Care Proceedings Graduated Fee Scheme

On this page:

What does this scheme cover?
Fee structure table
How are the fees graduated?
For more information

What does this scheme cover?

This scheme applies to public law family work.

It applies to:

all Public Law family casework carried out at the initial ‘Legal Help’ stage (termed Level 1), cases started on or after 1st October 2007
care and supervision and related proceedings at Level 2 (negotiation), cases started on or after 1st October 2007, and Level 3 (full legal representation), certificates issued on or after 1st October 2007.

All remaining public law work not included in the scheme will continue to be paid at hourly rates.

Fee structure table

Please see Documents on the right hand side of this page for a fee structure table for the Care Proceedings Graduated Fee Scheme.

The table sets out what we will pay for cases when the new schemes are introduced and aim to help providers to access key information more easily.

It is taken from our Family and Family Mediation Fee Schemes publication that sets out and explains the scheme. This document provides important additional information about the scheme such as:

any work outside the scheme
exceptional thresholds.

The fee table should be read in conjunction with this scheme paper.

How are the fees graduated?

The scheme fixes fees at three levels:

Level 1: a national fee for initial advice
Level 2: a national fee for advising parents or those with parental responsibility and allowing negotiation with local authorities where the local authority has issued notice of their intention to issue care proceedings
Level 3: a regionalised fee for full legal representation varying for the North of England, South of England, Midlands and Wales.

Level 2 work

We have introduced this new level of service to encourage early settlement and prevent unnecessary litigation.

The Child Care Proceedings Review has examined the child care proceedings system in England and Wales with two aims:

to improve the system for children and families subject to proceedings
to ensure that all resources in the system are used in the most timely, effective way.

In line with the Review, and because this is a new level of service, Level 2 will be limited to parents and those with parental responsibility at this stage.

Level 3 work

Level 3 covers all work from the issue of proceedings to the final hearing and any work that follows on from the final hearing.

To ensure payments reflect the amount of work carried out payments at this level will vary according to the:

type of client
number of clients advised
the court at which the case is heard.

These variations are based on the historic costs of advising these clients.

Exceptional cases

We have reduced the exceptional case threshold to:

three times the fee paid at Levels 1 and 2
twice the fee paid at Level 3.

Advocacy

The scheme will not apply to advocacy until April 2008. Barristers will be paid under the current Family Graduated Fee Scheme. Solicitors undertaking advocacy work will be paid hourly rates.

Following consultation, the definition of advocacy has been amended for clarification. This includes:

appearances as an advocate before the Court
associated travel to Court
waiting time and attendance at any conferences provided by the advocate at Court
attendance at the advocates' meeting.

It does not include attendance at Court with counsel or another advocate.

We will consult on this further in 2007.

For more information

Please visit the CLS>closed consultations pages:

for more information
to download the family and family mediation fee scheme paper.

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Last updated: 19 September 2008