Setting

Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight service area

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Cafcass Hampshire and the Isle of Wight service area provide services to children and families in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton.

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Published: 20 April 2012 Reference no: A6-001 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit

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T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk No. A6-001

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Meeting the needs of service users 7

Ambition and prioritisation 7 Performance management 7 Workforce development 8 Partnerships 9 Equality and diversity 10 Value for money 11 Safeguarding 11 Evaluation 12

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Case planning and recording 14

Assessment, intervention and direct work with children 15 Reporting and recommendations to the court 15 Complaints 16

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Definitions 17

Inspection grades 17 ‘No order principle’ 17 Principle of ‘no delay’ 17 Private and public law 17 Section 37 enquiry 18 Welfare checklist 18 Schedule 2 letter 19

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Record of main findings 20

Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area

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Introduction

1. Ofsted carried out the inspection of service provision by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) in the Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area in the week commencing 19 March 2012.

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Introduction

2. Cafcass consists of a national office in London and the operational area is divided into service areas. The Head of Service is the senior manager in each service area and is accountable to the Operational Director. The Operational Director is directly accountable to the Cafcass Chief Executive.

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Introduction

3. The Cafcass Hampshire and the Isle of Wight service area provides services to children and families across the local authority areas of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton. Since 31 January 2012, one Operational Director has assumed responsibility for Cafcass nationally, in place of the previous arrangement whereby three operational directors were in post. The current Operational Director was formerly responsible for the Cafcass central service area. The Head of Service for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight has been in post since April 2011.

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Introduction

4. The professional staff who provide the social work service to children and families subject to private and public law proceedings are based in Portsmouth, Basingstoke and the Isle of Wight . Three operational service managers manage service delivery, supported by two enhanced practitioners, 35 (or whole-time equivalent) family court advisers, one family support worker, who is in the process of obtaining a professional qualification, and 7.5 (or whole-time equivalent) business support staff.

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Introduction

5. During the fieldwork, inspectors examined an extensive range of documentation and held meetings or telephone conversations with the judiciary, local authorities and interest groups. Interviews or discussions were held with the Operational Director, the Head of Service, a commissioning and partnership manager, family court advisers, and the operational service managers. Inspectors evaluated private and public law reports, case files, complaints records and staff supervision files and observed Cafcass practice with children and families using the service.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

6. The overall effectiveness of Cafcass in the Hampshire and the Isle of Wight service area is satisfactory. The service area knows itself well through established and regular self-evaluation and monitoring activities. This has resulted in an accurate and realistic understanding of strengths and areas for development. Appropriate action has been taken to drive improvement and ensure that staff have the required skills, knowledge and expertise to deliver increasingly good services. Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area 7. In a challenging context of needing to improve a number of key service priorities, good leadership has achieved effective use of resources and value for money. The service area is beginning to develop ways of involving children and young people in service design and delivery and in securing the views of adult service users.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

8. The quality of provision, although noticeably improving and with some good features, is satisfactory and not yet good overall. Robust systems are now in place to support better outcomes for children and young people and to prioritise safeguarding, but the quality of practice remains variable and is not yet consistently good. The service area has demonstrated improvement in performance resulting in a balance of satisfactory and good judgements across the evaluation schedule. In some aspects of the service, such as achieving a stable workforce and management team, improvements are relatively recent and the full impact of these is not yet demonstrated.

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Grade 2 (Good)

9. Capacity for improvement is good. Strong and ambitious leadership has resulted in a clear vision and agreed priorities for improvement which are understood and shared across the workforce. Changes have been effectively implemented to achieve better outcomes for service users and better use of resources. Action has been taken to address workforce instability and performance issues and to secure a suitably skilled, experienced and stable workforce.

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Grade 2 (Good)

10. Robust quality assurance and performance management systems are clearly resulting in improvements to service provision. Almost all performance indicators demonstrate good performance. The service area is currently meeting or exceeding national performance targets. In respect of allocation and filing times, these have been fully achieved since July 2011.

