Cafcass receives 18,000+ public law applications for fourth year in a row

Cafcass received more than 18,000 public law applications in 2019/20, the fourth year in a row that this level has been reached, it has emerged.

According to the organisation, it received 18,053 applications involving 29,120 children over the 12 months.

This represents a decrease of -1.7% (-314 public law cases) and a decrease of -3.7% (1,116 children) on the 18,367 new public law cases received and the 30,236 children involved in those cases between April 2018 and March 2019.

In 2017/18 the respective figures were 18,847 (applications) and 31,005 (children). In 2016/17 they were 18,750 (applications) and 30,718 (children). This is as far back as the data goes on the Cafcass website.

Cafcass also said it had received 13,060 new care applications from April 2019 to March 2020, which was -3.8% (-517) fewer than the same period in 2018/19. These applications involved 21,061 children, which was -4.8% (-1,052 children) fewer than April 2018 to March 2019.

The Family Court Statistics Quarterly for England and Wales, covering October to December 2019 and published last month (26 March), meanwhile revealed that the average time for a care or supervision case to reach first disposal throughout 2019 was 33 weeks, up three weeks from 2018.

Just 41% of cases were disposed of within 26 weeks, down 8 percentage points compared with 2018.