Child support body accused of being too bureaucratic

Napo accused the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) of providing a poor service because it is too focused on paperwork.

But Cafcass chief executive Anthony Douglas said he was proud of the way his staff responded to a huge increase in cases and said changes in the way the service worked "have allowed us to make a difference to the lives of more vulnerable children in our society than ever before".

The union made its comments as it presented evidence to the National Audit Office (NAO), which is examining Cafcass's performance.

Napo said the organisation is lurching from "crisis to crisis".

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, said: "Cafcass has moved in a short period of 10 years from a 'golden age' to a bureaucratic nightmare, offering a poor service where there is no longer a sense of children coming first.

"Huge amounts of time and energy have been taken up with Ofsted inspections and quality improvement investigations which have sought to drive up practice but have resulted in staff spending more and more time preparing for inspections and filling in forms at the expense of work with families.

"Napo did, and still does, support the creation and function of Cafcass, but urges the new coalition Government to carry out an urgent review of its effectiveness, of the trend towards managerialism and bureaucracy and the service offered to courts and families."

The union accused Cafcass, which is accountable to Education Secretary Michael Gove, of hiding backlogs and having high levels of staff turnover but Mr Douglas said there had been changes in the way staff worked at Cafcass to keep pace with a 30 per cent increase in work over the past year.

He said: "This has placed all of us in the family justice system under strain but has positively led to many more children at risk being identified and getting the help they need.

"The new ways of working, which include the duty schemes and have been agreed with the judiciary, have allowed us to make a difference to the lives of more vulnerable children in our society than ever before."

Mr Douglas said he was proud of his staff who were working on more than 2,000 cases in May 2010 than in July 2009. His staff halved backlogs in the past year.

Only one area had a staff turnover of 20 per cent, he said, and this was due to more than 10 staff leaving because of performance measures.