Setting

Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area

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Cafcass North Yorkshire and Humberside service area provides services to children and families in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, City of York, North Yorkshire, North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire.

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Published: August 2009 Reference no: N4 – 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 rates council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection. If you would like a copy of this report in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 08456 404040, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may copy all or parts of this document for non-commercial educational purposes, as long as you give details of the source and date of publication and do not alter the information in any way.

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Royal Exchange Buildings St Ann’s Square Manchester M2 7LA T: 08456 404040 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.ofsted.gov.uk No. 090168 Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area

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Areas for improvement 6

Immediately 6 Within three months 7 Within six months 7

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Meeting the needs of service users 7

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

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Quality of provision 12

Service responsiveness 12 Case planning and recording 13 Assessment, intervention and direct work with children 13 Reporting and recommendations to the court 14 Complaints 14 Outcomes for children and young people 15

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Definitions 16

Inspection grades 16 ‘No order principle’ 16 Principle of ‘no delay’ 16 Private and public law 16 Welfare checklist 17 Accountability Review 17 Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area

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Introduction

Ofsted carried out the inspection of service provision by the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass) in the North Yorkshire and Humberside service area in the week commencing 13 July 2009.

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Introduction

Cafcass consists of a national office in London and three geographical sectors – north, central and south – which are each divided into service areas. The Head of Service is the senior manager in each service area and is accountable to the sector’s Operational Director. The Operational Directors are directly accountable to the Cafcass Chief Executive.

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Introduction

At the time of the inspection there was an interim Operational Director and an interim Head of Service, who had been in post for three and six weeks respectively.

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Introduction

The Cafcass North Yorkshire and Humberside service area provides services to children and families across the local authority areas of Kingston upon Hull, City of York, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, North East Lincolnshire and North Lincolnshire.

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Introduction

The professional staff who provide the social work service to children and families subject to private and public law proceedings are organised in teams in Scunthorpe, Grimsby, Hull, York and Scarborough. Four operational service managers manage service delivery, supported by two specialist managers: one for quality improvement and one for customer service, complaints handling and organisational learning.

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Introduction

During the fieldwork, inspectors examined an extensive range of documentation and held meetings with stakeholders, the judiciary, local authorities and interest groups. Interviews were held with members of staff, the Operational Director (North), the interim Head of Service, the Head of Service (North) for quality improvement, the senior human resources manager, family court advisers and all the service managers. Inspectors evaluated private and public law reports, case files, complaints records, human resources files, duty systems and Cafcass work at court. They surveyed the views of Cafcass staff, adult service users, children and young people. Because the service area did not provide sufficient opportunities to directly observe practice with service users, inspectors saw only a very limited sample of Cafcass practice. Inspectors also visited young people at home, met two children looked after by the

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Introduction

local authority and conducted face-to-face and telephone interviews with adult service users. Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area

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Grade 4

The overall effectiveness of the Cafcass North Yorkshire and Humberside service area is inadequate.

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Grade 4

While to some extent the service area meets the Cafcass statutory functions and resources are deployed effectively to ensure that this is sustained, the leadership team is very new and minimum standards are not met in key areas of service delivery to children and families.

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Grade 4

There are some areas of strength. The service area has a good track record in meeting demand and, until recently, there has been no sustained delay in service provision. Relationships with the judiciary are good and most reports to court are satisfactory or better. Safeguarding and the Every Child Matters outcome for staying safe are satisfactory.

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Grade 4

However, there are weaknesses in many aspects of management and service provision to children and families. Case planning, assessment, intervention, direct work, complaints handling, equality and diversity and the overall promotion of improved outcomes for children and young people are inadequate. While duty systems have been introduced to manage cases on the waiting list they do not yet offer a direct service to children and families whose cases have not been allocated. The area has only recently recognised the complexities and challenges involved in managing a large group of staff who work from home and are geographically dispersed.

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Grade 4

Prior to the inspection the leadership of the service had not accurately assessed the amount of change required to achieve sustained improvement in service delivery to children and families. The service area has now assessed appropriately that its most significant weaknesses are in the effectiveness of its performance improvement and the accountability of its staff and managers.

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Grade 4

The majority of children and young people surveyed say they are satisfied with the service they have received from Cafcass in North Yorkshire and Humberside. However, most also said that their views had little effect on what happened. Engagement with service users is very weak in this service area, particularly their influence on improving service design and delivery.

