Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service staff dealing with child protection cases involving children from minority religious faiths, such as the Charedim, have the necessary expertise to assess the impact of faith on those children when they advise the courts.

All Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) practitioners are qualified social workers with experience of working with children and families to represent the best interests of children within family proceedings. It is the practitioner's responsibility to identify any diversity issues, including a child or family’s faith, in any case and to assess any safeguarding or welfare issues. Practitioners will analyse each individual child's circumstances, taking account of relevant aspects of the Welfare Checklist in section 1 of the Children Act 1989, when assessing their needs and how these are best met.

Each Cafcass service area has a responsibility to identify the diversity needs of groups of children living in their area who they are working with, and to take action accordingly. Cafcass’ Equality and Diversity Strategy (2013-15) explains how it shares best practice across teams and service areas, collating lessons learnt from a range of sources. Where staff attend training courses, the learning is shared with the rest of the service area and communicated to Cafcass’ group of Diversity Ambassadors. Representatives from local groups are invited to team meetings to discuss the work that they do and practitioners are encouraged to use these groups as a resource when considering casework decisions.