Justice secretary Jack Straw has agreed to scrap controversial court fees in care and supervision cases, after an independent report found they deterred local authorities from starting proceedings.

However, the change will not come into effect until April 2011 to avoid local authorities having to pay back money transferred to them from the Ministry of Justice to cover the fees.

In May 2008, the fees paid by local authorities for care and supervision proceedings rose from £150 to £4,825, following which the number of applications to take children into care fell sharply.

The review of the impact of the fees by Francis Plowden, published this week, followed a recommendation by Lord Laming after the death of Baby P.

He concluded that the fee increase, in combination with other factors, had led to ‘some sub-optimal decisions’ being taken, though he said local authorities had not knowingly taken decisions that compromised child safety.

Plowden said the fall in volume of cases in 2008 was more influenced by the introduction of the Public Law Outline rather than fees, and noted that the volume of applications to put children into care increased significantly after the death of Baby P and have remained high.

Plowden recommended a fundamental examination of the system for safeguarding children, which he said was ‘complex’ and ‘poorly understood’, and the system’s resourcing.

Christina Blacklaws, Law Society council member for child law, welcomed the u-turn on court fees and said practitioners had warned that the ‘disproportionate’ fees could affect decision-making.