• March 29, 2024
 Cafcass latest monthly statistics reveal rising new cases

Cafcass latest monthly statistics reveal rising new cases

Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), who represent children in family court cases in England, have released their monthly statistics for April 2021.

Overall summary

  • Total new case demand in April was in line with pre-pandemic levels. In April 2021, Cafcass received 4,980 new cases (27.1% or 1,061 more cases than April 2020). The substantial increase compared to April 2020 is due to reduced activities in courts during April 2020 following the first national lockdown.
  • Compared to April 2020 there is:
    – A small reduction in public law case demand ( 2.3% / 31 cases)
    – An increase in private law case demand ( 42.7% / 1,092 cases)
  • The average daily demand level in April 2021 was 249 cases per day compared to 196 cases received per day during April 2020.
  • The number of open outstanding children’s cases at the end of April 2021 was 44,753 cases, an increase of 33.0% (11,113 cases) when compared to April 2020.

Monthly headlines (April 2021)

Cafcass received 4,980 new cases in April 2021, which is 1,061 (27.1%) more cases than April 2020 and 1,253 (20.1%) fewer than in March 2021. These cases involved 7,640 children, 1,486 (24.1%) more than in April 2020.

Public law cases (April 2021)

Cafcass received 1,332 new public law cases in April 2021 featuring 2,099 children; this represents a decrease of 2.3% (31) cases and a decrease of 7.0% (159) children on the 1,363 public law cases received and on the 2,258 children in those cases in April 2020. The number of new public law cases in April 2021 was 270 cases (16.9%) fewer than the previous month.

Of the 1,332 new public law cases received:

  • 888 (66.7%) were cases where section 31 was the lead application, which is a decrease of 148 cases (14.3%) compared to April 2020. These cases involved 1,460 children, which is 328 children (18.3%) fewer than in April 2020.
  • 444 (33.3%) were public law cases where a section 31 was not the lead application, which is 117 more cases (35.8%) than the same month in 2020. These cases involved 639 children, which is 169 children (36.0%) more than in April 2020. Non-section 31 care cases are defined as public law cases where the lead application is not for a care order under section 31.

898 section 31 care applications were received in April 2021, 177 fewer applications (16.5%) than in April 2020 (a case can have multiple applications so therefore this figure is higher than the newsection 31 case figure).

Please click here to view the public law demand spreadsheet which, in addition to the monthly statistics, includes: the number of section 31 care and other public law cases and applications received for every month since 2014-15; the top five other public law applications that have seen the highest volume (but not necessarily the highest increases) for April 2020 to April 2021; and a breakdown of care applications and children numbers by local authority for each complete quarter from April 2016.

Private law cases (April 2021)

Cafcass received 3,648 new private law cases in April 2021, which is 1,092 more cases (42.7%) than in April 2020. These cases involved 5,541 children, which is 1,645 (42.2%) more children than in April 2020. This represents the highest recorded number of new private law cases for the month of April on record, despite a decline of 983 cases (21.2%) compared to the previous month (March 2021, the highest March on record).

Please click here to view the private law demand spreadsheet which, in addition to the monthly national statistics, has a tab displaying a breakdown of application and children numbers by District Family Judge (DFJ) area for each complete quarter from April 2017.

Financial year (April 2021-March 2022)

As April is the first month of the financial year, the headlines for the financial year are the same as the monthly headlines set out above. The graph below shows the trend date comparing the year to date (YTD) comparison with previous years for total new case demand and the number of children
involved in those new cases, and for this update includes data for April only.

Open children’s cases

The number of open outstanding children’s cases at the end of April 2021 was 44,753, a significant increase of 33.0% (11,113 cases) when compared to pre-Covid levels (April 2020), and an increase of 3.9% (1,687 cases) when compared to the previous month (March 2021). The number of open cases increased to new record levels in April 2021 alongside continued high new case demand. Overall caseloads have continued to increase, impacted by the slower family justice
system case completion rate due to the Covid-19 pandemic

A case is considered as ‘open’ at Cafcass where the proceedings are ongoing in HM Courts & Tribunal Service (HMCTS) and the case is open on Cafcass’ case management system because there is potential for Cafcass to be ordered to do further work. Cases are closed on our case management system when the final legal output for all children on all applications are received and captured after which the case is administratively closed.

Toni Ryder-McMullin

Toni is the Media Officer for Today’s Conveyancer, Today’s Wills & Probate and Today's Family Lawyer.

I worked for a law firm for 16 years, during my time at the firm I worked as a company commercial legal secretary for 7 years but changed careers and moved into marketing for the remaining 9 years – where I covered all aspects of marketing.

While in the marketing role, I achieved a CIM Professional Certificate in Marketing and CAM Diploma in Digital Marketing.

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