six key objectives,
are shown below.
5.4 Key objective 1—represent,
safeguard and promote the welfare of children involved in Family
Court proceedings
We have completed a programme of service reviews
in each of our English regions and in Wales. The purpose of these
reviews has been to look at the resources currently available,
to identify steps needed to clear backlogs of work or delayed
timescales for report, and to review resource requirements. These
reviews, which are in the process of being finalised will now
form the basis of detailed action plans for each region and Wales.
We have completed a public consultation exercise
and agreed new Service Principles and Standards for implementation
from April 2003. These will provide the basis for common standards
across England and Wales.
Following a public consultation exercise we
have also agreed a revised complaints, comments and compliments
policy and procedure, again for implementation from April 2003.
In addition, we have also consulted about our
partnership arrangements with the voluntary sector for funding
mediation services and contact centres and will be implementing,
in 2003/04 new arrangements.
We are implementing an estates strategy. Buildings
have been upgraded where possible, or vacated and new ones acquired
where existing buildings are too small to be viable or cannot
be adapted to provide fit for purpose accommodation. We inherited
184 buildings in April 2001 but now have 148 (including 13 with
interview facilities only).
5.5 Key objective 2—improve
the services offered to Family Courts
As part of wider work to reduce delays in the completion
of cases, we are working with the judiciary, the Lord Chancellor's
Department and the Court Service on the development of a protocol
for the case management of public law proceedings.
We have issued guidance to staff on handling
of public law cases where there are allocation difficulties.
5.6 Key objective 3—improve
the efficiency and effectiveness of the services offered through
increased value for money
We have completed a tender exercise to replace
our IT infrastructure and managed services contract. New arrangements,
effective from April 2003, should give us a more robust system
more suited to our needs, and with more detailed management information.
In addition we have put in place new provisions for external legal
advice. The new contracts will offer better value for money.
We have reviewed our resource allocation methodology
so that we can move towards a system where resources are allocated
more on the basis of demand and workloads. The lack of key management
data has meant that we have had so far to distribute resources
on a inherited basis.
We have implemented a Programme Board to assure
the progress of our overall development and change programme.
We have a significant number of new projects to implement, including
new IT systems, new policies and procedures and a training programme,
and it will be essential that we are able to plan more effectively
and identify at an earlier stage any emerging problems, and direct
remedial action where needed.
We have developed a risk register, and identified
our top ten risks. The register will now be monitored quarterly
by the Audit Committee.
5. 7 Key objective 4—improve
the services offered to families and other key stakeholders
We are launching a new website, which we believe
will be much easier for children, families, stakeholders and the
public more widely to use.
We have issued new core leaflets about our service
and are currently developing some additional ones specifically
for children.
5.8 Key objective 5—develop
the skills of staff
We have announced new harmonised pay and conditions
for new and existing employed staff, with increased salary levels.
We aim to implement these from July 2003, following consultation
with staff. This will help us recruit and retain, within an increasingly
competitive employment market, the staff we need. It is also a
key stage in the development of a single national cohesive organisation.
Linked to harmonisation, we have developed new
job profiles. This will enable us to offer clearer roles and career
structures for our staff. Our practitioners will be encouraged
and supported, where appropriate, to extend their skills into
both public and private law and managers will have a broader responsibility
to manage the service in their locality. It will enable us to
deploy our staff more effectively and to provide a more flexible
service capable of responding more effectively to demand.
We have implemented from April 2002 a new contract
for our self-employed guardians, and increased the rates significantly
with effect from January 2003. This renews the basis for a mixed
economy in our service delivery, and we hope the increased fees
will encourage our self-employed practitioners to take more cases
where they can.
We have begun the roll-out of a new induction
programme for new staff and are working with the Royal Holloway
College, University of London, to develop a modular programme
of subject specific training for our practitioners. This will
give our staff the skills and knowledge they need to do their
work effectively and professionally.
We have agreed and implemented from July 2002
a partnership agreement with the three trade unions representing
our staff—NAPO, UNISON and PCS. The effectiveness of this
agreement has been evident in the development of the harmonisation
proposals.
We have developed a strategy for the development
of a Welsh Language Scheme and as part of this have appointed
a Welsh Language Officer/translator. We have also more than doubled
the numbers of our staff who are able to speak Welsh, from eleven
to twenty four.
We are committed to achieving Investors in People
accreditation and will begin work on this once we have completed
a staff survey during 2003/04.
We have set up a Diversity Steering Group,
chaired by a member of the Board, to steer work on diversity.
The Group has developed an overall diversity policy and is looking
at specific issues relating race equality and disability.
5.9 Key objective 6—full
role in delivering the wider government agenda of improvements
in service
We have been able to make progress in a number
of areas linked to the overall modernising government agenda:
Our commitment to conducting our business in
an open way and with input from the children and families who
use our service, and our key stakeholders, is clear in the three
public consultations exercises we have undertaken this year and
in the consultation events we held last summer following the publication
of our interim Corporate Plan.
We have looked at ways of involving directly
children and young people in the development of our service.
