Acknowledging the devotion of CAFCASS practitioners

1. We wish to acknowledge the skill and devotion of staff throughout the organisation and their commitment to the children they serve. The criticisms we make of the way CAFCASS's difficulties have been handled should not detract from that fact. (Paragraph 5)

Effect of the short timetable

2. The decision to proceed on [a foreshortened] timetable was a serious misjudgement. The Government should not have allowed the timetable for the establishment of the National Probation Service to dictate the unrealistic programme for the establishment of CAFCASS. The decision to do so makes CAFCASS appear of secondary importance. The impression was gained that the Departmental priorities of the Lord Chancellor's Department were secondary to those of the Home Office. It is vital that all Government Ministers give priority to work with children in line with their commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (Paragraph 26)

Appointment of the Board and senior management team

3. Contingency plans should, however, have been in place to deal with [the foreshortened timetable]. In particular, it is difficult to understand why a shadow Board was not set up, with an indication that permanent appointment was subject to the passage of the Bill. (Paragraph 29)

Establishment of the service: conclusion

4. The overall impression gained from consideration of the circumstances leading up to the establishment of CAFCASS is that even prior to its establishment there was a lack of high-level effectiveness to ensure that the new service was a success. The mistakes and misjudgements made at that time left a legacy which made the already difficult task of creating a successful new organisation even more difficult, and contributed significantly to some of the problems which are still being experienced. (Paragraph 32)

Tandem representation

5. The Minister for Children and the CAFCASS Board should make a definitive statement about their commitment to maintaining a system of tandem representation. These provisions are consistent with Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. (Paragraph 52)

Review by the National Audit Office

6. We recommend that the National Audit Office review events [during CAFCASS's early days], including: use of the work of the Project Team; development of IT systems in CAFCASS; management of senior staff and use of consultants in the early months of CAFCASS; and events surrounding the departures of the Chief Executive and Director of Operations. (Paragraph 57)

Failures in service provision

7. In some places, there are no significant delays, and the service being provided by CAFCASS is as good as that which was provided by its predecessor service. In others, however—inner London, for example—delays have reached wholly unacceptable levels. (Paragraph 62)

Reasons for delay

8. The increase in demand—which did not start post-CAFCASS and should have been anticipated—and the shortage of appropriately qualified staff made it all the more important that CAFCASS hold on to the staff it was inheriting. The protracted dispute [with self-employed guardians] damaged relations with experienced guardians and staff the organisation desperately needed in order properly to fulfil one of its core functions. Key front-line practitioners were lost. (Paragraph 66)

Relations with other organisations

9. Full involvement by all concerned, CAFCASS staff included, in inter-agency initiatives and joint working is essential if disasters such as the Victoria Climbié affair are to be avoided in future. (Paragraph 92)

Research and improving practice

10. The ability of CAFCASS to evaluate the outcomes of its interventions—in other words, to identify 'what works' and to develop best practice accordingly—depends in part upon the development of a reliable data base that can be submitted to rigorous and detailed analysis. The development of a research-friendly culture, which welcomes external analysis and can work in partnership with the research community, will be central to the achievement of this goal. (Paragraph 96)

The "mixed economy"

11. It is important that, as well as using and developing its employed guardians, CAFCASS senior management embrace the principle of a mixed economy and repair relations with self-employed guardians. It would be unacceptable if some children and families were offered an inferior service because of the neglect of a significant part of the skilled available workforce. (Paragraph 111)

Relationship between LCD and CAFCASS

12. The Framework Document fails to reflect the proper relationship between the LCD and CAFCASS as established by the relevant legislation. The Framework Document also displays a curious, and worrying, lack of attention to CAFCASS's key role. (Paragraphs 114 and 117)

13. CAFCASS provides a vitally important service in which we would expect Ministers to take a close interest. The confusion over the terms on which they do so has resulted from the unclear constitutional relationship between LCD and CAFCASS. It has produced suspicions of inappropriate interference, has hampered efforts to establish a properly functioning service. (Paragraph 119)

The CAFCASS Board

14. It is clear that the confused lines of accountability between LCD, CAFCASS and the Senior Management Team, particularly the Chief Executive, are seriously hampering the Board's ability to make an effective contribution. The lack of relevant experience and expertise on the Board make it important that it is not reliant solely on the senior management team for information about the service. (Paragraph 123)

15. There is no doubt that [the Board] has failed to deal effectively with the task with which it is entrusted. The Board has not given the impression that it has any clear idea of how CAFCASS should be re-establishing itself as an effective organisation. (Paragraph 124)

