The following table shows the average number of weeks from the date of application to order made for care and supervision cases in England and Wales (where completed cases are counted by child for family proceedings courts and by orders made for County courts). Data are provided by court area, as a local authority area breakdown is unavailable. Data are presented by court type, from 2006-07; the earliest year for which data are available.
Court area County court Family proceedings court 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, and Gloucestershire 58 62 57 43 45 44 Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire 52 53 62 45 40 51 Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire 62 67 69 47 52 50 Black Country, Staffordshire and West Mercia 48 52 56 45 48 47 Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk 45 49 49 39 39 39 Cheshire and Merseyside 55 58 57 43 46 55 Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria 48 57 59 45 47 46 Cumbria and Lancashire 51 53 61 42 41 44 Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, and Wiltshire 50 58 54 45 42 44 Greater Manchester 55 57 59 43 42 40 Humber and South Yorkshire 41 45 46 38 36 39 Kent 53 61 67 45 45 50 Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire 51 54 55 42 41 42 London (Civil and Family) 56 66 65 51 53 49 Mid and West Wales 52 53 47 42 52 46 North and West Yorkshire 49 48 53 38 37 39 North Wales 62 51 58 45 31 38 Nottingham and Derbyshire 44 42 45 43 45 45 South East Wales 51 60 59 42 47 51 Surrey and Sussex 50 55 54 50 47 45 Thames Valley 47 51 55 41 39 44 England and Wales: Average number of weeks 52 56 57 44 45 46 England and Wales: Total number of care and supervision orders made1 4,161 3,923 3,636 3,730 3,746 3,596 1 The figures for County courts count the number of care and supervision orders disposed in each year. Family proceedings courts figures count the number of children disposed. Notes: 1. The data are taken from the HMCS FamilyMan System and from the Case Tracker system. 2. The figures only cover cases where a care order or a supervision order was made. The figures do not include other care and supervision disposals (e.g. order refused, order of no order) and do not include other order types (e.g. emergency protection, secure accommodation). 3. The figures reflect the mean number of weeks from application to order. This means that the numbers of weeks taken for each order have been added up, and the total has then been divided by the number of orders.