Cafcass receives ‘outstanding’ Ofsted judgment
Children and families who experience family court proceedings receive an “outstanding” service from Cafcass, Ofsted has found.
The full inspection, which took place between 22 January and 16 February 2024, assessed the quality and effectiveness of private law practice, public law practice and the impact of leaders on practice. In all three areas, practice and leadership were judged to be outstanding.
In the report, Ofsted said that Cafcass’ ‘outstanding’ rating across all judgements marked an improvement since its previous full inspection in 2018, when the quality and effectiveness of Cafcass’ public and private law practice was judged to be ‘good’.
However, the report warned that improvements could be made to the quality of the final letters to independent reviewing officers (IROs) from the children’s guardian at the end of public law proceedings, “to ensure continuity of challenge to the local authority’s future planning for children”.
Key findings included:
- Children and their families who are the subject of public law proceedings receive an outstanding service from skilled and compassionate children’s guardians (CGs).
- CGs work collaboratively with local authorities and the family justice system to shorten the length of court proceedings and reduce delay for children. An innovative pilot in a few operational areas has seen CGs and local authority social workers meeting prior to the initial case management hearing. This has enabled smoother running proceedings and it has helped to reduce delays for some children.
- CGs sensitively help children to write to judges and to speak with them virtually or in person when they wish to do so. This powerfully brings children’s wishes to the heart of decision-making in the courts.
- When local authority plans for children are not appropriate or sufficient, CGs challenge local authorities in an effective way.
- CGs are promptly allocated to represent children who are subject to deprivation of liberty applications. Practice in these children’s cases is strong because CGs understand the challenges these children face, and they are skilled at quickly building relationships up with these children.
Cafcass Chief Executive, Jacky Tiotto said: “I would like to extend the biggest thank you to everyone working at Cafcass, to our partners and to the Cafcass Board for helping to secure this important outcome. We welcome challenge and scrutiny and take very seriously the feedback that we received throughout the inspection and in this report.
“[...] One of the most important things inspectors reported was that they saw evidence of Family Court Advisers and Children’s Guardians giving critical and enduring advice to the family court, that centres on children’s safety, welfare and best interests. They saw complex information being carefully and sensitively balanced to try and secure the right arrangements for families and their children. This is what we exist to do for a huge number (c143,000) of children every year. All our advice and every single decision matters. I am so pleased that our focus and ambitions in this regard are making a difference and supporting continuous improvement and change for children.”
Cafcass revealed it is now working on the next phase of its strategic plan - 'Ambitious for children’, and intends to use the inspection feedback and recommendations as part of its ‘Listening to children, Lighting the way’ improvement plan review and reset.
Lottie Winson
