The organisation tasked with safeguarding the interests of vulnerable children is in ‘meltdown’, a report has suggested.

However, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) has hit back at the claims, which it says are ‘not based on fact’ and undermine the good work being done by its frontline staff.

The National Union of Probation Officers (Napo) has claimed that Cafcass is in crisis, with ‘soaring’ caseloads, ‘chaotic’ working practices, increased delays and low morale.

It said the number of care proceedings has risen by 21% over the past 12 months and delays in preparing reports on children have now risen to 20 weeks rather than the usual 12 to 14 weeks.

In part Napo blamed the bureaucratic demands of Ofsted for diverting staff away from seeing children.

Helen Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, said: ‘The Cafcass frontline is in meltdown. Staff are struggling to cope with workloads and systems that are dysfunctional. Delays before completing reports are unacceptable and are impacting adversely on children. Staff complain they are constantly being monitored and inspected, which diverts them from work with families and children.’

Cafcass said Napo’s claims were not based on fact and were in danger of undermining the good work being done by frontline staff to manage the huge increase in casework.

Its chief executive Anthony Douglas said: ‘Cafcass is facing an unprecedented increase in demand for its services for vulnerable children and families. That much is accepted by all those working in the family justice system.’

He said blaming one part of the system missed the point that demand is at ‘an all-time high’, adding that under the new way of working introduced by the president of the Family Division, Cafcass operated a triage system to identify and focus on those children most in need of support.

But Christina Blacklaws, Law Society council representative for child care, said: ‘These are chronic and longstanding problems. A select committee report in 2003 criticised Cafcass for unacceptably long waiting times for children and families, and eight weeks ago the Ofsted inspection found the overall effectiveness of the service was inadequate… it’s not the frontline workers, but the organisation itself that is failing children.’