CAFCASS News 

Power Packed
At about 7pm on Monday 2 July the Lord Chancellor signed a document intended to bring to an end the contractual negotiations between CAFCASS and children’s guardians. CAFCASS will operate an employee only scheme and will not offer guardians self employed contracts, a sudden reversal of an established policy in the face of a judicial review application by guardians.  The level of pay to be offered is around £24 - £27,000. The minimum standard will be two years post qualifying experience, which will of course become the standard entry level. This and the loss of self employed status will drive out many of the guardians and certainly those who are best qualified. In London at least the service will not be able to operate to the standard expected by the courts. 

On 27 June CAFCASS filed its reply to the guardians’ application. In its evidence it labelled the guardians as troublesome. (The parallel with the Health Minister’s description of members of the British Medical Association ‘carping on the sidelines’ is interesting.) At about the same time the CAFCASS Board was reaching the decision which the Lord Chancellor was to approve. The evidence made no reference to this decision. 

This is an attempt to avoid the judicial review and the risk of disclosing underlying policy. It is patently a continuum of the same  process. Equity demands that the evasion should not be allowed to succeed. Everyone admits we are facing a disaster but unless the courts intervene no-one will lift a finger.

Power Packs 

At about 7pm on Monday 2 July Cherie Booth addressed the audience at the launch of Power Packs, new material developed by the NSPCC and Warwick Law School, working with young people in care, and adopted by CAFCASS, as aids for children involved in care proceedings. There is one version for children under ten and another for those over ten, though this division will need to be applied carefully.  

The Power Packs are a most useful contribution to the management of care proceedings for young people and their involvement in the process. It is expected that CAFCASS will distribute a copy of the Power Pack to each child who is the subject of care proceedings. The contents will undoubtedly need to be considered carefully by and in consultation with the young person. This is a job for the children’s guardian.  

Cherie Booth speaking at the launch said:  'We have failed children in care. It is the most serious decision to take them into care. Great care needs to be taken over such important changes for children. There are failures in the care system and we let children in care down.’ 

No-one told the children they were going to be let down again, as political scheming drives out those best able to represent them, but they were entertained by a virtuoso performance from Reggae star Pato Banton to launch the titanic CAFCASS Power Packs.