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Grade 4

While robust human resources action has been taken with those staff who have been assessed as in need of performance improvement, that action is unnecessarily limited to a focus on compliance and it is not yet effective. Capacity to improve is inadequate. Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area

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Grade 4

While there are strengths in the family court adviser workforce, the management vacancies and lack of family support workers restrict the overall capacity of the service area. Recruitment and other human resources processes are sound and value for money is satisfactory. Although recently constituted, the management team has taken some appropriate steps in a short space of time to ensure that poor staff performance is identified and action to improve performance is taken.

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Grade 4

However, these steps have not yet had time to demonstrate impact. They focus almost exclusively on compliance with policy and procedure and do not pay sufficient attention to other change management outcomes that are needed to sustain improvement, particularly to achieve effective accountability within the workforce. The failure by managers to implement the Cafcass Accountability Review was a significant strategic error of judgement which has disadvantaged staff and managers in addressing accountability in the service area.

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Grade 4

A recent increase in demand has led to some growing delay in allocating cases. Some of the cases awaiting allocation have significant risk factors, such as adult mental ill health or serious offences associated with the case. However, the duty systems assess risks effectively and prioritise appropriately cases for allocation.

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Grade 4

Performance management systems are not yet effective in achieving the necessary improvements in practice. Performance in gathering data for the organisation’s main performance improvement tool, Quality for Children, is poor when compared nationally. The level of vacancies in the workforce, particularly in management posts, and the fact that many appointments have been so recent, demonstrate that there is currently insufficient capacity to drive quality improvement.

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Grade 4

While there is good evidence that robust action is now being taken with under- performing staff, and senior management has been significantly strengthened, the leadership team has not been in place long enough to be able to demonstrate a track record of service improvement.

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Areas for improvement

In order to improve the quality of provision and services for children and young people in Cafcass, the service area should take the following action.

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Immediately

„ Ensure that the quality of all case planning, assessment, intervention, reporting and direct work with children reaches at least minimum standards consistently across the service area. Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area „ Ensure staff at all levels, including senior managers, demonstrate consistently their accountability to the organisation. „ Ensure duty systems promote and are effective in responding to the needs of service users in the interim, while cases are awaiting allocation. „ Ensure that management arrangements for homeworkers are effective and consistent with the Cafcass expectations of office-based staff. „ Ensure that performance improvement strategies use a range of change management techniques to achieve outcomes that support cultural change, as well as improvement of individual performance and compliance of staff.

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Within three months

„ Ensure that case plans and recommendations to court are shared with children and families appropriately. „ Ensure that the management and handling of complaints is consistent with the Cafcass complaints policy.

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Within six months

„ Ensure that the impact of family disruption on all aspects of the Every Child Matters outcomes for children is considered fully when planning assessments and is demonstrated in reports and recommendations to court. „ Secure meaningful participation by children, young people and families in improving services.

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Grade 4

Ambition and prioritisation are inadequate overall.

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Grade 4

The inspection followed very recent changes in senior and middle management in this Cafcass service area. Current weaknesses demonstrate that prior to those changes, leadership failed to identify and put right significant deficits in service delivery to ensure satisfactory performance by both office- and home-based staff. Prompt action has not been taken to address weaknesses identified in practice audits and there is a lack of clarity in the standards expected of staff. A number of key Cafcass national strategies, policies and procedures have been given low priority and are only now being fully implemented. These include the Accountability Review and important aspects of the national quality assurance framework, Quality for Children.

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Grade 4

Local service planning is linked to national priorities and satisfactorily addresses some aspects, for example workforce planning and report filing. However, service planning has not been effective in securing improvement in practice or addressing inconsistencies in performance across the service area. The new management team Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area has recently identified the key issues and challenges facing the service area and plans are in place to address these. However, these plans are not yet risk assessed or focused on clear objectives and best outcomes for children and young people.

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Grade 4

Lines of accountability are not effective and, until recently, senior managers have not had a clear picture of performance in the service area. Not all staff demonstrate that they are accountable to and engaged with Cafcass as a national organisation that is delivering a local service. There is evidence of a significant lack of compliance with organisational requirements, including an account of the work undertaken through case records and for assessments made. Robust action is now being taken to address this but there is not yet sufficient evidence to demonstrate that it is effective. While recovery planning is satisfactory, it is mainly compliance driven and is not sufficiently varied in the range of possible methods to achieve the necessary change in outcomes.

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Grade 4

There is evidence of some good partnership working with stakeholders, including the judiciary and local authorities. Commissioning arrangements are satisfactory.

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Grade 4

The service area does not have an embedded culture of effective performance management. Average performance against most national Cafcass performance indicators is satisfactory, although performance is variable across the area. However, although quality assurance arrangements alerted senior managers to serious weaknesses in the quality of practice and failures by some staff to comply with organisational expectations, corrective action was not taken. While some aspects of Quality for Children have been implemented this has not yet demonstrated improvement in key aspects of practice where performance is weak, such as case planning, recording and including service users in assessment.

