Written evidence submitted by the Lord
Chancellor's Department (CAF 54)
THE CHILDREN AND FAMILY COURT ADVISORY AND SUPPORT
SERVICE
BACKGROUND
1. The Children And Family Court Advisory
And Support Service (CAFCASS) was established on 1 April 2001
following an extensive consultation exercise and a development
project which included the passage of the necessary founding legislation,
the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. Prior to CAFCASS's
creation, children who were the subject of family proceedings
would have had their interests represented by one of three types
of practitioner who each worked for different agencies providing
these services:
— Family Court Welfare Officers (formerly
part of the Probation Service);
— Guardians ad Litem and Reporting
Officers (previously the responsibility of local authorities);
and
— staff of the Children's Divisions
of the Official Solicitor (from the Lord Chancellor's Department).
2. There was considerable variety in the
way the three predecessor services were organised. Across the
three services, CAFCASS inherited around 800 employed practitioners,
700 self-employed guardians and some 450 administrative support
staff and managers with over 100 sets of terms and conditions.
The way in which frontline services were delivered differed across
different locations and organisational structures. Overall the
services were well respected for their professionalism. Some areas
had difficulties in providing services, however, due to a variety
of factors such as skilled practitioner shortages.
3. From June 1997, the Government's Comprehensive
Spending Review looked at how public services' resources could
be used better. In Autumn 1997, the Home Office, Department of
Health and Lord Chancellor's Department considered the case for
reform of the provision of services to children in family court
proceedings by CAFCASS's predecessors. Following widespread consultation,
they concluded that a new integrated organisation, responsible
for the work of each of those services, could provide an improved
service to the courts, to better safeguard the interests of children
and also reduce wasteful overlaps and so increase efficiency with
which the existing resources were used.
THE AIMS
FOR CAFCASS
4. The new Service was to be a high quality
service; built upon the professionalism of its predecessors. Its
national structure (covering England and Wales) would allow it
to address the variations in the timeliness and quality of the
former locally-delivered services. It would deploy its workforce
more flexibly, no longer confined by previous local boundaries,
and disseminate best practice widely. The combination of more
flexible use of its human resources, plus possible economies of
scale and greater management control, would lead to improved value
for money in the medium and longer-term. Despite the challenges
CAFCASS has faced since launch, there is little doubt that these
were the right aims for these services. The establishment of CAFCASS
as a national service is considered by the majority of stakeholders
to have been the right decision.
5. The 1998 consultation paper "Support
Services in Family Proceedings—Future Organisation of Court
Welfare Services" considered various organisational models
for the new Service. Following consultation, it was decided to
launch CAFCASS as an executive Non-Departmental Public Body. This
would ensure the Service was under the responsibility of one department
but at arms-length from other services to families and parties
to the court proceedings. It also allowed CAFCASS to develop as
a unified national body from the disparate, local services it
inherited.
THE TIMETABLE
6. In July 1999, the Government announced
its intention to establish the new National Probation Service,
under the Home Office's responsibility, and, at the same time,
CAFCASS under the Lord Chancellor. In March 2000, the Criminal
Justice and Court Services Bill, providing for the establishment
of both new services, was published. The Bill received Royal Assent,
later than planned, on 30 November 2000.
7. The decision to launch CAFCASS on 1 April
2001 was principally determined by the Home Office's timetable
for establishment of the new National Probation Service on 1 April
2001. Since one part of the old Probation Service, the Family
Court Welfare Service, was to transfer to CAFCASS, it was necessary
to establish CAFCASS to the same timetable. A later launch date
for CAFCASS would have meant short-term interim arrangements needing
to be made for the Family Court Welfare Service. This would have
caused greater disruption to continuing frontline service provision
and corporate management and support structures and greater staff
uncertainty. It would not have positioned CAFCASS or the Family
Court Welfare Service well for launch of the new, unified service
working across former boundaries.
