Cafcass and Case Workload 2016 and 2017
Much is made of how busy Cafcass FCAs are and the increases in case loads over the last few years. Indeed, Anthony Douglas, in response to a question about why his FCAs don’t do their training or attend his webinars on Parental Alienation, replied to say that his FCAs were far too busy to do their training! Leaving aside his fitness to hold his office after a statement like that, we’ve laid out the case loads below so that you can see for yourselves how busy Cafcass actually are.
2016 Cafcass Case Workload
| Region | Service Area | Number of Private Law Cases 2016 | Number of Public Law cases 2016 | Number of FCAs at 1st Jan 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyneside and Northumbria | A1 | 1335 | 817 | 51 |
| Durham, Teesside, North Yorkshire, York, Cumbria and Lancashire | A2 | 2607 | 1803 | 114 |
| Greater Manchester | A3 | 2318 | 1185 | 82 |
| South Yorkshire and Humberside | A4 | 1730 | 979 | 60 |
| West Yorkshire | A5 | 1936 | 911 | 72 |
| Hampshire, The Isle of Wight and Dorset | A6 | 2014 | 800 | 52 |
| Avon, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Thames Valley | A7 | 2518 | 1099 | 86 |
| Cornwall, Devon and Somerset | A8 | 1732 | 701 | 62 |
| Cheshire and Merseyside | A9 | 3322 | 1524 | 95 |
| Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire | A10 | 820 | 750 | 55 |
| Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire | A11 | 2529 | 712 | 65 |
| Birmingham, the Black Country, Shropshire and Worcestershire | A12 | 2837 | 1321 | 96 |
| National Business Centre, Coventry, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire | A13 | 1371 | 605 | 63 |
| Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire | A14 | 3583 | 1665 | 117 |
| Greater London (Public Law) | A15A | 31 | 2582 | 131 |
| Greater London (Private Law) | A15B | 4751 | 18 | 80 |
| Surrey and Sussex | A16 | 1407 | 690 | 54 |
| Kent | A17 | 1349 | 465 | 43 |
| N/A (Self Employed Contractors) | SEC | 1514 | 0 | 2 |
| Totals | 39704 | 18627 | 1380 |
2017 Cafcass Case Workload
It’s important to note that these figures on 2017 case loads were obtained in October 2017 and do not represent a full calendar year.
| Region | Service Area | Number of Private Law Cases 2017 | Number of Public Law Cases 2017 | Number of FCAs at 1st Jan 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyneside and Northumbria | A1 | 1076 | 561 | 54 |
| Durham, Teesside, North Yorkshire, York, Cumbria and Lancashire | A2 | 2251 | 1346 | 109 |
| Greater Manchester | A3 | 1850 | 1000 | 79 |
| South Yorkshire and Humberside | A4 | 1440 | 866 | 65 |
| West Yorkshire | A5 | 1672 | 678 | 67 |
| Hampshire, The Isle of Wight and Dorset | A6 | 1589 | 559 | 51 |
| Avon, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Thames Valley | A7 | 1974 | 812 | 86 |
| Cornwall, Devon and Somerset | A8 | 1314 | 548 | 68 |
| Cheshire and Merseyside | A9 | 2156 | 1133 | 100 |
| Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire | A10 | 538 | 632 | 51 |
| Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire | A11 | 2165 | 597 | 67 |
| Birmingham, the Black Country, Shropshire and Worcestershire | A12 | 2484 | 1033 | 97 |
| National Business Centre, Coventry, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire | A13 | 998 | 440 | 66 |
| Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire | A14 | 3110 | 1176 | 117 |
| Greater London (Public Law) | A15A | 2 | 1876 | 146 |
| Greater London (Private Law) | A15B | 3819 | 16 | 85 |
| Surrey and Sussex | A16 | 1186 | 492 | 57 |
| Kent | A17 | 1005 | 384 | 40 |
| N/A (Self Employed Contractors) | SEC | 1393 | 6 | 2 |
| Totals | 32022 | 14155 | 1407 |
Training by Service Area
It may be useful for you to compare training rates against workloads per service area so we are reposting the attendance rates for the Anthony Douglas webinars on Parental Alienation and on Emotional Harm below for your reference.
| Region | Service Area | Number of FCAs January 2017 | FCAs who attended Anthony Douglas Parental Alienation Webinar | FCAs who attended Anthony Douglas Emotional Harm Webinar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyneside and Northumbria | A1 | 54 | 2 | 0 |
| Durham, Teesside, North Yorkshire, York, Cumbria and Lancashire | A2 | 109 | 3 | 2 |
| Greater Manchester | A3 | 79 | 1 | 0 |
| South Yorkshire and Humberside | A4 | 65 | 2 | 1 |
| West Yorkshire | A5 | 67 | 0 | 3 |
| Hampshire, The Isle of Wight and Dorset | A6 | 51 | 0 | 2 |
| Avon, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Thames Valley | A7 | 86 | 2 | 2 |
| Cornwall, Devon and Somerset | A8 | 68 | 1 | 2 |
| Cheshire and Merseyside | A9 | 100 | 3 | 0 |
| Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire | A10 | 51 | 1 | 0 |
| Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire | A11 | 67 | 3 | 0 |
| Birmingham, the Black Country, Shropshire and Worcestershire | A12 | 97 | 3 | 1 |
| National Business Centre, Coventry, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire | A13 | 66 | 2 | 0 |
| Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire | A14 | 117 | 1 | 2 |
| Greater London (Public Law) | A15A | 146 | 5 in total for A15a and A15b | 3 in total for A15a and A15b |
| Greater London (Private Law) | A15B | 85 | see row above | see row above |
| Surrey and Sussex | A16 | 57 | 2 | 3 |
| Kent | A17 | 40 | 1 | 1 |
| N/A (Self Employed Contractors) | SEC | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 1407 | 32 | 22 |
Find your service area, look at the case load for this area for 2016 and for 2017, look at the numbers of FCAs employed to cover that area and now look at how many of them bothered to attend the training on Emotional Harm or on Parental Alienation.
Feel free to comment below on whether you think that this is acceptable.
In a Family Law system designed for combative parents there is no real allowance for the views of children and any understanding of how Family Law ultimately impacts on children most of all.
We speak for the children in Family Law so that, finally, the children have a voice.