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Dept for Education and Skills

Answer

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the period of delay was in allocating public law cases in the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service in each of the last three financial years. [197072] Margaret Hodge: CAFCASS does not collect information in the form requested. CAFCASS was set six key objectives when it was established in 2001. Key performance indicators (KPIs) were subsequently devised to measure CAFCASS' performance against these objectives. For 2002-03 and 2003-04, the public law allocations KPI was as follows: In public law no less that 80 per cent. of cases should be allocated within seven days. In 2002-2003, 69 per cent. of cases were allocated within seven days, and in 2003-04, 65.5 per cent. of cases were allocated within seven days. For 2004-05, the CAFCASS objectives and KPIs were revised, as follows: By March 2005, 70 per cent. of allocations during the month for section 31 (care and supervision) cases should be within two days from receipt of request. For the first six months of 2004-05, the average achievement was 52.7 per cent. At least 98 per cent. of all public law allocations each month for all case types should be within 28 days from receipt of request. For the first six months of 2004-05, the average achievement was 92.3 per cent. No more than 3 per cent. of the public law workload should remain unallocated at month end. For the first six months of 2004-05, the average achievement was 2.3 per cent. CAFCASS has made progress in reducing the backlog of public law cases. In July 2003 there were 718 unallocated cases (5.7 per cent. of the workload); in September 2004 there were 281 unallocated cases (2.3 per cent. of the workload). A new board was appointed in April 2004 and a new chief executive was appointed on 1 September. CAFCASS has been given an additional £12 million this year and we expect to see improvements in performance.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c967-8W;426 c971-2W; 197072

Session

2003-04

Subjects

CAFCASS Administrative delays Standards

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk