Cafcass July figures reveal new cases slowing

There was an overall reduction in Cafcass demand in July as the number of new cases slowed, but open outstanding cases remained high.

The latest children and family courts service (Cafcass) figures reveal that the number of new cases has slowed. There were 5,255 new cases in July 2021 which is 15.8% less than in July 2020 and 3.6% fewer cases compared with June 2021.

Overall Cafcass demand was lower in July 2021 compared to June, and the average daily demand level in July was also less than it was in 2020. Cafcass recorded 239 cases per day in July this year, compared to 271 cases received every day in July 2020.

Despite decreased demand for new cases the number of open outstanding children’s cases at the end of July remained high with an increase of 14.1% on July 2020’s numbers. There were 43,411 open cases at the end of July, which is an increase of 5,352 compared with last year. These increases include 17.7% more private law cases and 7.6% more public law cases.

Cafcass have said that the number of open cases remains exceptionally high due to increasing overall caseloads and the impact of Covid-19 on the family justice system case completion rate.

Year-to-date analysis against the same period in 2018-19 shows that the current total new case demand is comparable with pre-pandemic levels, revealing only a small increase of 0.3%.Financial year-to-date analysis for Q1 also shows that the main change so far is a small increase of 1.2% in total case demand, a reduction in public law cases and an increase in private law cases. Data also shows that the top five application types received by Cafcass so far this year on public law cases other than section 31 care, are: Discharge of Care Order (CA(s39(1))), Supervision (s31), Adoption non-agency (RO), Revocation of Placement (s24), and Deprivation of Liberty which has seen an increase of 47.2%.