Cafcass publishes Annual Report and Accounts for 2023-2024
Earlier this week on Tuesday 17 December, Cafcass published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2023-2024.
The report to Parliament presents an overview of Cafcass’ annual performance and accounts for the financial year 2023-2024. It covers the work Cafcass undertook during the year to support children, young people, families and carers through their time in family court proceedings.
The report also outlines the launch of Cafcass’ 2023-2026 strategic plan, Ambitious for Children, the progress made during the reporting period and the ongoing improvement priorities to achieve Cafcass’ strategic ambition which is to offer exceptional experiences for every child, everywhere in England, and every time. Further, the report, describes a focus for the year on stronger local accountability for the experiences of children and families in private or public law proceedings, including the intention to learn and improve more effectively, through seeking more feedback and improving how that feedback is heard, particularly in respect of adult and child victims of domestic abuse.
The report sets out the findings of the full inspection by Ofsted in January 2024, and which judged Cafcass as ‘Outstanding’ in all judgement areas, particularly praising improved practice and strong leadership since the previous full inspection in 2018.
The work undertaken during 2023-2024 is testament to the strong commitment and dedication by everyone working at Cafcass and within the Family Justice system more widely, to do the right thing for children and young people involved in family court proceedings.
Headlines from the report include:
- Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, Cafcass worked with a total of 137,347 children and young people. Approximately a third of these children were in public law proceedings and two thirds were in private law proceedings.
- To support progress with its strategic ambitions and priorities, Cafcass continued to implement its national improvement plan for a second year, including the practice and leadership priorities embedded within it such as:
- a focus on using the Together for Children and Families practice framework, as well as the new practice and management quality standards designed as guides for effective practice and leadership;
- actively and regularly asking for feedback from the children and families with whom Cafcass works, welcoming their perspectives and using the learning to inform practice development and change;
- sharing recommendations with children and their families, asking them to express their views in response so that the family court can understand their thoughts about the advice and recommendations;
- the provision of effective management support, supervision and oversight; and
- more efficiently and consistently progressing children’s cases from application to decision.
Jacky Tiotto, Chief Executive and Sally Cheshire CBE, Board Chair, said:
“As ever, our thanks go to everyone at Cafcass for their continued dedication and energy to achieving better outcomes every day for children. We thank our partners without whom there would be no system in which to offer family justice. It is without doubt that everyone working in this complex system comes to work to do their very best to help children and families.
“There is always more to do and more to learn and we continue to prioritise improvement and change. At Cafcass, we are proud of the Ofsted judgement rating us ‘Outstanding’, particularly the evidence they saw of our relentless focus on children and their experiences.
“Our ambitions remain strong, and we look forward to another year of leadership, continued improvement and learning how to be stronger together every day. Thank you to everyone and our very best wishes for a lovely break over the Christmas period.”
A short summary of our 2023-2024 annual report for children and young people is available at: Reporting about our work | Cafcass