The Cafcass Annual Report and Accounts 2013/14 demonstrates the progress that has been made in reducing the duration of care proceedings to a 26 weeks target. The report states that in the last quarter of the year, eight out of 40 Designated Family Judge (DFJ) areas were already completing applications in less than the 26 week target introduced as part of the Children and Families Act 2014 on 22nd April 2014.The reduction in application duration has led to a decrease in our stock of open care cases from 10,439 in March 2013 to 7,950 in March 2014.
The report sets out the average care application duration in calendar weeks by DFJ area. This shows that by the final quarter of the year (Jan to March 2014), the national average was 33 weeks. The average for the whole year was 36 weeks. Within the DFJ areas there was wide variation: in Truro the average for the year was 19 weeks whereas in Guildford it was 47 weeks.
The report which runs to 80 pages and covers all of Cafcass's activities is here.
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