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Grade 2 (Good)

11. Good joint working with the majority of local authority partners, with the judiciary and with commissioned services have been established and are leading to better understanding of shared priorities, resulting in improvements to services.

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Areas for improvement

12. In order to improve the quality of provision and services for children and young people in Cafcass Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, the service area should take the following action. Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area

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Immediately

 Ensure that the required completion of equality and diversity information is integrated smoothly and appropriately into interviews with families.

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Within three months

 Develop a clear system for ensuring that outstanding safeguarding checks from local authorities and police are followed up in a timely fashion.  Improve the quality and consistency of Schedule 2 letters by ensuring that they succinctly summarise key safeguarding issues and provide other important information, for example parental responsibility and whether and when they have been shared with parties.

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Within six months

 Ensure that annual appraisals of staff accurately reflect the progress and developmental requirements of staff identified through regular management supervision.  Ensure that children and young people are provided with appropriate information and supported in their ability to raise concerns or make complaints about the service. Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area

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Grade 2 (Good)

13. Ambition and prioritisation are good. The Head of Service has demonstrated very strong ambition and prioritisation in improving the service area through establishing a secure workforce, managing poor performance, setting high practice expectations and clearly implementing national and local priorities. The management team is relatively newly established, but has a shared vision and agreed priorities for improvement. These are underpinned by a business plan that is reviewed quarterly to ensure that targeting is effective. Regular audits contribute to service development and these, together with performance information, enable managers to have a good understanding of what needs to improve.

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Grade 2 (Good)

14. The Operational Director provides a good level of support to the Head of Service and service managers. Regular meetings with colleagues from other areas ensure good communication and help to develop a shared understanding of national priorities and service development. The area has undergone significant change in the last year. The benefits of these changes are now being felt by staff, who are positive about management arrangements and the development of the service. Managers are visible and easily accessible to staff.

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Grade 2 (Good)

15. Partnerships with the judiciary and local authorities have improved significantly over the past year and this, together with the effective focus on performance, is improving outcomes for children and young people. Resources are being used effectively to improve efficiency, for example with the creation of a single early intervention team and the closure of one of the office bases.

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Grade 2 (Good)

16. Workforce planning has been effective in significantly reducing dependency on agency staff. Learning is used from audits, serious case reviews and complaints to ensure that training is focused effectively. Mentoring has been used to good effect in staff development, for example in the induction of new managers.

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Grade 2 (Good)

17. Safeguarding of children and young people is a high priority and the quality of safeguarding practice is improving, although there is more to be achieved. The quality of provision is satisfactory overall and improving, with some good aspects.

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Grade 2 (Good)

18. Performance management is good and there are strong arrangements in place. The Head of Service holds regular performance and allocation meetings to ensure that the volume of work is being managed well. All key performance indicators have improved during the last year, and almost all of them are now Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area at a high level and consistently better than the national average. This has had a positive impact for children and young people, resulting in cases being allocated swiftly and reports filed on time. A strong focus on closing cases promptly is leading to good improvements in the throughput of work.

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Grade 2 (Good)

19. Regular audits of practice mean that managers have good oversight of current performance. The findings from audits are used well to improve the quality of service, for example, leading to a clear focus on the importance of case plans, and on ensuring that lessons are learnt from serious case reviews. Performance monitoring of staff has become well established, particularly since the new management team has been in place. Appropriate remedial action is taken if performance is below expectations, and this is leading to improvements in practice.

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Grade 2 (Good)

20. Safeguarding of children and young people is a high priority and all practitioners have had the quality of their safeguarding practice assessed in the last 12 months. Performance has improved and most practitioners have been assessed as satisfactory, but the level is still below the national average. The reasons for this are known and performance action plans are in place with relevant staff to achieve improvement.

