The All Party Parliamentary Group
for Children

by Alison Linsey and Zoe Renton

Keeping Parliamentarians Informed : CAFCASS

In the last month, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children has held one meeting:

• Tuesday 13 December: A presentation from Anthony Douglas, Chief Executive of CAFCASS on the consultation document Every Day Matters: new directions for CAFCASS.

New Directions for CAFCASS

Anthony Douglas, Chief Executive of CAFCASS, gave a presentation outlining the organisation’s new strategic directions set out in the consultation document Every Day Matters. He said that CAFCASS’s new aims were closely linked with the Every Child Matters agenda.

Every Day Matters signifies that for England’s most vulnerable children there isn’t a moment to lose. While sometimes our social care system works wonderfully, many children are still not getting the security and stability of placement needed to secure better outcomes. New options for couples with problems of conception leading to fewer foster carers/adopters, and a move away from careers in social work among young people are some of the strategic challenges CAFCASS faces. Pressures on demand and public expenditure mean that CAFCASS has to find more efficient ways of representing children.

Anthony outlined CAFCASS’s main objectives, and the changes that need to take place to meet them. The main objectives are:

- early intervention service in the first six weeks of every referral;
- no delays or backlogs in the allocation of cases by April 2007;
- to define and provide a ‘minimum necessary, maximum affordable’ service;
- to develop new National Minimum Standards and ‘practice parameters’ on key issues;
- to move away from report writing towards providing direct support to children and their families; and
- commissioning of services.

Changes needed to meet these aims include:

- triaging referrals and a stronger discipline of case planning;
- inter-agency working;
- more use of short analytical reports and oral evidence in court;
- issuing joint guidance with judges, courts service managers and local authorities;
- less of a postcode lottery.

The service will :

- start with the children and stay with the children;
- make more use of IT to support contact;
- prioritise a child’s safety where violence is alleged;
- have a stronger focus on a child’s extended family network;
- provide stronger representation for adult victims; and
- develop out-of-court intervention.

The consultation closes on Tuesday 31 January 2006.

Areas of comment and concern raised at the meeting were :

- the value of out-of-court models of intervention;
- the challenges of changing the system: both the practice and the legal framework;
- the potential of kinship care placements/exploring extended family networks;
- the need for investment in the social care system;
- the bureaucratisation of social work and loss of professional confidence;
- the costs of prevention and intervention;
- change required in the workforce skills base to achieve CAFCASS’s objectives;
- the mainstreaming of work with adult.

Future meetings

The Officers of the APPGC have decided the remit of the Group’s work programme for the forthcoming year. The Group will, as usual, hold meetings focused on legislation relevant to children, for example on the Children and Adoption Bill, Education Bill etc.

The remainder of the Group’s focus will mainly be on the implementation of Every Child Matters and the Children Act 2004. This will include :

- hearing from the new Children’s Commissioner for England, Professor Al Aynsley-Green;
- development of children’s trusts;
- progress on information sharing etc.

The APPGC will also hold three topic based meetings, one on each of the following subjects :

- children’s rights in practice;
- child health; and
- youth justice.

Parliamentary recess runs from Tuesday 20th December to Monday 9th January.

Three meetings have been scheduled for early 2006 :

• Tuesday 17 January – Mental Health Bill: joint meeting with the APPG Mental Health and other APPGs;
• Monday 23 January – Child Impact Assessment project (NCB/Children’s Legal Centre) and forthcoming legislation;
• Monday 6 February – Youth Justice: with members of Young NCB.

Please contact Alison Linsey, Clerk to the Group (email: alinsey@ncb.org.uk):

• To be added to the email mailing list to receive minutes and notices of meetings
• For copies of minutes from any of the meetings
• For a free copy of the Group’s report ‘Commitment to Children’
• For any further information about the Group
 

 

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