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Debate over drop in care applications

The debate over the apparent drop in care applications following the increase fees continued apace last week. On Tuesday 1 July 2008, the BBC's Law in Action programme covered the issue and quoted CAFCASS as saying that applications nationally are down by around 20%. The Family Law Bar Association meanwhile were quoted as saying that they think that applications are down by around a third, with some areas down by as much as 60%.

The following day Community Care reported on a recent session of the Commons Children Schools and Families Committee in which Caroline Little, co-chair of the Assoication of Lawyers for Children, gave evidence that there was no evidence "to suggest that greater involvement of parents and the family in the earlier stages of cases had led to a fall in care proceedings" and added that

"Good quality child care practitioners are challenging local authorities to issue proceedings, instead of leaving children accommodated when they should not be...the reduction of care proceedings, if ongoing, will lead to fears that children are remaining unprotected"

David Holmes of BAAF supported the concerns but said it was too early to determine the exact causes of the decline. On the other hand Kim Bromley-Derry, children's director at Newham Council in east London, said that that the refomrs had caused a backlog and that a "significant increase" in care proceedings would happen in the next fewmonths saying that there was no evidence of costs deterring authorities telling MP's that.

"I think that it is too early to say exactly what the dynamic is. It may be delay and lag in the system, which is certainly true of some places.  It could be the additional cost. At the moment, I do not think that there is any evidence to say either way.

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