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Loading …Cafcass has agreed a pay deal for its staff covering 2024-25.
Staff, including the family court body’s approximately 1,700 social workers, have been a given a 4.43% increase, backdated to April 2024.
Pay talks at Cafcass were delayed by the general election, which meant the incoming Labour government did not issue a pay policy for the civil service until the end of July last year.
5% pay ceiling
This stated that government departments could, on average, increase their pay bills by 5% in 2024-25.
As is standard practice, Cafcass then entered talks with its sponsoring department, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), over its pay remit for 2024-25, before making an offer to the two unions representing staff, Napo and UNISON.
Though the MoJ gave Cafcass a remit to raise pay by 5%, its across-the-board offer to staff was less than this to allow scope for other pay increases made during the year.
‘The best outcome achievable’
Napo and UNISON then agreed the offer after members backed it in an indicative ballot.
A Cafcass spokesperson said: “The pay award of 4.43% represents the best outcome achievable within this year’s pay guidance, and is the minimum award received by all employees. When the 4.43% increase is considered alongside adjustments already made in line with contractual pay progression and increases in the national living wage, some staff received higher percentage awards than this.”
For Napo, general secretary Ian Lawrence said the “decisive view from members” was that the pay deal agreed was the best that could be achieved.
Variable pay deals for different social work groups
The settlement means that all three groups of public sector social workers in England received different pay settlements in 2024-25. The best deal – a 5.5% increase in pay – was given to NHS practitioners, while the majority of council practitioners were granted rises of £1,290 – £1,491 or £1,575 in London – equivalent to a 3-4% bump on their salaries.
That followed several years in which pay rises at Cafcass had lagged those for local authority practitioners, prompting concerns from management and unions alike about the organisation becoming less competitive on social work pay compared with councils.
Lawrence said this was still an issue and that Napo would be calling for it to be addressed through increased investment for Cafcass.
Union looking to tackle workloads
He added that the union’s other priorities for the forthcoming year included tackling workloads among Cafcass practitioners.
Social work caseloads at Cafcass fell from 2022-24, however, a Napo survey last year found practitioners were struggling with workloads, with the majority frequently working more than their contracted hours.
Lawrence said: “We want to work with management to review the national picture on workloads and how that manifests regionally. I welcome the news that there have been some reductions in the quantum of cases on Cafcass’s books.
“But if there’s been a reduction, what steps are management planning to take to ease the burden on staff who, in some areas, are still reporting a critical position around workloads?”
