ENGLAND – Care application levels continue increasing

January 2013 statistics from Cafcass

In January 2013, Cafcass received a total of 960 applications. This is a 4% increase on January 2012 levels and is the fourth highest level of applications recorded in a single month this financial year.

From April 2012 onwards:

• Between April 2012 and January 2013 Cafcass received a total of 9,112 applications. This figure is 7.8% higher when compared to the same period last year.
• The 991 applications received in July 2012 were the highest ever recorded for a single month.
• Applications received during all months bar June this financial year have been the highest ever recorded by Cafcass for these individual months.
• The comparatively lower demand in June 2012 is believed to be due to the lack of working days available due to the special bank holidays this year.

April 2011-March 2012:

• During 2011-12, Cafcass received 10,244 new applications.
• This figure is 11.2% higher when compared to previous financial year.
• Applications received between May 2011 to February 2012 during this year have been the highest ever recorded by Cafcass for these individual months.

April 2010-March 2011:

• During 2010-11 Cafcass experienced a 4.2% increase in care applications with 9,204 new applications up from 8,832 in 2009-10.
• The 8,832 figure for 2009-10 itself saw a 36% increase in the number of applications received compared to 2008-2009.

Please click here to view the spreadsheet, which in addition to the monthly national stats, has a tab displaying a breakdown of application and children numbers by Local Authority for each complete quarter from April 2011.

Cafcass homepage: www.cafcass.gov.uk

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For media enquiries, please contact:

Molly Garboden, Communications Manager

0844 353 3319 (direct) | 07768 796 484 (mobile)

Molly.Garboden@Cafcass.gsi.gov.uk

Notes for Editors:                                                                                   

• Figures in the above table and graph are provided from the Cafcass national case management system (CMS). The unit of measurement is a care application, upon its receipt by Cafcass from the Court and its entry into CMS. An application can involve multiple children. CMS is a live system and any late entries will be accounted for at the time of release of subsequent updates to this data. Updates to this information will be published on a monthly basis, in the second week of each month.
• Pre-release of these statistics has been made available to the Children’s Minister in accordance with The Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008.
• Click here to view previous care statistics releases.
• The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) represents children in family court cases, making sure that their voices are heard and that the decisions that are made about them are in their best interests.
• Cafcass supports or works with over 145,000 children in public and private law cases every year. 
• Cafcass operates 17 service areas across England, with nearly 2,000 employees working throughout 56 offices.
• Cafcass’ role is to work with children and families in the family courts.  The following list provides some examples of the types of cases we work with:-
  • Adoption (public law)
  • Care Orders (public law)
  • Emergency Protection Orders (public law)
  • Residency and contact following divorce and separation (private law)
• Cafcass is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Education.

SOURCE: Cafcass