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Grade 4

When poor practice has been identified, for example through practice audit, the management response has been inadequate. Supervision decisions and management oversight of case work is not well evidenced on files and the quality of work is not routinely scrutinised by managers. This is inadequate.

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Grade 4

Recent management action, both through the use of individual action plans and formal human resources procedures, has been appropriately instigated for staff whose performance is of concern. However, these measures have only been recently introduced and have not yet had impact. Historical shortages of staff in the quality improvement team in the service area, and the north sector as a whole, mean that action to support improvement in the quality of practice, for example through mentoring and coaching, has been very limited in capacity and effectiveness. Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area

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Grade 3

Effective workforce plans are in place to ensure a more flexible staffing structure to better respond to changing need and demand. North Yorkshire and Humberside covers a wide geographical area, is characterised by a high proportion of home- based staff and has experienced very recent changes in management. Prompt interim arrangements have been made to ensure all key management posts are covered, but this has resulted in a new and relatively inexperienced management team.

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Grade 3

The staffing complement for the area has the potential to meet demand when all posts are filled. Staff retention is good and recruitment is mostly effective, although there have been difficulties in recruitment to some posts, particularly family support workers.

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Grade 3

Although its effectiveness has not been evaluated, training is generally well regarded by staff at all levels. A range of appropriate training is available to managers, reflecting the support and development needs of those new in post. However, the service area has been slow to address some training needs. The service area improvement plan covers this deficit and includes for example a good plan to address training needs in equality and diversity issues.

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Grade 3

Staff appraisals are of variable quality and, while most are satisfactory, some are very poor.

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Grade 4

While the service area has undertaken a survey to obtain the views of service users, the number of responses to the survey was too low to be useful. Cafcass young inspectors reported very recently on office accommodation but their recommendations have yet to be implemented. The survey of user views undertaken by Ofsted for this inspection found that the majority of the 67 children and young people and the 134 adults who responded were satisfied with the services they receive from Cafcass. However, they also said that, following their contact with Cafcass, little had changed for the better in their cases and a large minority of children said that their views had little effect on what happened.

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Grade 4

There is very little effective focus on service users in this service area. The impact of user views on service development and design has yet to be demonstrated and there is no local strategy to develop this. It is inadequate that the new duty system does Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area not yet offer a direct service to children and families whose case is awaiting allocation.

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Grade 3

Arrangements for working with key stakeholders, relevant agencies, community groups and commissioned services are satisfactory overall.

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Grade 3

Effective liaison arrangements are in place with some organisations but links with local authorities vary across the service area. There are very positive links with the courts and effective liaison meetings are held regularly across the area. The training courses delivered by Cafcass to magistrates and to staff in local authorities have been well received. A protocol about the management of domestic violence has been implemented in one local authority area, but other protocols have yet to be initiated. Although service providers who have been commissioned by Cafcass reported that they have good links with the service area, they also say they are not used effectively to develop and design services in Cafcass. There is evidence of good liaison and communication with local authorities about individual cases, but more systematic and formal arrangements to address issues at a strategic level are at an early stage of development.

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Grade 4

Work to promote equality and diversity is inadequate.

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Grade 4

Most children, young people and adults are treated with dignity and respect. In a service area in which the demographic profile of service users is predominantly White British, most service users report that equality issues are addressed. The area meets national performance indicators in diversity monitoring of service users and complainants. A recent but very small internal audit of work in one office found that equality and diversity practice was satisfactory.

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Grade 4

However, the monitoring information collected is not regularly analysed by local managers to improve local service design or quality, and because they had been completed very recently there is no evidence of any effective equality impact assessment in the service area. While there is some culturally sensitive and inclusive good practice with families in assessments and court reports, this was the exception in some rather than the rule in most cases. There is evidence that some Cafcass practitioners demonstrate a rather basic and in some instances poor understanding of equality and diversity, which is unsatisfactory practice. Examples include failing to balance faith-based and cultural differences in approaches to parenting, or in making appointments to see working mothers with children without negotiating a time suitable to the family routine. Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area

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Grade 3

The service area meets most of the national performance targets set by Cafcass. The area is in the second-best quartile for national performance in value for money measures, which is an indicator of satisfactory performance. Effective arrangements for monitoring the costs of commissioned services are in place. However, management oversight of the appropriateness of work undertaken on court duty systems is not effective across the service area and leads to some inefficient working.

