About us
About Cafcass
We represent the interests of children and young people in the family court. We independently advise the family courts about what is safe for children and in their best interests. We focus on their needs, wishes and feelings, making sure that children’s voices are heard and are at the heart of the family court’s thinking and decision making. For every child, whose current and future living arrangements are decided by the courts, we seek to provide an exceptional experience, everywhere, and every time. Please see our videos:
Taking me seriously – letting you know how we help
Taking me seriously: Sharing recommendations with you
What we do
We were established by section 11 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 (the Act) and operate in accordance with the law set by Parliament and under the rules and directions of the family courts. Our principal functions, as set out in section 12 of the Act, relate to family proceedings where the welfare of children who are subject to family proceedings is or may be in question, are to:
- Safeguard and promote the welfare of children;
- Give advice to the family courts;
- Make provision for children to be represented; and
- Provide information, advice and support to children and their families.
Our strategic priorities: 2023-26
Our current strategic priorities are set out in our strategic plan for 2023-2026 – Ambitious for children: exceptional experiences for every child, everywhere and every time. We have nine strategic priorities that relate to our direct work with children and their families, to our colleagues who work at Cafcass, and to our work with partners. Our new plan sets out the difference we want children to experience in their engagement with us, what we are asking of ourselves and how we propose to measure success. We issued a midway report in May 2025 that can be found here on our website – Ambitious-for-children-strategic-plan-update.pdf
Our practice ambition is to provide all children with an exceptional experience of their engagement with us. We will do this by providing their family court advisers or children’s guardians with the management support, supervision and oversight they need to make effective and consistent use of our practice framework and associated practice aids and our practice quality standards.
We have produced a summary version of our strategy which can be seen here.
Our data
We regularly report on data relating to the children and families we work with.
Our annual report sets out our strategic priorities along with key data across all our practice Cafcass Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24 – DIGITAL.pdf
For current data please take the opportunity to review our most recent report and update here.
Our vision
For every child whose current and future living arrangements are decided by the family courts, we seek to provide an exceptional experience, everywhere and every time. We prioritise their voices and their unique needs, taking full account of their families and those connected to them.
Our values
Together with Children & Families’ is our unifying model of social work practice and also sets out the values that guide our work with children and families, with each other and with our partners:
- Holding children and families at the heart of our practice.
- Believing in respectful relationships and always looking for strengths and risks.
- Decision-making is clear and reasoned.
- Wanting to know more about those with whom we work and what is important in their lives.
Our Practice Framework: Together with Children and Families | Cafcass
New Public and Private Law children cases
In the last year (between 1 April 2025 and 30 June 2025), Cafcass received 14,123 new children’s cases involving 21, 508 children (from the trends over time on our website):
- 9,822 new private law children’s cases, involving 14,671 children
- 4,301 new public law children’s cases, involving 6,837 children
In June 2025 Cafcass received 4,780 new children’s cases (7,087 children).
We are proud to share some of our colleague survey highlights which include of those that responded;
- 89% feel leadership communicates clearly and I am clear on the vision of the organisation.
- 90% feel valued by their manager
- 86% felt induction was a positive experience
- 86% feel supported in managing their workload
We continue to be ambitious as we know that having a motivated and engaged workforce directly makes a difference to children and families so our corporate colleague engagement priorities are;
- Workloads and wellbeing
- Managing and leading change
- Responding to adult behaviour in the family court
- Connection in teams and visibility of leaders and managers
What children and families say about us
“I can’t put into words how much of a difference you’ve made to both our lives.”
“Her balanced approach, fairness and ability to navigate difficult circumstances were truly commendable.”
“You made me feel ‘safe’. In our darkest times, you were a source of light.”
Our Commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I)
Diversity
We represent children and families from diverse backgrounds and having a diverse workforce helps us to fulfil this responsibility authentically.
It also helps us to grow, evolve and innovate, so we particularly welcome applications from individuals from diverse backgrounds as we strive to ensure our workforce reflects the diversity of the children and families we work with.
We are proud to be a disability confident leader, we invite you to join our team, we are committed to actively attract and recruit individuals with disabilities including “non-visible” disabilities and mental health conditions. Our inclusive and accessible recruitment process means we aim to accommodate reasonable adjustments as needed. This commitment highlights our dedication to employing, training, retaining, and developing the careers of our colleagues with disabilities.
Our Diversity Networks provide a safe space for colleagues with shared aspects of identity and lived experience – supported by allies across the organisation. The networks help ensure we provide an inclusive working environment and a service which promotes the diversity and uniqueness of children and families from all backgrounds.
For more information watch our video here.
For more information about working for Cafcass and our commitment to an inclusive workforce, please visit the Working for Us section of Cafcass’ website.
Staff diversity networks
We have a number of staff diversity networks.
The purpose of these networks is to encourage staff to share and communicate experiences with one another as well as help shape and inform what we do and how we support our staff. They also contribute to the development of our practice working with children and families, so we are attentive to their unique and diverse backgrounds and experiences. The five networks are as follows:
- Kaleidoscope (for Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff)
- Carers
- Ability Matters (Disability)
- Mental health
- Pride (LGBT+)
- Faith