8. The period between CAFCASS's founding
legislation being in place (delayed by a longer than expected
Parliamentary process) and launch of the new Service in April
2001 proved, with hindsight, to be too short a timespan for all
the changes that were needed. In particular, it did not allow
a period of shadow running for the Board and senior managers.
This would have provided an opportunity for those who would oversee
the new Service to become familiar with their new responsibilities
and with the operating structures that would make up CAFCASS;
allowing greater planning by those who would run the Service of
the new processes and policies it would need. It was always planned
that the new Service would be launched with a mandate to evolve,
on the basis of operating experience, to best deliver its functions.
Nevertheless, the truncated timetable and the view of the Inland
Revenue, in the run up to CAFCASS's launch, that the self-employed
guardians' contracts were unlikely to deliver self-employed tax
status significantly increased the challenges the new organisation
faced on launch.
BUILDING THE
NEW SERVICE
9. CAFCASS was to be launched as a new Service
from April 2001. It would then evolve over time from its component
services into the fully fledged national organisation envisaged
by the Government. The preparatory work was undertaken by an inter-departmental
Project Team in the Lord Chancellor's Department, with officials
from the Home Office, the Department of Health and the Welsh Office.
The Team's Project Director took up post in October 1999. The
Team oversaw the CAFCASS provisions of the Bill through their
Parliamentary progress. In parallel, they planned for the new
Service. They undertook all the detailed arrangements for implementation,
including transfer of all parts of the services which would become
CAFCASS into the new organisation from April 2001.
10. Working with members of the services
transferring to CAFCASS and with input from senior managers as
they were recruited, the Project Team costed and designed the
structure of the new Service. The Team planned the transfer of
staff and caseload to CAFCASS. They negotiated for the physical
resources, premises and equipment to be in place from launch.
It was intended that work would continue after launch to design
and develop CAFCASS's functions, organisation and national identity
on the basis of operating experience.
11. Despite the huge challenges in bringing
together so many local services to such a truncated timetable,
a great deal of work was done to ensure as much as possible of
the basic infrastructure for the new Service would be in place
from CAFCASS's launch.
STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION
12. Preparation for the new Service relied
on widespread involvement of staff and stakeholders who would
work with CAFCASS and its services. The Project Team set up Advisory
Groups and Task Teams to input views as the Service was developed.
Stakeholder groups were set up to advise as development of CAFCASS's
IT, staffing and estate transfer were taken forward. These groups
were instrumental in shaping the structure of the Service. Stakeholders
were also involved through the: Children and Families Advisory
Group (including mothers' and fathers' representative groups);
Judicial Advisory Group (for all tiers of the judiciary); Legal
Advisory Group (for family law practitioners); Voluntary Organisations
Advisory Group. The Project Team appeared at major conferences
to publicise and answer questions about CAFCASS. They attended
over 100 local meetings with members of the Family Court Welfare
Service, the guardians' profession, the judiciary and legal profession.
Several conferences across England and Wales were arranged by
the Project Team for staff considering transferring into the new
Service. Views put forward were fed into the Project Team's work
as far as possible, but there were inevitably ideas that stretched
beyond set up. Some were aspirational and would take time to develop
or deliver. It was envisaged the Service would take forward this
development work once established.
FUNDING
13. The Government created CAFCASS on the
basis that its costs were not expected to significantly exceed
those of its predecessor services. The July 1998 Consultation
Paper put the costs of those existing services at £66.5 million
(at 1997-98 prices). These costings were reviewed and increased
by the Project Team. Inter-departmental negotiation was begun
to transfer the funding to the Lord Chancellor's Department.
14. Significant work was done by the Project
Team to ensure costing assumptions were soundly-based; including
detailed scrutiny of statistical returns for the Guardian service,
annual reports from a number of probation service areas and other
data on caseload trends. In parallel, the Team developed a budget
model for the running costs of the new Service. It covered the
on-going costs of frontline practitioners and the new management
structure, their accommodation and equipping them including IT
provision. This produced a year one running cost budget of just
under £72 million. Year one "start up" capital
money of some nine million pounds was also provided, making a
total cash budget of just over £80.8 million.
