To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of current workload of staff in (1) the Probation Service; and (2) the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service.
Answered on
26 May 2022
(1) As of March 2022, 96% of Probation staff (Probation Officers and Probation Service Officers) hold less than 50 cases, with an average caseload of 34 (rounded down to nearest full number). The average caseload for the 4% who hold over 50 cases is 59. The Probation Service is committed to providing a quality service in order to achieve its mission of protecting the public, supporting victims and reducing reoffending. We recruited a total of 1,007 trainees (against a target of 1000) in 2020/21 and 1,522 trainee probation officers (against a target of 1,500) in 2021/2022. Further recruitment is planned in 2022/23. This will ensure that the Service has the resources it needs.
(2) The number of open active children’s cases within Cafcass was 34,834 in May 2022. This has reduced from 38,178 in April 2021, but still represents an increase of 15.1% on pre-pandemic levels. Officials at the Ministry of Justice are in regular contact with Cafcass management to ensure it has the resources it needs to manage staff workloads. For 2022/23, the Ministry of Justice has provided Cafcass with a budget increase of £8.4m from its 2021/22 starting position. All public law work continues to be allocated in Cafcass in the usual way and within established timescales.