We have worked hard with National Association
of Guardian Ad Litem and Reporting Officers (NAGALRO) to rebuild
mutual trust and confidence, following the judicial review proceedings.
We are developing in conjunction with the National
Association of Child Contact Centres a protocol with contact centers
to underpin our partnership arrangements. This will enable us
to adopt a clearer and more consistent practice with the centres.
5.10 We are subject to inspection by the
Magistrates' Courts Service Inspectorate. Following its initial
report it has undertaken five baseline inspections in our regions
(South West, Eastern, Greater London, Wales, and North Eastern)
and one of Headquarters. Inevitably, given we are still a young
organisation and working to overcome the particular problems we
experienced in our first year, the reports highlight a range of
weaknesses. We have action plans to address these.
5.11 However, the reports also note the
progress we have made. The inspections included audits of court
and local authority views of our work and we are pleased that
in the majority of cases covered by the audits, the overall rating
for the CAFCASS contribution was satisfactory or above in terms
f added value. MCSI's surveys of the families who use our services
have also shown that the majority of people who responded were
happy with the service they received. These audits and surveys
were necessarily limited, and we accept that we still need to
do more to ensure children and families and other stakeholders
receive a consistently quality service, but these findings are
encouraging.
6. THE FUTURE
6.1 This progress represents a considerable
achievement. However, we need to do more. Whilst we continue to
deliver our services effectively in many areas, we will be taking
action to reduce the delays in case allocation, particularly in
some parts of the country. Tackling this remains a key priority
and the service reviews (see paragraph 5.4 above) and ongoing
recruitment to fill vacancies will form the basis of action, as
well as working with the judiciary to develop protocols to reduce
delays.
6.2 A further key element in improving and
developing our service will be the harmonised pay and conditions
and, flowing from that, the new job structures. These are vital
steps in building the comprehensive, flexible and responsive service
we aspire to, and developing a cohesive national service.
6.3 It is important to recognise that we
do not operate in isolation from others within the wider family
justice system. Other key players include the courts, social services
departments, voluntary agencies and the Legal Services Commission.
We can only do our work effectively if we have effective structures
for liaison and joint working with them.
6.4 More information about our future strategy
will be given in our Corporate Plan for the period April 2003
to March 2006, due for publication shortly.
Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service
13 March 2003
Annex A
CAFCASS WORKLOADS
AND RESOURCES
Workloads
| Type of work |
2001/02 actual | 2002/03 projected
| 2003/04 projected |
| Private law requests | 34,704
| 35,100 | 35,500 |
| Public law requests | 13,462
| 13,700 | 13,900 |
| Total requests | 48,166 |
48,800 | 49,400 |
| Family assistance orders | 436
| 570 | 650 |
| Privileged mediation | 4,346
| 4,450 | 4,500 |
| | |
|
Note: 2001-02 figures based on six months actual data.
The forward figures are projections of the current trend in requests,
not forecasts. Our workload is determined by the number of applications
to the family courts and is not within our direct control.
People
| Region | Self employed
| Employed staff | |
| (headcount) | In Post (headcount)
| In Post (WTE) |
| Eastern | 50 | 125
| 102 |
| East Midlands | 23 | 138
| 120 |
| Headquarters | | 54
| 54 |
| Legal Services | | 14
| 14 |
| London | 130 | 200
| 173 |
| North East | 13 | 117
| 106 |
| North West | 29 | 298
| 263 |
| South East | 97 | 190
| 146 |
| South West | 35 | 168
| 140 |
| Wales | 16 | 147
| 129 |
| West Midlands | 38 | 206
| 179 |
| Yorkshire & Humberside | 13
| 247 | 211 |
| TOTALS | 444 |
1,904 | 1,637 |
| | |
|
Note: Some self employed guardians are used in more than
one region. The total number used is 390. (Based on staffing at
28 February 2003)
| Staff Group (employed) | In Post (headcount)
|
| Family Court Advisors | 579
|
| Children and Family Reporter | 634
|
| Guardians | 20 |
| Private Law Managers | 62 |
| Public Law Managers | 51 |
| Directors (inc. Chief Executive) | 5
|
| Senior Managers | 34 |
| Specialists | 28 |
| Administrative Staff | 410 |
| Ancillary Staff | 26 |
| Sessional | 55 |
| Notes: | |
| Senior Managers—Assistant Directors, Regional Managers and Business Managers
| |
| Specialists—Lawyers and HR Advisors |
|
| Administrative Staff—Regional and Headquarters support functions
| |
| |
Note: based on data at 28 February 2003
Financial resources 2002/03
| Budget type | Annual operating budget £000's
| % of total |
| Staff | 48,629 | 58
|
| Contract (self employed guardians) and agency
| 12,661 | 15 |
| Total staff | 61,290 | 73
|
| Running costs | 15,614 |
18 |
| Accommodation | 5,829 | 7
|
| Partnerships | 1,115 | 1
|
| Capital | 665 | 1
|
| Total non staff | 23,223
| 27 |
| Overall total | 84,513
| |
| | |
| 
