Demand for Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Services (Cafcass) grew by 7.2% over the course of 2026, with 3,982 more cases being dealt with year-on-year from 1st April 2025 to 31st March 2025.
In its latest published data, Cafcass said it saw service demand increase 4.7% in public law cases and by 8.2% in private law matters. In total the service opened 59,147 cases involving 91,061 children.
Demand for Cafcass services has reached its highest levels since March 2021, with 5,691 new children’s cases (8,710 children) in March 2026 – an average daily demand of 259 children’s cases per working day and a 12.6% increase on the same time last year (230 cases per working day).
The total number of open cases has increased year-on-year, up by 1,785 cases in March, a 6.5% increase.
Open cases are split between 11,313 open public law children’s cases (up 2.4%) and 18,000 open private law children’s cases involving 26,722 children – an increase of 9.2%.
In total, there are currently 46,501 open children’s cases – 642 (1.4%) more than in February 2026.
Cafcass says it had seen a “consistently elevated” demand for public law services throughout the year. Much of the growth in private law demand occurred in the second half of the financial year, although no reason for this was provided.
Over the last financial year Cafcass received 12,082 new S31 care applications involving 19,846 children, an increase of 5.4% year-on-year.
