There has been a major drop in the number of private family disputes involving the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass).
The service supports children caught up in both private family legal disputes and public cases – for example care and adoption hearings.
Cafcass received 2,651 private law cases for consultation last month, a substantial 37 per cent drop over June last year. There has been a similar fall in the total number of cases received over the three months to June – 8,095 is 39 per cent lower than the 2013 figure of 13,455.
Care applications, meanwhile, have increased. Cafcass received 866 in June, two per cent more than in June 2013. Nevertheless, the total number of care applications in the past three months is also down – at 2,530, they have fallen eight per cent from the 2,755 received in the same period last year.
