WORKLOAD AND PAY CRISIS IN CAFCASS – JUPG BRIEFING (7 FEB 2022)
Workloads
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, Cafcass had been impacted by a decade of austerity and impossibly high workloads. It was already on the verge of not being able to allocate all private law applications promptly. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the difficulties within Cafcass and the Family Justice System.
The number of children and families with proceedings open to Cafcass remains at approximately 5,000 cases higher (16%) than before the pandemic started at the end of March 2020. This equates to 8,000 more children. At the end of January 2022, there were approximately 1,800 cases (2,900 children) awaiting allocation either by being held on duty or managed in an Allocation Hub.
Cafcass has implemented the Prioritisation Protocol in 6 of their 19 service areas (14 courts). This means that lower priority work will not be allocated upon issue and will be managed within an Allocation Hub for up to 20 weeks. These Allocations Hubs are currently holding approximately 600 cases (1,000 children).
Demand in overall terms is lower than this time last year in both public and private family law, but the increase in case durations, repeat ordered work, turnover of frontline practitioners and sustained higher volumes of open work means that pressure at the frontline and for managers is not lifting significantly. The system is opening more work than it is closing. Latest MOJ data predicts likely demand increases in 2022/2023 of potentially over 10%.
Cafcass continues to lose 20 Family Court Advisers every month. Staff turnover in some areas is higher than it was. Recruitment is an ongoing challenge, particularly in some areas.
We are told that since March 2020 there are 129 more permanent Family Court Advisors. Further, there are currently 62 locum FCAs (14-30 pre-pandemic). We understand that these higher staffing levels will be maintained post-March 2022, which is welcome but, in our view, does not go far enough to alleviate the workload pressures on our members and the organisation now or in the future particularly if the likely increase in demand comes to fruition.
Impact on our members
What this workload crisis means is that many of our members are physically and mentally exhausted due to the relentless demands being placed on them.
Workloads for FCAs remain unsafe and unsustainable, both in terms of being able to make safe and timely decisions for children and families and in terms of FCAs’ own health and wellbeing. More than 25% of FCAs in long-term teams are carrying “above threshold” caseloads (> 25 cases) increasing to more than 50% for FCAs working in the Early Intervention teams in private law (> 40 cases). It is accepted within Cafcass that the “thresholds” of 25 and 40 cases respectively are unacceptable and unmanageable within contractual hours. Our members told us that the average number of cases they could safely manage in long-term teams was 17.4 cases (dropping to 16.5 cases in public law). The current workload weighting system is redundant.
Due to our members’ commitment and dedication to the children and families they serve, they are regularly working way above their contracted hours to manage these unmanageable workloads for no additional money. Napo surveyed its membership about their working hours in the previous four weeks up to the launch of the survey (11th-28th June 2021). The main findings were that:
- 88% of staff had worked extra hours in the last four weeks that they had not been able to take back.
- Of these, 89% said that it was a frequent occurrence.
- 65% of staff do not count the extra hours that they work. Of those that do, the amount of time owed ranged from 0-70 hours, with the average number of hours owed being 25.
Napo has raised this completely unacceptable and unsustainable practice with Cafcass, who have responded that they do not have the resources to pay overtime.
There has been an increasing trend in sickness absence for social work employees within Cafcass over the last year. Sickness absence linked to mental ill health has increased in the past year.
Pay
As a non-departmental public body, Cafcass is covered by Government pay policies, therefore in line with the Government’s pay pause there was no pay award for staff earning over £24,000 and a £250 (FTE salary pro-rata) pay award for staff earning under £24,000 for 2021/2022. This was extremely disappointing for our members considering the enormous challenges of the past year. Napo wrote to the Minister with our concerns requesting an urgent meeting. Disappointingly, we are still awaiting a response.
This puts our members at a further disadvantage against Local Authority social workers in England, who are expected to get a 1.75% pay increase for 2021-2022, although unions are still in dispute with the national employers for local government services.
Cafcass has offered a lower pay rise than local government employers in five of the past six years. Over this six-year period, Cafcass has become 6% unfavourable in terms of their pay review against local authorities. This already puts pressure on retaining and recruiting staff, which if not rectified in short order could further exacerbate these difficulties.
Our members have not seen a real-terms pay increase for over a decade, despite having absorbed more and more work over the years. This is unsustainable.
Trade Dispute on Pay and Workloads
Napo formally wrote to Cafcass on 28 January 2022 to advise that, following the unsatisfactory outcome of discussions on the 2021/2022 Cafcass pay award and the inability of the employer to deliver a negotiated settlement, a trade dispute exists between workers represented by Napo and employed by Cafcass. The trade dispute relates to pay and workloads. Napo is reserving its position on balloting our members on industrial action, but we reserve our right to do so pending the progress of discussions towards the objective of securing a pay award effective from 1 April 2022.
Requested Actions
Napo would be grateful if the JUPG could consider writing to the Secretary of State asking what strategy he has in place to address the workload crisis, the pay predicament and the recruitment and retention of Cafcass staff.