Failures in service provision

16. We were pleased to hear the Chief Executive affirm CAFCASS's intention to aim for allocation of guardians within 48 hours. We hope that this target can be speedily achieved. It should be formally recognised in CAFCASS's performance targets. (Paragraph 130)

17. We recommend that CAFCASS set a separate target—which should be as close to 100% as it is reasonably possible to get—for the allocation of a guardian in time for the first hearing in [emergency] cases. (Paragraph 131)

18. CAFCASS should play a full part in improving the service given to children and families in the family courts, by improving its own performance and by contributing to joint efforts to reduce delay across the system. (Paragraph 132)

CAFCASS Legal

19. It is important that the shortage of staff in CAFCASS Legal is not forgotten as CAFCASS deals with the difficulties it is experiencing elsewhere in the service. We recommend that such resources be made available to CAFCASS Legal as to enable it at least to match the service provided before it by the Official Solicitor. (Paragraph 133)

Dealing with the backlog

20. [The measures which CAFCASS has taken to increase capacity and deal with the backlog] are all welcome, though there is little sign as yet that they have made a significant impact. We hope that the judicial case management protocol referred to above, to which CAFCASS has signed up, will decrease delay in care cases. The only way in which CAFCASS is truly going to get on top of its service delivery duties is by dealing with its staff shortage. (Paragraph 134)

Recruitment and workforce planning

21. We recommend that CAFCASS urgently undertake comprehensive workforce planning, in order to identify accurately current and future staffing requirements. (Paragraph 139)

Attracting back experienced guardians

22. We recommend that CAFCASS take further steps to target recruitment on experienced guardians. (Paragraph 140)

Longer-term recruitment

23. We recommend that CAFCASS follow up [the] suggestion [that it join the current drive to attract and to retain more talented people into the social work professions]. (Paragraph 141)

Induction training

24. It would be unacceptable for new recruits to continue to be allowed to undertake this important work without the benefit of a proper course of training. The task of ascertaining and communicating to the court the child's wishes and feelings, as part of the process of determining what is in the child's best interests, should be central to that training. (Paragraph 145)

Convergence

25. Convergence in the work of practitioners from the two different strands needs to be handled with respect for the different skills and knowledge people bring. Convergence cannot be carried forward in the absence of properly developed training and development programmes which give the necessary preparation and backup for those moving into new areas of work. (Paragraph 146)

Performance management

26. CAFCASS must also face the issue of performance management. In setting standards [for performance management] CAFCASS should seek to draw on the expertise of its existing workforce, and the bodies which represent them. It should involve the Board and organisations which represent parents or children and commission and make use of research. Local managers will need training and support to carry out this function. (Paragraphs 147, 148 and 149)

Progress in the provision of training

27. CAFCASS must ensure that all four aspects of the training agenda—induction and substantive training for new recruits; induction training for experienced social workers who need introducing and orientating to CAFCASS; in-service training and professional development; and convergence training—are addressed by the establishment of a dedicated training and development strand within CAFCASS. We recommend that an individual Board member or sub-group with appropriate experience or expertise should oversee its development and ongoing work. (Paragraph 151)

Information Technology

28. There is an urgent need for an integrated case management system for CAFCASS. (Paragraph 152)

29. We recommend that CAFCASS re-establish a project board and give it the task of setting out a clear timetable for the establishment of a fully fledged case management system. An individual Board member or sub-group should oversee (not micro-manage) the project. The new Department may need to make additional resources available to secure this crucial aspect of CAFCASS's proper functioning to ensure the timely establishment of an appropriate system. (Paragraph 155)

Support services

30. Until the delivery of core services is secure, CAFCASS cannot risk diverting significant resources into developing support services. (Paragraph 156)

Need to indicate role in provision of support services

31. There is a feeling amongst voluntary organisations working in this field that CAFCASS's failure to give clear indication of the way it might look to develop this aspect of its remit is hindering the development of services by others. CAFCASS needs to make clear what long-term role it envisages for itself in the provision of support services for children and families experiencing relationship breakdown. (Paragraph 157)

32. We recommend that the Minister for Children consult with CAFCASS and other interested parties about a proposal that the organisation should take a strategic/co-ordinating/funding role for support services rather than providing them itself. (Paragraph 158)

Funding for support services

33. If CAFCASS is to make a significant long-term contribution to the development of support services, we expect the Department will need to increase funding further. (Paragraph 160)

