Last month Cafcass received more than 900 applications for care places, a jump of 20 per cent on the same month last year.
The total (908) is the high number ever received by the agency during April.
In the entire year to March, Cafcass received just over 11,000 care applications – eight per cent more than in the year to 2012. The total number of applications received in the year to 2012 themselves represented an 11 per cent jump on the preceding year.
Cafcass – the ‘Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service’ – works to advise family courts and promote the best interests of children involved in the court system. It is reportedly the largest employer of social workers in England.
Hi Marilyn,
These “jumps’ cannot just be attributed to fear of another Baby P. I believe it goes much further than that. It seems that it is a strategy the local authorities have now adopted. There seems to be a blurring of a child in need & a child at risk. The removal of children from their homes at a rate of almost a thousand a month in 2013 & set to rise is not in the interest of the child so whose interests is it in? It is not in the best interests of the child & the research bears this out , as the outcomes for children in care are truly dreadful.