Number of unallocated care applications plummets

The number of unallocated care applications going through the family courts has been reduced to almost zero, it has emerged.

The annual report of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) reveals that despite record numbers of care applications, there were just three unallocated cases by the end of March 2011.

This compares with 474 unallocated cases in March 2010, and 986 at the end of August 2009.

The report shows the improving picture comes despite continued high demand, showing that a surge in care applications since the Baby Peter case has been sustained.

In 2010/11, Cafcass received 11,986 new public law cases, of which 9,147 were care cases – up 3.6 per cent on the previous year’s unprecedented level.

In each month in 2010/11, except for June and December, care applications were at a record level for the specific individual month.

At the same time, reliance on duty allocations fell from 991 cases in March 2010 to 223 at the end of the year, a 77 per cent reduction.

“Our professional task remains a challenging one; to assess as quickly as we can but to assess well, leaving out no crucial factor,” Cafcass chief executive Anthony Douglas said in the report.

“With average caseloads having risen this year and with public law care demand continuing to rise, our professional task needs intensive support every day, in every team in the country.”

He said that a government transformation grant of £10m had helped to increase productivity by 12 per cent and that he felt “cautiously optimistic” about the future.

The latest figures follow criticism of Cafcass earlier this month when a group of MPs said government plans to subsume the organisation into a proposed new Family Justice Service do not go far enough.

A report by the justice select committee on the operation of the family courts called for the move to be the first in a series of reforms designed to transform the body into a less process-driven, more child-focused and integral part of family justice.

But Cafcass was praised by the committee for making “substantial progress” in reducing the number of unallocated and duty allocated cases in public and private law.