- Conference
- 2015 Police & Justice Service Group Conference
- Date
- 9 June 2015
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference welcomes the vital role of Cafcass staff in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children during family court proceedings. This includes promoting the welfare of children when their parents are separating or divorcing and can’t agree on arrangements for their children, ensuring the children’s voice is heard.
Conference notes that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have always had children. In the past, what were then known as custody proceedings would routinely rule that LGBT people were by definition unfit parents, so LGBT people would usually seek to avoid any contact with the courts over such issues, if they possibly could. But with changes in social attitudes and the introduction of civil partnership and now same sex marriage, more cases arising from the breakdown of LGBT families are coming before family courts.
Conference notes that such societal shifts are not always acknowledged and taken into account in staff training, particularly when budgets are being drastically cut. Conference is concerned that the £286 million budget reduction – that has led to a cut to staffing and a cut to training – places the remaining staff under considerable strain. This cannot but impact on service delivery. Cafcass officer reports based on uninformed views of LGBT people can lead to inappropriate orders being made by judges.
While Cafcass may provide specialist training when officers make the case for the professional need for it, conference notes that the people who most need the training are the least likely to identify this need.
Conference calls on the police and justice service group executive to:
1)seek information on the amount and type of equality training provided to Cafcass officers over the past five years and identify trends and gaps;
2)check in particular whether training on LGBT equality issues is up to date;
3)raise this as a negotiating issue.