15. Much was done to seek to ensure the
full cost of predecessor services was transferred into CAFCASS's
budget. It was always going to be difficult, however, to take
full account of the total costs including the hidden overheads
of support to the many small, locally-delivered services that
made up CAFCASS. This was in part because such information was
not routinely needed until CAFCASS was in prospect and then not
easily obtainable or estimated across numerous localised operations.
To ensure it had sufficient funding during its first year, the
Department arranged for CAFCASS to use a proportion of its "start
up" money for its running costs.
16. During CAFCASS's second year, 2002-03,
the Department increased CAFCASS's running costs funding from
the planned £72 million to some £80.5 million. It also
allowed CAFCASS to carry forward unspent funding from 2001-02
to give a total operating budget in 2002-03 of some £84.5
million cash.
17. CAFCASS' budget will also be increased
for 2003-04. Our provisional allocation to CAFCASS is £95
million resource; an increase of around £20 million on its
year one running costs budget of £72 million cash. CAFCASS
is one of the Department's highest priorities and LCD has shown
its commitment to CAFCASS by significantly increasing its funding
since launch.
18. CAFCASS has made progress since launch
but of course we all recognise more needs to be done to improve
CAFCASS's frontline service delivery. The successive increases
the Department has made to its funding have been provided to allow
CAFCASS to both deliver and improve the services it provides to
vulnerable children; something that everyone wants to see.
SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE
19. From January 2000, a stakeholder group
began to consider the current services' information systems and
the IT support CAFCASS would need from launch. A project was established
in June 2000 to develop IT to support the Service from day one.
This included a finance, accounting and payroll system for the
Service and desk top computing facilities for all offices. Proposals
for a longer-term, integrated management information and casework
management system were developed in parallel. It was intended
that, until that was in place, inherited systems (computer and
manual) would continue to operate.
20. All offices were to be equipped and
on the new system from April 2001. This was an ambitious target
given CAFCASS's over 180 sites. Nevertheless, by end March 2001,
over 1,500 PCs had been delivered and only 20 sites remained to
be surveyed. Roll-out of the electronic system was completed by
end May 2001. In their March 2002 report "Setting Up"
CAFCASS's Inspectorate, the MCSI concluded that "In general,
IT was a CAFCASS success story".
21. It was proposed that, during its first
year, CAFCASS would develop its own integrated case management
and management information system to replace the limited legacy
systems inherited. The range of challenges CAFCASS faced in year
one and the scale of the proposals prevented sustained progress
and CAFCASS halted development of a new system in Summer 2001.
This was also done to allow CAFCASS to develop plans to fit the
changing requirements of the Service based on experience of its
operating needs. CAFCASS is currently considering options for
how best to support its case management needs.
THE ESTATE
FOR THE
NEW SERVICE
22. As far as possible, the aim was to locate
staff transferring to CAFCASS in their current accommodation and
locations. The overall quality of the estate occupied by predecessor
services was not high; although there were great variations in
quality.
23. Complex negotiations were taken forward
with the Home Office (which owned the greatest part of the estate
occupied by the transferring services) to provide, as far as possible,
for premises occupied by the Family Court Welfare Service to transfer
to CAFCASS on launch; together with a revenue transfer for their
costs. Additional premises were secured for the new Service's
Headquarters, to accommodate the staff transferring from the Official
Solicitor and for other premises across the CAFCASS Regions over
and above the inherited estate. On launch CAFCASS inherited 184
properties and it fell to the new Service to consolidate the properties
transferred to it and to develop its own strategy to site its
estate for best delivery of its services.
HUMAN RESOURCES
24. CAFCASS inherited around 800 employed
practitioners, 700 self-employed guardians, and 450 administrative
support staff and managers with over 100 sets of terms and conditions.
