I understand, but cannot confirm it, that so far the £1.5 million for family contact services has only benefited 26 parents (or perhaps 26 couples). I think this was in a parliamentary written answer but haven’t seen the source.

12Th November: “Dawn Primarolo (Minister of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families; Bristol South, Labour)

CAFCASS’s budget for 2007/08 was £107,133,000. On top of this, CAFCASS received funding for additional activities, namely £80,000 for ContactPoint and £1,500,000 for Family Contact Services.

CAFCASS funding was set for three years as part of the comprehensive spending review 2007 for 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11. Re-profiling of this budget has since taken place to reflect the high level of demand, particularly in public law cases. CAFCASS overall budget for the three year CSR period has not changed as a result of this re-profiling. In 2009/10 CAFCASS have received an additional £2.54 million to strengthen their capacity to offer support to children who are the subject of care proceedings. This includes £1.6 million for the London region where demand has been highest. In 2008/09 and 2009/10 CAFCASS received funding for additional activities as well, namely ContactPoint and Family Contact Services.
CAFCASS funding CSR 2007
2008/09 2009/10 2010/11
CSR Allocation 114,855,000 124,094,000 132,822,000
Reprofiling 3,600,000 1,000,000 -4,600,000
Additional Allocation — 2,540,000 —

Annual Budget Total 118,455,000 127,634,000 128,222,000
Contact Point 210,000 520,000 —
Family Contact Services 2,300,000 2,000,000 —