An extra £1.6 million has been given to the organisation representing children in care proceedings in the face of a huge backlog of cases.
The Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass) is said to be under pressure following a surge in childcare applications since the Baby P tragedy. Union leaders said the backlog had led to cases not being allocated to staff, huge caseloads and declining morale.
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo) warned that the number of unallocated cases “could not be in best interests of the child.”
He accused managers at Cafcass of “subjecting staff to unprecedented pressure and bullying”. He also complained that the inspection regime for Cafcass obliged staff to devote increasing amounts of time to making sure records were perfect rather than attending to the needs of children.
Mr Fletcher said: “Morale is rock bottom. Stress levels are very high. Child protection matters are suffering because of delays in processing work, the preoccupation of Cafcass managers with targets and monitoring, and excessive paperwork and inspections.”
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Cafcass was created in 2001 by bringing together three groups who represented children in care proceedings and in disputes over where children live after divorces.
The crisis currently facing the organisation arises from the surge in care proceedings after the case of Peter Connolly — known as Baby P — who died at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and lodger in 2007.
In a briefing paper published today Napo, which represents probation officers and some family court staff, said that the surge in care proceedings had resulted in case loads for many rising from 12 to 20 per worker. It said that in some urban areas the figure is ever higher and that a manager in London had suggested it may reach as high as 28 per worker in the next few months.
The paper claimed that the number of unallocated cases last month stood at 916, representing 1,489 children.
It also claimed that agency staff are being hired to help the organisation deal with the backlog of cases and that this is costing an estimated £2,000-£3,000 per person per week.
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Napo’s paper said that staff had described managers as being “progressive, issuing threats of allocation of work, including veiled references to job security”.
The paper said inspections by Ofsted had caused the situation to deteriorate with staff spending growing amounts of their time maintaining perfect records.
Cafcass was criticised in the annual report of Ofsted which said that some of the organisation’s regions inspected in 2008 were inadequate and that the pace of improvement at the organisation was too slow.
Last summer the cash problems facing the organisation meant that in London managers stopped using self-employed workers. In recent weeks they have begun allocating work to some of these workers but many have other commitments and have been unable to take on new cases.
In October Anthony Douglas, chief executive of Cafcass, warned that the £124 million a year service was on “an emergency footing” following the rise in care proceedings. A year ago there was no backlog and cases waiting to come to court but it presently stands at more than 700. Care proceedings have risen steadily with the highest number on record, 784, in June. New cases from July to September this year were up 47per cent on the same period a year ago.
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One reason for the increase is because social workers have become far more risk averse and less willing to leave a child at risk of neglect or abuse with its parents in the hope that the family’s situation will improve with support and monitoring by social services.
In a highly unusual step, Cafcass urged social workers to make absolutely certain that taking children into care was the only solution before starting down the path of court action.
The number of private law cases, most commonly battled over where a child will live after divorce, have also risen in the last 12 months, placing the system under even greater strain.
Anthony Douglas, Chief Executive of Cafcass said staff were responding magnificently to the challenges of increased care applications. Mr Douglas said: “Many of the accusations made by Napo are wildly and factually inaccurate. However, I do accept that the increased workload has meant that staff are being pulled in different directions by high case loads full of complex cases and are, as a result, under great pressure.
Cafcass disputed Napo’s claim that last month there were 916 unallocated cases. It said the figure at the end of last month was 511.
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The organisation also denied that any manager supplied by an agency was paid nearly £3,000 a week or that other agency workers received £2,000 a week.