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Grade 2 (Good)

21. Workload weighting scores are closely monitored to ensure that workloads are reasonable, and this indicator has improved markedly during the last 12 months, with most practitioners now having caseloads within acceptable limits. Nevertheless, there are some weaknesses in the current workload weighting tool, which does not fully take into account such work factors as regular court duty days. Following consultation with staff these have been recognised and changes are proposed to the weighting system so that it more accurately reflects active workloads.

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Grade 2 (Good)

22. Financial management is also good. Budgets have been carefully managed, leading to more effective use of resources.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

23. Workforce development is underpinned by a strategic workforce plan that identifies appropriate key priorities such as deploying staff effectively and improving performance management. Effective action is being taken to improve staff recruitment and retention. Permanent appointments have been made to the management team and to family court adviser posts, and sickness absence is reducing. The use of agency staff, who had been contracted to ensure sufficient capacity, is now low. The workforce has undergone significant change in the last year, with relocation of staff, removal of some posts such as family support workers, and changes to business support. This has enabled some specialisation, such as the creation of one early intervention team for the whole Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area service area based in Portsmouth. Staff members spoken to by inspectors are

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

adjusting well to the changes, and express confidence in their managers.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

24. Many staff have been recruited relatively recently and are receiving good training and support as they develop in their roles. Training and development opportunities for more established staff members are also good. The area has invested in improving practice through themed audit and development days that focus on key areas of practice where the need for improvement has been identified. This is having a positive impact, for example on case planning. Supervision is regular and appraisals are in place, although links between appraisals and supervision are not robust. Performance is closely monitored and most staff are currently operating at a satisfactory level.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

25. Robust human resource processes are in place nationally to ensure that staff who are recruited are suitable to work with children. Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks are carried out on all staff prior to employment and references are taken up and agreed by the recruiting manager before contracts are issued.

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Grade 2 (Good)

26. Partnerships with key stakeholders and commissioned services are good. Local authorities predominantly report positively on the improvements in partnership working that have been achieved since the Head of Service came into post. Partnership working is used strategically to achieve practice improvements. There are good and effective resolution processes for any issues that might arise, for example relating to aspects of operational practice, and these are used appropriately. Local authorities report that, with improved management oversight of Cafcass practice, these instances have been reduced.

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Grade 2 (Good)

27. The service area engages effectively with the majority of the local children’s safeguarding boards and this includes good joint working to identify and implement lessons learned from a recent serious case review. Good work has taken place with some partner local authorities to project the number of children who will be subject to care proceedings in the future. However, further work is needed to develop partnership working with one of the partner local authorities and this is acknowledged.

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Grade 2 (Good)

28. There are good, well-established partnerships with the local judiciary. Members of the judiciary spoken to during the inspection report that partnerships are used well to achieve improvement and change in an overall context of increased demand and diminishing resources. Liaison meetings between the judiciary and Cafcass are well established and found to be effective, for example in achieving better use of resources through consolidating court listings.

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Grade 2 (Good)

29. Good commissioning practice supports effective use of resources and strong partnership working with commissioned service providers. There are good Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area arrangements in place for the monitoring and quality assurance of commissioned services. This results in the development of services to meet the changing needs of the families who require services from Cafcass, for example in respect of contact centre provision. Building on positive feedback from parents who engage in parenting information programmes (PIP), effective work has taken place with providers of these programmes with the establishment of a pilot project to further improve the impact of these interventions. Formal evaluation of this project is currently in progress.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

30. Equality and diversity is satisfactory. Effective work is being undertaken to raise awareness of equality and diversity among staff across the service and to ensure that this is demonstrated in practice. Nevertheless, practice remains variable. While equality and diversity was well explored by practitioners in some direct practice observed by inspectors, in other cases and in a number of case files seen, aspects of diversity were only superficially addressed. Inspectors observed a number of cases where the need for obtaining equality and diversity information was not well explained or integrated into the interview, resulting in minimal information.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

