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Cafcass rated as ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted

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The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service – Cafcass – has been rated ‘outstanding’ by government inspectorate Ofsted.

Ofsted praised the service, which intervenes in court cases concerning children, for “listening to children, understanding their world and acting on their views” and for its “exceptional [and] aspirational” leadership.

At its previous inspection in 2014, Community Care reports, Cafcass received only a middle-of-the-road ‘good’ rating, and just five years prior to that, it was given a damning ‘inadequate’ assessment by Ofsted, which is responsible for auditing all organisations which work with children. In 2010 the parliamentary Public Affairs Committee still believed Cafcass was not fit for purpose.

Chief Executive Anthony Douglas said the newly won glowing assessment was the culmination of years of effort by the service.

“There was no big bang, it was relentless hard work, and progressively, just dispensing with sideshows and getting on with the core business.”

He added that Cafcass had “reframed most of what we do in terms of impact upon children.”

The blog team at Stowe is a group of writers based across our family law offices who share their advice on the wellbeing and emotional aspects of divorce or separation from personal experience. As well as pieces from our family law solicitors, guest contributors also regularly contribute to share their knowledge.

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Comments(4)

  1. Garry Clakrson says:

    Really? They dont’ keep a record of outcomes. Don’t take into consideration parental alienation and domestic violence (against men that is) and have yet to reply to complaints. Just goes to show how the system is rigged in favour of the bureaucracy and gravy train.

  2. Mr T says:

    All they need to do now is train their staff in Parental Alienation and follow through with it instead of alienating children by listening to their “wishes and feelings” which in itself is adultification.

    They need to be pushing parents into educating themselves on a base of 50/50 shared parenting and co-operative parenting. Maybe with the help and guidance of experts in the field.

    This remains to be seen.

  3. David Eggins says:

    “Outstanding” they may be, but can they read and respond to the research voices of their employers and the implied criticism of their practices by ignoring the evidence?
    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/305319/transforming-rehabilitation-evidence-summary-2nd-edition.pdf (p.25)
    What is the impact on reoffending? The most recent systematic review of US evidence indicates that the Duluth Model appears to have no effect on recidivism.154 However, this review also identified substantial reductions in domestic violence reoffending by offenders who had attended other interventions. These interventions varied widely in their approach (including cognitive behavioural therapy, relationship enhancement and group couples counselling), and the reviewers were therefore unable to make recommendations about specific preferred alternatives to the Duluth

  4. Tim Haines says:

    Looks like about time someone did a “rating” of Ofsted!

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