Annual Report 2006-2007 - Cafcass

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Objective 4 Being more efficient and adding value in all we do Over the past two years Cafcass has received no increase in baseline funding, although in 2006–07 we received significant one-off funding for capital and change programmes. The additional non-recurring funding has enabled us to take forward our modernisation agenda without diverting baseline funding from frontline service delivery. We have stayed within our allocated budget whilst improving the service we deliver to children and families. Effective budget management has enabled us to absorb inflationary pressures, deliver the efficiency savings required of us by government, redirect more resources to frontline service delivery and manage significant increases in demand for our services. We have done this by identifying efficiencies and best practice, to reduce spend and maximise positive outcomes. Budget Task Force A Budget Task Force has operated throughout 2006–07 to co-ordinate in-year budget control measures, ensure that efficiencies were delivered and to ensure that spend was aligned to service priorities. The Budget Task Force identified and co-ordinated areas of budget savings, scrutinising spend, sharing good practice, issuing guidance and reviewing business cases. Figure 7 shows how we spent our budget in 2006–07. Capital and change programmes In May 2006 the DfES awarded Cafcass additional one-off funding of £4.69m. This has been used to fund a range of programmes. The key areas of work were: • IT • regional change programmes in London, the South East, and the West Midlands • an early retirement programme • a strategy to upgrade freehold buildings • practice development • redevelopment of internet and intranet communications • procurement processes • a staff survey. We believe that the grant has had a significant and beneficial impact on the delivery of service and in enabling the organisation to move forward and set the direction for further progress. The majority of these initiatives would not have happened without separate funding being available. Our staff members have achieved increased IT literacy as a result of the 2006–07 capital programme, which will pave the way for increased performance and ultimately improved outcomes for children and families. In addition we have improved IT resources, our intranet and internet Figure 7: How we spent our budget 2006–07 Staff costs 65% (£70m) Other pension costs 4% (4m) Self-employed contractors 9% (£10m) Other operating charges 20% (£22m) Depreciation 1% (£1m) Partnership costs 1% (£1m) See page 52 for exact figures 28 | Cafcass Annual Report and Accounts 2006–07
upgrade will be completed by the end of August 2007, and 700 laptops will be issued to practitioners in the financial year 2007–08. The 2007–08 budget settlement from DfES represents a £5.9m increase on our 2006–07 baseline budget. This is a percentage increase of 5.8%, and is recognition of the important work we do and the pressures on us. Business support Effective delivery of essential services demands excellent business support. To support the service delivery and practice developments identified in Organising for Quality, we are changing some business support roles and responsibilities. A comprehensive business support review has been conducted to identify the administrative needs of a complex national organisation. This aims to provide consistent and efficient business support across Cafcass, allowing systems and processes to be shared where appropriate. Case Management System (CMS) The CMS was piloted by the South West region during the 2005–06 financial year and subsequently rolled out to all regions during 2006–07. The new national Case Management System links information across all teams and regions, keeps all the information in one place and enables us to track a child’s history. CMS delivers greater consistency and efficiency in terms of performance monitoring and management, managing workloads and allocating cases. “CMS is user-friendly, easy to navigate and has improved the way we use our resources. It’s more efficient than our previous systems as all information is now on one database. CMS also allows us to look at information such as diversity monitoring, dispute resolution and self-employed contractors’ time recording. This brings all tasks together to provide more sophisticated reports and effective case monitoring.” Loretta Amor, Admin Manager, Wells St office in London Section 1: Management Commentary | 29
Page 1: Annual Report and Accounts Children
Page 4 and 5: Our purpose Cafcass has a statutory
Page 6 and 7: Overview by the Chair Chairing a no
Page 8 and 9: Section 1: Management Commentary Se
Page 10 and 11: Private law Our approach to working
Page 12: case study Managing our resources:
Page 15 and 16: case study Cafcass Legal and the Hi
Page 17 and 18: Transforming services and modernisi
Page 19 and 20: case study North East Children’s
Page 21 and 22: Diversity conference We held a nati
Page 23 and 24: staff easy access to their collecti
Page 25 and 26: Family Justice Councils Cafcass con
Page 27 and 28: “This excellent practice guidance
Page 29 and 30: This year we also produced three DV
Page 31: Diversity Our workforce is ageing,
Page 35 and 36: KPI 2 - At least 98% of all public
Page 37 and 38: KPI 5 -The percentage of Section 8s
Page 39 and 40: Section 1: Management Commentary |
Page 41 and 42: The Parliamentary and Health Servic
Page 43 and 44: Members of the Board at an open Boa
Page 45 and 46: Section 4: Statement on Internal Co
Page 47 and 48: and advice on best practice. The co
Page 49 and 50: Board members’ remuneration (audi
Page 51 and 52: Section 6: Accounts 2006-07 Section
Page 53 and 54: Additional meetings between the tra
Page 55 and 56: the Secretary of State for Educatio
Page 57 and 58: Balance Sheet as at 31st March 2007
Page 59 and 60: Expected useful lives are as follow
Page 61 and 62: The total staff cost includes a cos
Page 63 and 64: 7 Tangible fixed assets Freehold la
Page 65 and 66: 13 Analysis of changes in cash 1st
Page 67 and 68: 18b Analysis of capital expenditure
Page 69 and 70: The FRS17 valuation as at 31st Marc
Page 71: General contact details We can be c

Annual Report 2006-2007 - Cafcass

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