After a third damning report by Ofsted, Cafcass chief executive Anthony Douglas has responded by promising that "at the very least" private law would be graded as "adequate" in any future inspection. He said that Cafcass would address the failings through 'a significant increase in spending on training and a new national practice and performance assessment system', which will be launched this autumn. Under the system, 'practitioners' work will be graded according to standards currently being agreed between Ofsted and Cafcass, with individually tailored training programmes put in place to correct deficits'.The latest Ofsted report, on the South Yorkshire region, found similar failings to the two previous reports, including significant delays in allocating and completing private law cases (I can attest to this) and unsatisfactory assessment of domestic violence. Perhaps most damningly, Ofsted found that 16 of 25 private law court reports were inadequate, with 11 'lacking a focus on the child and their welfare'.
[Thanks to Family Law Week for drawing my attention to this story.]
These hollow promises have been being made since Lord Falconer first called for the entire board to resign. In the meantime a social time bomb of children unable to experience the love of two parents ticks away. Cafcass will never change until the courts are opened up to scrutiny and social workers held personally and publically accountable, they're too arrogant
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