‘Unrelenting demand’ overstretching Cafcass social workers but practice is improving, finds Ofsted

A recent report by Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs (above), 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.