Family lawyers in the South East have expressed little surprise at Ofsted’s criticism of Cafcass services in the region but say the findings reflect unfairly on the effort deployed by overstretched teams trying to do their best in a context of chronic understaffing.
Family lawyers in the South East have expressed little surprise at Ofsted’s criticism of Cafcass services in the region but say the findings reflect unfairly on the effort deployed by overstretched teams trying to do their best in a context of chronic understaffing.
“Cafcass services in the region have been short staffed for a long time,” said Nicola Jones-King, a solicitor at Croydon-based McMillan Williams. “People don’t seem to stay very long and it affects the quality of assessments despite all the energy they are putting into offering the best service they can.”
The Ofsted report published last week found that Cafcass offers a ‘good to adequate’ service for children involved in public law proceedings but that its service...
