The soaring number of court applications to take children into care is forcing cash-strapped law firms to use junior and unqualified staff to handle ‘life and death’ cases.

Family solicitors believe the child care crisis is jeopardising access to justice for vulnerable children, while discouraging new generations of practitioners from a career in child law. In January, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) received a record 903 applications to take children at risk into care. It received 8,403 applications between May 2011 and January 2012, some 12.4% more than the previous year. Figures for 2010/11 and 2009/10 were up by 4.2% and 36% respectively on previous years.

Care applications have been rising constantly since the high-profile Baby P case in August 2007. Naomi Angell, co-chair of the Law Society’s family law committee, said firms have responded to the increased volume of work by reorganising their practices so that junior staff are helping with case preparation. This helps make cases profitable in a climate where legal aid is being squeezed and would be acceptable if cases were clear cut, she stressed. But she added: ‘Are junior staff equipped to make difficult decisions where there are alcohol, drug or mental health issues? Can they persuade a mother in an abusive relationship to choose between her partner or her children? Are they trained to make decisions that could mean the difference between life and death? I think not.’

Association of Lawyers for Children family law solicitor Barbara Hopkin said: ‘The rising number of care applications means an unlimited source of work for those firms who can afford to do it. We all took a 10% cut in civil legal aid fees in October 2011, which led to some firms going out of business or just giving up publicly funded work. Those of us who are left are expected to do more work for less money, which is no incentive for future generations of lawyers to work in this area of law. The situation is unsustainable.’