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Grade 3

There is also evidence of unnecessary duplication of work in some cases, for example where co-working has no safety benefit or discernible effective outcome on practice improvement. There are examples of good casework practice that assist an effective and efficient conclusion, but these are counterbalanced by examples of less efficient use of time and resources in some individual cases, for example in a public law case where the Cafcass court report simply echoed the local authority report without adding value through critical analysis. Where there are weaknesses in the service area, there are some examples of resources being appropriately adjusted to make improvements, for example moving stronger managers into place.

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Grade 3

The contribution of the service area to safeguarding children and young people is satisfactory.

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Grade 3

Most managers and staff demonstrate a good awareness of their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding children. Most have received training on how to respond to incidents of risk and how to undertake risk assessments .

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Grade 3

Managers’ engagement with most of the Local Safeguarding Children Boards is satisfactory, but not all staff are fully aware of the training opportunities provided by the boards. The service area made a good contribution to one serious case review and this has added to lessons learned at a national and local level to improve practice. In some parts of the service area family court advisers attend multi-agency risk assessment conferences in respect of domestic violence cases when necessary.

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Grade 3

Most work undertaken in the Cafcass service area is child focused, and action in response to safeguarding concerns is timely and appropriately monitored. The judiciary report that safeguarding issues are considered in court reports. Work undertaken by Cafcass at court, known as ‘court duty’, ‘work to first hearing’ and directions hearings, is appropriately risk assessed. Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area Where completed, risk assessments are effective and checks with, for example, the police, are comprehensively undertaken. However, in one team in particular, many case files did not meet Cafcass requirements and key documents including risk assessments were not completed consistently across the service area.

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Grade 3

In most cases where domestic violence is a feature, cases are screened well and appropriate notifications and referrals made. Duty systems effectively screen and assess safeguarding issues, but systems to reassess unallocated cases held on duty are not yet sufficiently robust.

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Grade 3

Service area recruitment systems comply well with safe recruitment procedures including the maintenance of up-to-date Criminal Record Bureau checks.

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Grade 3

Local office facilities and practices ensure good compliance with the need to protect service users’ confidentiality.

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Grade 3

The initial self-assessment submitted to Ofsted was inadequate. However, through the process of preparing for this inspection, the new interim Head of Service and Operational Director have appropriately revised the self-assessment of the service’s strengths and weaknesses. The revised self-assessment is more robust and self- aware and managers have demonstrated a strong commitment to using the inspection process to drive forward improvement.

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Grade 3

The service area has consistently and accurately understood its throughput of work. This has included, until recently, prompt allocation of cases and timely filing of reports, where performance is generally at least satisfactory. Service plans address some areas of weakness.

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Grade 3

Service responsiveness is satisfactory overall.

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Grade 3

Practitioners demonstrate a clear understanding of the importance of avoiding delay in meeting the needs of children and young people. Overall, the area performs well against the national performance targets for both allocation and completion of reports. Completion rates for private law cases outperform both local and national benchmarks. Good working relationships with courts ensure that in most cases reports are requested only where there is a welfare issue involving children and young people. This is undertaken through the provision of a responsive court duty Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area service and by effective links with other court users such as solicitors. However, although overall average performance is good, the rate of allocation and completion of work varies too much between individual offices.

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Grade 3

In common with national trends, there is a recent increase in demand leading to some delay in allocating cases. Insufficient remedial action has been taken to address this and some service users have not been kept sufficiently informed about delay in their case.

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Grade 4

Case planning and recording is inadequate.

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Grade 4

Case planning and recording do not meet consistently the standards required by Cafcass and most do not provide an adequate account of the work undertaken. In most cases, case plans are not used as an effective planning tool. They do not have enough detail and plans are not sufficiently robust to achieve the expected outcomes. Few case files demonstrate that case plan reviews are completed. In the majority of cases, recording is not sufficiently comprehensive and assessment decisions are not transparent. Too many records are difficult to read, often due to the quality of handwriting. In a small number of cases, no plans or recording were evident on the case file.

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Grade 4

There is a lack of recorded management oversight in the majority of cases. Where an audit has been undertaken by managers, this is almost always after the case has been closed and so does not make an impact in improving the quality in those cases. It is unsatisfactory that case plans and assessments are not shared routinely with children and young people and their families.

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Grade 4

However, where there is evidence of good quality, well-structured case planning and clear recording it demonstrates work that has a positive impact on outcomes for children, young people and their families.

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Grade 4

Assessment, intervention and direct work with children are inadequate overall.