The Board and the senior managers for the new Service also needed
to be recruited. Planning for the transfer of staff and contractors
to the new service clearly presented a challenge.
25. The delay to Royal Assent of CAFCASS's
founding legislation truncated the recruitment timetable for senior
posts and for planning for the transfer of staff and contractors
into the new Service. Nevertheless, a significant amount of work
was undertaken in the run up to CAFCASS's launch. From April 2001,
the CAFCASS Chair and Board, its Chief Executive and certain of
its senior managers were in place. Where Directors were not in
post, interim appointments were made or Project Team senior managers
remained in place, post launch, as interim Directors. By end June
2001, all HQ Directors and Regional Managers were in post.
26. The Project Team negotiated with employers
and the trade unions over terms of transfer of staff and self-employed
from the predecessor services. The Team worked to apply the full
requirements of TUPE to the transfers of staff (via terms that
were analogous to TUPE). It formed employer and employee consultative
groups and undertook written consultation of all staff of the
former services. The transfer of staff and the self employed,
supported by revenue transfers, was effected with the vast majority
of staff deciding to transfer to CAFCASS and with service provision
generally maintained.
CONTRACTUAL DISPUTE
OVER SELF-EMPLOYED
GUARDIANS' TERMS
27. A significant challenge for the new
Service was the Inland Revenue's indication, towards end 2000,
that the contracts of the Guardians would be unlikely to deliver
the self-employed status they purported to, if subjected to tax
audit. From 1998, it had been envisaged that CAFCASS would be
launched with its inherited mix of employed and self-employed
practitioners. It would then be for the new Service to decide,
based on operating experience, on the best balance between employment
and self-employment. Given the short time between Royal Assent
and launch and the wide range and variety of contracts, it was
decided that practitioners should transfer into CAFCASS on their
existing terms. Over the longer term, CAFCASS would then need
to develop contracts designed specifically for the new Service.
28. The initiation of this issue at this
time was not of the Project Team's choice. The Inland Revenue's
assessment meant that the Project Team and, following launch,
CAFCASS faced the significant challenge of developing a new contract
to comply with the rules on self-employment earlier than expected.
The development of a new contract during transition to the new
Service greatly increased uncertainty and was the focus of a great
deal of time and effort to the detriment of other priorities during
the first year of CAFCASS's operation.
29. In planning for CAFCASS's launch, extensive
work was undertaken to establish the foundations of the new Service.
There was, of course, significant further work to be done to build
on those foundations. This work was undoubtedly made far more
challenging by the uncertainties, concerns and, for many, discontent
generated by the need to develop a new self-employed contract
much earlier than expected. Nevertheless the dispute was ended
last Summer on terms that allowed CAFCASS to retain the benefits
of the mixed economy of employed and self-employed practitioners
it had inherited and without a mass exodus of expertise (and significantly
increased self-employed fee rates from January 2003). Since the
moratorium on recruitment (imposed under the judicial review proceedings
launched during the dispute) was lifted last year, CAFCASS has
embarked on a major recruitment campaign and also improved rates
of pay and career progression for staff via its harmonisation
proposals.
CAFCASS AND THE
LORD CHANCELLOR'S
DEPARTMENT: OPERATING
RELATIONSHIP
30. The Lord Chancellor is accountable to
Parliament for CAFCASS. He appoints the Chair and Members of CAFCASS's
Board. The Board has responsibility for establishing CAFCASS's
strategic direction within the policy framework and resources
agreed with the Lord Chancellor and the key objectives he sets
for the Service (as set out in its Framework Document ). The Chair
is responsible for ensuring CAFCASS's policies are compatible
with those of the Lord Chancellor and that CAFCASS's functions
are properly discharged.
31. The Board appoints the Chief Executive
with the Lord Chancellor's approval. The Department's Permanent
Secretary designates the Chief Executive as CAFCASS's Accounting
Officer. The Chief Executive is responsible for the Service's
day-to-day operation within the strategic direction set by the
Board. CAFCASS and the Lord Chancellor's Department work in partnership
to deliver improvements in the Family Justice System. We work
together to ensure the courts can make the best decisions for
the vulnerable children involved in family court proceedings in
a timely manner and on the best information.
