Cafcass stands for the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service.
They represent children in family court cases in England and “put children’s needs, wishes and feelings first, making sure that children’s voices are heard at the heart of the family court setting, and that decisions are made in their best interests”.
The organisation is involved in a variety of family law matters in the family court, including private law proceedings (the most common example being where parents have not been able agree the child arrangements dealing with whom a child should live or time spent with the other parent), as well as care proceedings and adoption.
As well as monthly updates, Cafcass provide annual summaries in relation to the various types of cases.
In respect of private law cases, for the year April 2019 – March 2020 they reported having received 45,694 new cases of this type – an increase of 4.2% from the previous year (which in itself saw a rise of 4.9% more private law cases from the year before that).
The statistics therefore demonstrate that the number of cases is currently continuing to rise year on year.