31. Most case plans consider the diverse needs of children, but the quality of this work is variable. Some plans take account of a range of factors such as housing and employment, as well as ethnicity, but in other cases the consideration given to the impact of aspects of diversity is too narrow. Managers are aware that some practitioners need to explore diversity in families where this is not immediately apparent. This has been a focus of recent training that most staff have now completed, with the remaining staff undertaking this in the near future. A wide range of diversity training has been offered to staff and issues are regularly discussed in team meetings.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

32. The local area is taking steps to ensure that children and young people’s views about services are sought and listened to. A small number of children and young people have recently been consulted about their experience of Cafcass. Identified themes, such as the need for a greater focus on the individual unique needs of each child, have been taken back into practice. There are plans to expand on this work. In addition the service has devised a children’s survey form that will be distributed to each young person through their local authority independent reviewing officer at the conclusion of care proceedings. A local representative from the national Cafcass Young People’s Board has contributed to recent recruitment interviews and has made valuable contributions for example in exploring diversity issues with candidates.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

33. Services are accessible to local families through good interview facilities which are available at both Portsmouth and Basingstoke offices. Elsewhere, for example in Southampton, where the local Cafcass office facilities can no longer Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area be sustained for reasons of economy and efficiency, good arrangements are in place for use of suitable local facilities. Premises used comply with legislation in respect of disability access. Additionally, there are arrangements for practitioners to visit service users at their homes or local contact offices where there are other issues of access or mobility.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

34. The service area’s equality impact assessment appropriately analyses where further action is required, for example in respect of disability or establishing better links with some community groups such as Travellers or the Polish community. Plans are in place to further develop work in these areas. The workforce broadly reflects the local population in terms of ethnicity. However, the service recognises the need to acquire a more diverse staff profile to ensure that the workforce becomes more representative of communities it serves, particularly in relation to age and gender.

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Grade 2 (Good)

35. Value for money is good. The service area manages its resources well to ensure effective and efficient delivery of services. Financial planning is robust and is supported by good financial monitoring systems. The service is forecast to operate within the budget set for the financial year 2011/12.

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Grade 2 (Good)

36. A number of effective measures have been taken to reduce costs while maintaining services in the current financial climate. A strategic review of staff functions has resulted in a reduction in business support posts with more efficient deployment of the remaining support staff, and the commissioning of specific services such as use of contact centres in place of family support worker posts. Good action has been taken to reduce the costs of self-employed contractors and to use these savings to create permanent staff posts. Family court advisers are issued with laptops to enable home and remote working and increase efficiency. An early intervention team based in Portsmouth provides an effective service across the area, achieving good performance in respect of timely filing of reports.

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Grade 2 (Good)

37. The workload management system is used well to inform weekly performance and allocation meetings. This has helped to increase the substantive case allocation to practitioners achieving increased value for money. Managers have increased their focus on throughput of work resulting in a significant reduction in cases awaiting closure. Difficulties of staff turnover, vacancies and sickness rates have been addressed resulting in more effective use of resources.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

38. The contribution of the service area to safeguarding children and young people is satisfactory. The area appropriately prioritises safeguarding children with all Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area cases promptly allocated to suitably qualified practitioners. During practice observed by inspectors, workers explored safeguarding issues well. However, not all case files demonstrated such a high level of attention to safeguarding. In a very small minority of the cases seen by inspectors safeguarding aspects were not thoroughly considered in case plans and reports to court. The Head of Service area took immediate remedial action after being made aware of these cases. Nevertheless, the quality of safeguarding assessments in most case plans and reports is at least satisfactory. However, while most identify the risks in a case, fewer thoroughly address what the implications are for the children

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

39. The proportion of practitioners rated as satisfactory or better for the quality of their practice in safeguarding was significantly lower than the national average in April 2011. This is a key performance indicator. There is an underlying local trend of improvement since then but the year to date average is 85% and remains below the national average of 96%. All practitioners have now been assessed on this measure over the last 12 months and the reasons for this performance are known with action being taken to address. This reflects the rigorous approach taken over the past year to identify and challenge areas of poor performance by some staff. Safeguarding knowledge and practice are regularly and effectively assessed in supervision and additional support has led to improvements in the practice of some workers.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

40. Sufficient safeguarding training is available and attended by staff. Lessons from a recent serious case review have been disseminated well to staff and focused training has taken place that has contributed to improved safeguarding practice. Staff members are alert to their safeguarding responsibilities, making appropriate and, in most cases, timely referrals to the local authority when safeguarding concerns are identified.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

41. The contribution of the service to local safeguarding children boards is good overall, with effective contributions by Cafcass managers, for example in working to reduce delays in court hearings.