32. CAFCASS's progress is reviewed regularly
both by Ministers and the Department. During the year, the Chair
and Chief Executive meet the Lord Chancellor to discuss his policy
objectives for CAFCASS and CAFCASS's performance and plans for
development. Rosie Winterton MP, as part of her Ministerial responsibility
for Family Justice, has also taken a keen interest in the improvement
of new Service. She meets the Chair and Chief Executive regularly
to discuss progress; receiving reports on frontline performance.
She has also visited all of CAFCASS's nine Regions and CAFCASS
Wales, talking to practitioners and managers.
33. The Chair and the Chief Executive meet
senior LCD officials quarterly to discuss performance and progress
and consider forthcoming challenges. There are also regular, lower-level
exchanges of performance information, expertise and mutual policy
interests between CAFCASS and the LCD.
34. The Department has responsibility for
the legislation governing CAFCASS and wider policy responsibility
for how child and family relationships are given legal force.
The LCD also has responsibility for the Court Service and the
Legal Services Commission which are also key to the effective
operation of the Family Justice System. Since January 2003, the
Department's Chief Executive, Operations has had responsibility
for the performance of the Department's service delivery agents
and their effective operation, both with each other and with other
bodies within and outside the public sector, to deliver their
services.
35. CAFCASS has a key role in delivering
the Lord Chancellor's Public Service Agreement (PSA). CAFCASS
works with LCD to achieve its Spending Review 2000 PSA 8, "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", through membership of working groups at every
level. CAFCASS is working with LCD on tackling delay in public
law Children Act cases and on the implementation of the Adoption
and Children Act 2002, as well as on other improvements to court
procedures. CAFCASS also works with LCD to deliver its Spending
Review 2002 objective to "Reduce social exclusion, protect
the vulnerable and children, including maintaining contact between
children and the non-resident parent after a family breakdown
where appropriate."
36. Its legislation envisages a partnership
between CAFCASS and the Lord Chancellor in developing policy for
the Service. CAFCASS has particular responsibility for its operation:
how its services are delivered by its practitioners. But it also
has a wider role to play in delivering better policies for children
in partnership with others. Both CAFCASS and the Department work
closely together and with other stakeholders in the Family Justice
System. This is very important if we are to deliver better outcomes
for vulnerable children within the family courts.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
37. CAFCASS was launched to deliver high
quality services across England and Wales to the best professional
standards. To champion the interests of children, whose views
and interests it represents to the Court, and so to allow the
best decisions to be made for their futures. Setting up CAFCASS
was the right thing to do to build on the strengths of its predecessor
services. Both the Lord Chancellor's Department and CAFCASS acknowledge
fully that there is more to be done before this vision is realised
and that there is a need to move on from the problems of CAFCASS's
launch to focus on the children that CAFCASS was created to serve.
This will be a key focus of CAFCASS's development over the coming
years.
38. CAFCASS was not set up solely to deliver
services as its predecessors did. It was also tasked with improving
services and developing wider support for children and families
within family proceedings. The Lord Chancellor's Department supports
CAFCASS in looking at how its role in the court process might
be more effective and more timely for children and their families
at this crucial stage in their lives.
39. CAFCASS also has a role to play, alongside
others in the public sector, in delivering the Government's wider
aspirations for children. It is the children who are the paramount
concern. CAFCASS will need to develop further its links with other
agencies, particularly those involved in child protection, and
its own ways of working to meet the expectations on all services
for vulnerable children flowing from the Government's forthcoming
"Children at Risk" Green Paper.
40. The Department's ongoing Departmental
Change Programme will also improve how LCD and CAFCASS work together.
It will focus more clearly on delivering better outcomes for the
children CAFCASS is there to champion.
Lord Chancellor's Department
March 2003
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