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Grade 4

A structured assessment tool to inform planning and decision making with children and young people is not used in the area. As a result, there is an overall lack of consistency in assessments and it is not always demonstrated that interventions meet the assessed needs of children, young people and their families. There is little evidence that assessments are reviewed as part of the ongoing assessment process. The lack of consistency in assessment practice is compounded by a lack of management oversight which should drive improvement in the quality of practitioners’ work to improve outcomes for children and their families. Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area However, there are some strengths in assessment, intervention and direct work with children. The majority of work is appropriately child centred and purposeful. In a large majority of cases, children and young people felt that their family court adviser

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Grade 4

listened to them and spent enough time talking to them. In most public law cases practitioners effectively scrutinise the assessments and plans of the local authority to ensure that the needs of the children and young people are best met.

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Grade 3

Reporting and recommendations to the court are satisfactory overall.

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Grade 3

Report writing is satisfactory or better in the majority of cases read by inspectors. Most reports contain evidence to support their recommendations to the court and make assessments using the welfare checklist, including use of the ‘no order’ principle. Children and young people confirm that, in general, family court advisers have a clear focus on their needs and represent their views appropriately in reports. The judiciary confirm that, in the main, reports are of good quality and instrumental in their decision making.

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Grade 3

However, a small minority of reports do not contain recommendations and others do not comprehensively review all the options available to the court. This significantly limits the effectiveness of those reports. It is unsatisfactory that, where appropriate, the recommendations in reports are not shared with children, young people and their families in advance of their hearing.

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Grade 4

There is a very low level of complaints from children and young people, suggesting that the service area has not yet found an effective way of reaching out to learn and get feedback from them. Overall, the area has a lower number of complaints than the average for Cafcass service areas, but too many of these are dealt with poorly at the first stage of local contact with complainants. The service area is timely in acknowledging that a complaint has been made, although in some cases there is unacceptable delay in making a substantive response.

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Grade 4

An audit of practice where complaints had been completed showed that it was often not possible to trace what steps had been taken or what the outcome was. In a few cases this audit overstated the positive quality of the response to the complainant. Similarly, in a small number of cases, when service users alleged that Cafcass practitioners had acted unprofessionally, managers failed to address the issues raised. Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area Plans to make better use of learning from complaints have not yet been implemented because of changes in key personnel. A permanent Customer Service Manager has been appointed to support the learning process. Recent changes in service area management have raised the priority of giving a good quality response to complainants, and there is some evidence of appropriate improvement action being taken.

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Grade 4

The contribution of the service area to improving outcomes for children is inadequate overall.

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Grade 4

All annual individual performance development plans for family court advisers now include an objective to improve performance on addressing Every Child Matters outcomes in reports to court. While this is a positive development it has yet to become effective. Where outcomes are considered, currently they do not reflect the child’s whole life prospects which are envisaged by the Every Child Matters outcomes framework.

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Grade 4

The `being healthy’ outcome is not always sufficiently addressed in some assessments and reports, where they fail to take account of the long-term impact of what is known about the child. However, the service does take satisfactory steps in assessments and reports to ensure that children ‘stay safe’. Consultation with schools is absent in more cases than it is demonstrated. The extent to which the ‘enjoying and achieving’ outcome is assessed in residency applications, where a change of school may be being considered, is limited. While some children and young people ‘make a positive contribution’ in their own case, they say that their views make little difference to outcomes. The ‘economic well-being’ of children is not sufficiently considered in the context of social exclusion and poverty, or the capacity of adults to provide good life chances. The experience of children and the outcomes arising from

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Grade 4

Cafcass involvement do not have a visible impact on local service delivery or design. Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area

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‘No order principle’

The 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

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

1 www.opsi.gov.uk/Acts/acts1989/ukpga_19890041_en_2#pt1-l1g1 2 See footnote 1. Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area 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, are in the best interests of children and 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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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 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

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Welfare checklist

that they are not set out in a statute and are therefore secondary legislation.

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Accountability Review

Commissioned by the Cafcass Chief Executive, this review made 15 recommendations to improve the understanding by staff of accountabilities experienced by Cafcass. All the recommendations were accepted by the Cafcass Board. The report was written by a panel comprised of a district judge, a former Director of Children’s Services and the Cafcass Head of Safeguarding. In a press release in July 2008 the Chief Executive said ‘this is no semantic exercise and in

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Accountability Review

3 For further information visit: www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/careproceedings.htm 4 www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2002/ukpga_20020038_en_9#pt2-l1g120 Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: North Yorkshire and Humberside service area accepting all 15 recommendations I am committing Cafcass to a programme of work to make accountability throughout Cafcass crystal clear’.

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