Almost from birth, the service set up to represent the voice of children in the courts has been a target for attack from aggrieved parents – and has suffered a troubled history since. With this year’s first Ofsted reports, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) has been exposed to official and independent scrutiny and found wanting.

It is seven years since Cafcass was set up, bringing together 113 organisations including probation officers in family court welfare, social workers representing children in care and adoption cases, child protection agencies and welfare groups.

The idea was highly acclaimed: to provide a national service handling children’s cases – both public (care) and private (contact and residence disputes) – and give a high and consistent standard of support in courts across England and Wales. Delays in court decisions were to be cut. But, like many new bodies in the public sector, it was set up too quickly and with inadequate funding. Merging 57 sets of pay and different working cultures proved a logistical nightmare.

Within four years it had three chief executives. In the first eight months the original chief executive, Diane Shepherd, was suspended and then sacked in July 2002 over an unauthorised payment to a dismissed executive. By 2003 ministers had demanded the board’s resignation amid claims that it had descended into chaos.

An inquiry by the Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee found “serious failings” and an organisation unable to cope. By August 2005 it was facing a predicted £4 million overspend on its budget and a backlog of 1,000 unallocated cases as targets were not met. Fathers became increasingly vocal critics of decisions over child contact and Cafcass became the target of groups such as Fathers4Justice with publicity-seeking tactics to reinforce their view that the service gave them a raw deal.

Anthony Douglas, the present chief executive, agrees that things are far from perfect but insists there has been a marked improvement in the 77,000 cases it handles a year, particularly on the care side.

With an increased budget, up by 7 per cent a year for each of the next three years, he plans to invest heavily in support for its frontline practice work. Cafcass’s age, seven years, is a metaphor for its progress towards maturity, Mr Douglas says. Meanwhile, critics – and above all the children involved – must hope that it does not need to go through the teenage years before full maturity is reached.

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