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Grade 2 (Good)

42. Evaluation is good and self-evaluation by the area provides a realistic analysis of strengths and weaknesses. Strategic plans identify accurately where improvements are needed and good progress is being made on these priorities. The recent internal health check is detailed and accurate, offering a clear steer on areas for further improvement.

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Grade 2 (Good)

43. Service managers have good awareness of the business plan and the arising key priorities for their teams and the area as a whole. The impact of self- evaluation is evident in most areas where it is needed. For example, all cases Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area are now allocated to a named practitioner, delay in allocation has been eliminated and active performance management is in place. Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area

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Grade 2 (Good)

44. Service responsiveness has improved significantly and is now good. Effective action has been taken to ensure that both private and public law cases are allocated within timescales. The timeliness of allocation of public and private law cases is good and the key performance indicators are above the national average. Since July 2011, all Section 7 reports have been filed by the agreed date with performance above the national average. All private law cases are allocated and all public law cases are allocated by the case management conference. However, in a few cases sampled by inspectors, there was evidence of delay in service responsiveness with re-allocations of cases to subsequent practitioners leading to some drift.

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Grade 2 (Good)

45. The area has good awareness of the key challenges that they are actively working to improve. Good engagement with courts has taken place to ensure that the required notice period is given before a first hearing date to enable the effective gathering of information and filing times to be met. Work is also being undertaken with local councils to improve the timeliness of local authority checks and to ensure that there is greater clarity about the information that local councils provide to enable an effective risk assessment to be undertaken. The area has recognised the need for greater clarity about responsibilities and timeliness of chasing safeguarding checks that have not been received.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

46. Effective action has been taken to improve the quality of case plans and implement learning from serious case reviews. The impact of this can be seen in some good quality case plans, which include an appropriate focus on the impact of risk, protective and diversity factors. While the majority of case plans seen were of a satisfactory standard, produced in a timely fashion and suitably child-focused, the quality of case plans is variable. Some omit key information or lack detail about the proposed plan of work or timescales. In many cases it is not clear whether the plan has been shared with the relevant family members. It is not always clear when plans have been reviewed nor are significant changes to the plan always sufficiently explained in the review records.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

47. Case records including contact logs are generally up to date and of satisfactory standard. Most include appropriate detail that provides a clear picture of the progress and developments in the case. Some records are not sufficiently clear, making progress and developments harder to identify. Understanding of some records is impeded by over frequent use of initials or acronyms. Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area

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Grade 2 (Good)

48. Assessment, intervention and direct work with children are good. Parents, children and young people and other agencies are effectively involved in assessments with examples of objective and detailed observations of parents’ interactions with children. Practitioners demonstrate good awareness of the risk factors associated with family disruption, conflict, domestic violence and attachment difficulties on children’s well-being with appropriate use of research and learning from serious case reviews. Children are seen, observed and engaged appropriate to their age and understanding in assessments, and their views are included in reports.

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Grade 2 (Good)

49. The direct practice observed during the inspection was of predominantly good quality, including some very good, as well as some satisfactory, practice. Practitioners engaged well and sensitively with parents and children in a range of different family situations. They demonstrated clarity about their role and communicated this well. Engagement was seen to be focused and purposeful, enabling parents to put forward their views and concerns. Practitioners were open and honest about concerns and safeguarding issues, suitably probing and seeking clarification.