Cooperation with other bodies

34. The development of CAFCASS's role in the provision of [support] services requires close consultation and cooperation with all other bodies, statutory and voluntary, working in this field. (Paragraph 161)

35. CAFCASS needs to work much more closely than appears to have been the case hitherto with the Legal Services Commission. We hope that close working will enable value for money to be achieved in the provision of appropriate services whilst avoiding the narrow self-interest apparent so far in relations between the two bodies. (Paragraphs 162 and 163)

36. CAFCASS must work together closely with others in the family justice and child protection system. The Minister for Children and the CAFCASS Board should urgently review the claim by the CAFCASS Managers Association that many front line managers are having to withdraw from liaison arrangements. CAFCASS should take steps to ensure that there is full co-operation at all times. (Paragraph 164)

37. The collection of children's services within the Department for Education and Skills provides an opportunity for CAFCASS to renew its links with other organisations working with children, and ensure that the joined-up working demanded by the Victoria Climbié case, and others before it, is achieved. (Paragraph 165)

Research and improving practice

38. There is, as MCSI has identified, a significant gap in knowledge about "what works" in family proceedings related work which CAFCASS needs to fill. It is vital for the sake of all the children with whom CAFCASS is concerned that it discovers what works for children experiencing family breakdown, establishes how its practitioners can best contribute to the well-being of children involved in court proceedings or their aftermath, and ensures that best practice is developed accordingly. The establishment of a practice development unit, which CAFCASS intends to have in place by December this year, is a step in the right direction. Significant further progress in the development of research capacity will, however, be needed if CAFCASS is to achieve those aims. (Paragraph 166)

Management and organisation culture

39. It is important that this Report is not seen merely as an endorsement of the criticisms which have been made about CAFCASS. It is vital that CAFCASS work together with the professional and voluntary organisations who have expressed their concerns to us to address the issues which have been raised in this Report, and it is equally vital that the organisations concerned recognise that, in the interests of the children they serve, a positive climate now needs to be created. CAFCASS needs to be helped to use, develop and build on the considerable skills which exist among its personnel and to become the kind of quality organisation it was originally intended to be. (Paragraph 170)

40. If it is to regain the confidence of all those who work with and for it, CAFCASS needs to demonstrate clearly and unambiguously that it is putting children and young people first in all that it does. (Paragraph 171)

41. We recommend that the CAFCASS Board identify three or four key actions which it can take which will demonstrate that it is truly "putting children and young people first". Such a refocusing of priorities should work through into a longer-term position where CAFCASS judges all that it does against the question "Will this improve the service we offer to children and the courts?" (Paragraph 172)

42. We recommend that, rather than waiting to be shown how [a "light management touch"] might work, the CAFCASS Board establish a working group to discuss both with its own stakeholders and with others with relevant expertise outside the organisation how such an approach could be implemented. (Paragraph 173)

The Framework Document and CAFCASS's relationship with government

43. The transfer of responsibility for CAFCASS away from the Lord Chancellor's Department, as was, to the Department for Education and Skills offers an opportunity for a reassessment and recasting of the relationship between CAFCASS and its parent Department. (Paragraph 174)

44. We recommend that, when the Framework Document is redrafted to take account of the new Departmental responsibilities, the DfES ensure that the new document both explicitly reflects CAFCASS's core task of securing the welfare of children in court proceedings through representation and reporting, and sets out the proper constitutional relationship between CAFCASS as an NDPB and its parent Department. Whilst CAFCASS remains an NDPB its parent Department must ensure that it is able to function as such and must respect the independence from Government which comes with that status. (Paragraph 175)

The CAFCASS Board

45. It is a central recommendation of this Report that there should be a fundamental review of membership of the Board. We believe the Board needs people of experience and stature who can develop the strategy necessary to deliver an effective, child-centred service. (Paragraph 180)

46. The new Board must take steps to ensure that it is able to carry out effectively its function of providing strategic direction and holding senior management to account. (Paragraph 181)

Inspection regime

47. We recommend that joint inspection arrangements be established between the new Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and the CAFCASS Inspection Unit of HM Magistrates' Court Services Inspectorate (MCSI). (Paragraph 182)

Continued Parliamentary scrutiny of CAFCASS's work

48. We hope that there will continue to be active Parliamentary oversight of CAFCASS's important work, and of the progress being made in addressing the recommendations we make in this Report. The children CAFCASS serves deserve no less. (Paragraph 183)