Written question asked by Terry Rooney (Labour) on Monday, 26 January 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 29 January 2009. It was answered by Baroness Hughes of Stretford (Labour) on Thursday, 29 January 2009 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment has been made of the current level of backlog of work in the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service; and what estimate has been made of the number of staff hours required to deal with that backlog.

Answer: At the end of December 2008, CAFCASS had a backlog of 414 public law cases and 1,979 private law reports. The size of backlogs is influenced by levels of demand which, in December, were unusually high for public law cases.CAFCASS attempts to allocate all care and supervision cases within two working days of receipt, and has achieved this on 73 per cent. of cases received between April and December 2008, against a key performance indicator of 65 per cent. for this financial year.CAFCASS aims to complete all cases within timescales agreed by local courts for filing all types of report and case analysis. CAFCASS do not have an estimate of the time necessary to deal with the backlogs as this depends on the circumstances of individual cases. CAFCASS is working with its statutory partners in the family justice system to keep all backlogs and delays to a minimum.

Secondary information