Fears that vulnerable children would be put at risk because of the soaring cost of family care proceedings appear to have proved unfounded, new figures suggest.

Fees for public law childcare applications rose from £150 to £4,825 last May, as part of a government drive to make the courts self-funding through fees. The move led charity the NSPCC to warn that children could suffer if local councils could not afford to take on cases.

However, the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (CAFCASS) said 693 applications were lodged in court in December - usually the quietest month of the year. This is the highest since March 2005, when there were 630 applications.

Four councils - the London Borough of Hillingdon, Liverpool City Council, Leeds City Council and Norfolk County Council, with the support of the Law Society and NSPCC - failed with a legal challenge to rises in court fees for childcare and placement applications in November (see [2008] Gazette, 13 November, 2).

Solicitors in Local Government (SLG) insisted that, despite the spike in applications, the councils were right to seek judicial review.

SLG chair Suzanne Bond pointed out that the rise in the number of applications could be accounted for by the ‘Baby P’ case, where a 17-month-old boy died following serious abuse while on the risk register. ‘Councils have become more cautious but we have a statutory duty to take cases on,’ she said. ‘If the money government gives us runs out, then we have to balance the books and find it from somewhere.’