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Grade 2 (Good)

50. The majority of local authorities spoken to during the inspection value the contribution made by Cafcass practitioners in achieving the best outcomes for children who are involved in court processes. Family court advisers exercise appropriate challenge to local authorities’ care plans for children and, in cases sampled, use of experts was appropriate.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

51. Reporting and recommendations to the court are satisfactory. The majority of court reports and Schedule 2 letters seen by inspectors were at least satisfactory and some were good. Reports include parents’ and children’s views and overall they demonstrate a good focus on the child. Recommendations are appropriate and flow from the analysis of the case.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

52. Managers have increased their oversight of the quality of report writing and this has been valued by practitioners. A number of reports make good use of relevant research to reinforce analysis and conclusions. Members of the judiciary report very positively on the quality of Cafcass reports and recommendations in assisting to determine the best outcome for a child.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

53. Nevertheless, some reports include statements and opinions that are not backed up by evidence or are insufficiently explicit about the evidence on which the practitioner has based their conclusions and recommendations. In others, children and young people’s views are not sufficiently well represented. While Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area reports are shared with parents, on occasions this is too close to the hearing date to enable parents to read and digest the report.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

54. Schedule 2 letters are of satisfactory quality overall. They are completed within required timescales and appropriately set out the key safeguarding factors that may influence the court’s decision-making. Some are succinct and focused while others include excessive detail and are not sufficiently summative of the information obtained. Most letters follow a standard format, but lack consistency on certain issues such as whether the parties have parental responsibility or whether the letter has been shared with them.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

55. The response to complaints from families using the service is satisfactory. Cafcass has recently taken action to improve the handling of complaints nationally to ensure greater clarity and consistency of response. A national team has been developed with specialist expertise. All service users have been made aware of national changes to the complaints procedure. This has led to increased awareness of how to make complaints and resulted in a very significant increase nationally in the number of complaints received during the last month. The responses to complaints are now consistently shared with the court and performance is monitored to ensure that this takes place within appropriate timescales. A systematic approach to organisational learning from complaints is being developed and, over the past year, action has been taken to improve practice as a result of such learning, for example through customer

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

service training to ensure that callers are responded to promptly.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

56. While parents and carers are made aware of complaints procedures at the beginning of their involvement with Cafcass, there is no specific information available for children and young people about the process and this is an area for development.

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Grade 3 (Satisfactory)

57. Since November 2011, all complaints within the Hampshire and the Isle of Wight service area have been responded to within the required 10 days. There have been no complaints received from children and young people in the local area, although steps are being taken locally to gauge the views of children and young people. For example, a survey has recently been developed and is given to children at the end of their involvement with the service. A small number of positive responses have been received to date. In local complaints sampled by inspectors the quality of response was adequate overall and in a small number of cases good, with evidence of learning identified for individual practitioners. In a small number of cases both the delay in responding to the complaints and quality of the response was unsatisfactory. Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area

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Inspection grades

Grade 1 – outstanding The service provided is well above the minimum requirements and makes a demonstrable contribution to improving outcomes for children and young people. Grade 2 – Good The service provided is consistently above the minimum requirements and contributes to improving outcomes for most children and young people. Grade 3 – satisfactory The service provided meets minimum requirements and contributes to improving outcomes for children and young people. Grade 4 – inadequate Minimum requirements are not met by the service and it makes little or no contribution to improved outcomes for children and young people.

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‘No order principle’

Children Act 1989 section 1(5) is known as the ‘no order principle’. 1 It states: ‘Where a court is considering whether or not to make one or more orders under this Act with respect to a child, it shall not make the order or any of the orders unless it considers that doing so would be better for the child than making no order at all.’ The ‘no order principle’ ‘is consistent with two of the philosophies underlying the Children Act 1989: that there should be minimum state intervention in family life and that parents should exercise and be encouraged to exercise responsibility for their children’. 2

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Principle of ‘no delay’

Section 1(2) of the Children Act 1989 sets out the general principle that any delay in determining the question about a child’s upbringing ‘is likely to prejudice the welfare of the child’. This means that any unnecessary delay should be avoided.

