"Unprecedented and unrelenting demand" is overstretching Cafcass's social work resource in some areas, though domestic abuse practice by is improving, Ofsted has found.
The pressures are leaving some family court adviers (FCAs) with caseloads they feel are too high and leading to delays in private law court proceedings concluding for children, said the inspectorate, following a focused visit to the family court body last month.
However, Ofsted, which rated Cafcass as outstanding across the board last year, said that domestic abuse practice had strengthened since the 2024 national inspection, on the back of a new policy and bespoke training on the issue for FCAs and managers.
Past criticisms of domestic abuse practice
The focused visit covered the effectiveness of practice and advice to the court in private law cases where children and adults had experienced or were experiencing domestic abuse, an area in which Cafcass has faced significant criticisms in the past.A 2020 Ministry of Justice-commissioned report, from a panel investigating the family courts’ response to domestic abuse and other harms, found practitioners’ court reports gave limited weight to children’s views, particularly when they said they did not want to spend time with an abusive parent.
On the back of this, Cafcass set up a national improvement programme that involved mandatory training and personal learning plans on domestic abuse for all FCAs, regular practice audits on the issue and ongoing support from specialist charity SafeLives through seconded staff.
However, though internal performance reviews identified improvements, a recent report by Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs, covering practice in 2023-24, echoed some of the findings of the 2020 report.
It found that cases involving reported domestic abuse frequently ended with children having joint residence, or unsupervised contact with, the alleged perpetrator due to a "pro-contact culture" in the family courts that minimised abuse.
Survivors spoke of Cafcass practitioners being reluctant to record their allegations of domestic abuse and of discouraging them from raising allegations because contact with the perpetrator would be ordered regardless.
Cafcass's domestic abuse policy
Following the period covered by the commissioner's report, Cafcass launched its domestic abuse policy, which requires practitioners and managers to “to listen to children and adults who have experienced domestic abuse and accurately record and share with the court what they have been told”.Practitioners must “not reinterpret or reword the experience of domestic abuse victims”, but use their words about what happened to them and the impact it has had, in court reports. They must also not use the words “claims” or “alleges” when referring to reports of domestic abuse, on the grounds that this minimises survivors' experiences.
In a recent appearance before MPs, Cafcass chief executive Jacky Tiotto said the policy had led to practice improvements, and this was endorsed by Ofsted's report.
Children's voices 'shine through assessments'
The inspectorate found that safeguarding letters - short reports, following initial safeguarding enquiries, that summarise the child’s circumstances and highlight any welfare concerns - were generally well written, with a strong focus on the child's safety, and provided appropriate advice to the court.A particular strength identified by Ofsted was how children's voices "[shone] through and [informed]" social workers' assessments for section 7 reports, which provide more detailed advice on a child’s best interests when there are welfare concerns.
FCAs planned "meticulously" for these assessments, to help them better understand what life was like for the child, including the impact of domestic abuse, and gathered information about adult criminal, coercive and controlling or alienating behaviours.
"FCAs are very skilled at building relationships with children and undertaking direct work with them to understand their unique circumstances, what their lives are like and what they want to happen," the report said.
This enabled judges to hear what children thought, helping them make decisions children's best interests.
Improved domestic abuse practice
Section 7 reports "[evidenced] much more clearly" how FCAs listened to children and adults who had experienced domestic abuse, to assess the risk of further harm, compared with the situation in 2024, said Ofsted.Inspectors also found that FCAs typically "[articulated] their recommendations to the court based on their analysis of risk very well".
These improvements were underpinned by senior leaders modelling an "unstinting commitment to improving the experiences of children", comprehensive training opportunities, reflective supervision and extensive quality assurance activities.
Despite the improvements, practice was not yet consistently high quality, with some safeguarding letters not providing sufficient details of children's ethnicity and identity and a few section 7 reports lacking analysis of the impact of domestic abuse on adults.
'Unprecedented and unrelenting demand'
Ofsted also found practice was being affected by what it described as "unprecedented and unrelenting demand" that was "outstretching available FCA resource" in some areas.From April to October this year, Cafcass was referred 4.4% more cases than in the same period in 2024, with a 4.2% rise in those relating to private law.
Average social work caseloads for long-term teams fell from 18.5 to 18.2, while those for work to first hearing teams in private law fell from 32 to 29.3, in the year to August 2025, according to a report to Cafcass's latest board meeting.
However, some FCAs told Ofsted that they felt their caseloads were too high due to increased demand, staff shortages and sickness absence, while service pressures were also causing delays for children.
In one area, where FCA resource was overstretched, inspectors found delays in social workers completing safeguarding letters or section 7 reports.
Leaders were seeking to mitigate this by allocating children's cases in this area to staff from other areas or line managers, pending recruitment of new social workers.
Need for 200 more social workers to implement new model
The news comes with Cafcass reporting that it would need 200 more social workers should the government decide to roll out the new 'private law pathfinder' model, which is due to be in place in 10 of the 42 court areas in England and Wales by March 2026.Cafcass has calculated that the approach - which is designed to improve the courts' response to domestic abuse - involves FCAs seeing 80% of children in private law cases, up from 30% under the current child arrangements programme model.
In its report, Ofsted found that delays had reduced in one area due to the implementation of the pathfinder, with children experiencing fewer court hearings and shorter proceedings, with an improved experience for victims of domestic abuse.
Domestic abuse remains national priority for Cafcass
Cafcass welcomed the report and its findings that practice had improved since the introduction of the domestic abuse policy last year.A spokesperson for the organisation said: "We thank our colleagues at Cafcass for their continued hard work and dedication in supporting this ambition."
They said that Cafcass agreed with Ofsted's finding that practice was not yet consistent across the country, adding: "[We] acknowledge that there is still more for us to do to before we can realise our ambition to provide exceptional experiences for every child and family, everywhere and every time.
"This is why continuing to improve our domestic abuse practice remains one of our national improvement priorities, and we continue to focus on retention and recruitment of social workers to help us deliver a more consistent service across the whole country."
