Cafcass are "inadequate" its official - Court Secrecy hides incompetence and leaves children at risk

6.34.44pm GMT Sun 17th Feb 2008

John Hemming MP, Chairman of Justice for Families, has written to Government Minister Bridget Prentice MP calling for the government to support measures to increase accountability in the Family Courts following the finding by Ofsted that Cafcass are "inadequate".

"The Ofsted report", he said, "makes difficult reading for anyone working in child protection. It makes it clear that the lack of accountability over many years has allowed a culture of complacency to develop where there is little objectivity in practise. This has allowed the failures of the system to be legion. Court secrecy does not protect the children. Secrecy protects the people who make money out of child protection from being held to account. How did the secrecy of the system protect Jessica Randall or Victoria Climbie? The secrecy left them at risk by hiding incompetence."

"When combined with performance indicators the priorities have moved away from doing what is best for children and families, but instead ticking government boxes."

Ofsted said in their report "Overall, the quality of practitioners' work with children and families in the East Midlands region is inadequate." the definition of inadequate is "where minimum requirements are not met and little or no contribution is made to improved outcomes for children."

John Hemming said: "Ofsted have actually been more critical of CAFCASS than we have been. Ofsted have actually said "little or no contribution is made [by CAFCASS East Midlands] to improved outcomes for children". It is important to recognise that this inspection report is seen as being relevant to CAFCASS across England and Wales."

"CAFCASS have an annual budget in excess of £100 million, but are of little benefit for children. This is not a situation that can be allowed to continue."

The Chief Executive of CAFCASS, Anthony Douglas, has said "As the Ofsted report makes clear, we are already implementing a new structure to bring about a radical shift in the quality of our work. We are determined to implement Ofsted's recommendations quickly. The children and families we work with rightly expect and deserve the highest quality services."

John Hemming MP said, "I am not calling for the resignation of either the chair of Cafcass or the Chief Executive. The problems in CAFCASS reflect the problems in the whole of the child protection industry. The culture which is complacent and self-serving - as identified in the Ofsted report - needs to change. This may involve changing the people at the top, but for the moment they need to be given a chance to get things right. They do, however, need to cooperate with their critics and be willing to be properly accountable."

"They are wrong, however, to see a solution as lying in restructuring. We will be challenging them to explain what they are doing and how it will improve things. They need to change their attitudes and ensure that there is some objectivity in the decisionmaking process. The most important step, however, would be to make family court practitioners accountable which is exactly what they are not at the moment."

Baroness Jill Pitkeathley OBE who chairs CAFCASS was paid £43,000 in 2006-7. The Chief Executive was paid £147,000.