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Private and public law

Family law is that area of the law which regulates and deals with family and domestic relations, including, but not limited to, marriage, civil and domestic partnerships and the welfare of children. Where these matters are dealt with by courts, they are known as family proceedings. The person or body that brings the issue to court is known as the applicant and the person or body opposing the application is known as the respondent. In general terms applicants and respondents are known as parties to the proceedings.

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Private and public law

1 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/contents . 2 See footnote 1. Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area Private law is that part of the family law where the state does not normally need to be involved. Private law proceedings involving Cafcass are usually about situations where parents have separated and they cannot agree where a child should live or with whom they should have contact. The law that established Cafcass states that it should only become involved in family proceedings where the welfare of the child is, or may be, in question.

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Private and public law

Private law cases are dealt with through what is known as The Private Law Programme. This is designed to provide a framework for the consistent national approach to the resolution of issues in private law proceedings. It is designed to assist parties to reach safe agreements where possible, to provide a forum in which to find the best way to resolve issues in each individual case and to promote outcomes that are sustainable, that are in the best interests of children and that take account of their perspectives.

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Private and public law

Public law is that part of the family law which deals with relationships between parents, or those with a parental role, where the state does need to be involved to ensure that a child does not suffer significant harm. Court proceedings are usually initiated by a local authority applying for a care or supervision order. This may result in the child being looked after by the local authority under a care order. Adoption- related applications are also normally public law proceedings.

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Private and public law

Public law cases are dealt with through the Public Law Outline. 3 This is a system aimed to control delay in family court public law proceedings. It was introduced across England and Wales in April 2009, with new Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities.

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Section 37 enquiry

Section 37(1) of the Children Act 1989 sets out the following powers of the court: ‘Where, in any family proceedings in which a question arises with respect to the welfare of any child, it appears to the court that it may be appropriate for a care or supervision order to be made with respect to him, the court may direct the appropriate authority to undertake an investigation of the child’s circumstances.’ The appropriate authority is the local area children’s services.

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Welfare checklist

The Children Act 1989 section 1(3) sets out what is known as the welfare checklist. It comprises seven features that should be balanced equally when courts consider whether an order should be made. The welfare checklist considers: children’s wishes and feelings; their physical, emotional and educational needs; the likely effect of any change in circumstances; characteristics that make up their identity; any harm suffered or at risk of suffering; parental capability; and the court’s powers. The Adoption and Children Act 2002 section 120 extends the definition of harm within

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Welfare checklist

3 For further information visit: www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/careproceedings.htm Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area the meaning of the Children Act 1989 section 31, ‘including, for example, impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another’. 4 Under court rules, Cafcass practitioners are under a duty to have regard to ‘the matters set out in section 1(3)’. Note: Requirements in regulations and court rules are not ‘statutory’ in that they are not set out in a statute and are therefore secondary legislation.

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Schedule 2 letter

A Schedule 2 letter is provided to courts by Cafcass for first directions hearings in private law proceedings. The letter informs the court about whether there are any risk factors to children known at that stage in proceedings which the court should consider before deciding next steps. The duty on Cafcass to make risk assessments is set out in section 16A Children Act 1989.

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Schedule 2 letter

4 www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2002/ukpga_20020038_en_9#pt2-l1g120 Ofsted inspection of Cafcass: Hampshire and Isle of Wight service area

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Record of main findings

Cafcass service area: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Overall effectiveness Satisfactory Capacity for improvement Good Meeting the needs of service users Ambition and prioritisation Good Performance management Good Workforce development Satisfactory Partnerships Good Equality and diversity Satisfactory Value for money Good Safeguarding Satisfactory Evaluation Good Quality of provision Service responsiveness Good Case planning and recording Satisfactory Assessment, intervention and direct work with children Good Reporting and recommendations to the court Satisfactory Complaints Satisfactory

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