According to a new study by Cafcass, the non-departmental public body that looks after the interests of children involved in family proceedings, Judges accept the recommendations set out in court welfare reports in 76 per cent of cases.
The study, based on a randomly chosen selection of 170 private residence and contact cases, found that in 107 of these cases, or 63%, report recommendations almost exactly matched the final order.
In eight of the cases selected, there was some overlap, however, the courts did not follow report recommendations in only five cases.
Richard Green, a child protection manager at Cafcass said: “The fact that our reports are followed in nine out of 10 cases suggests that the courts attach a high degree of merit to them.”
Richard added: “We have good structures in place to produce high-quality work and we are well placed to respond to the challenges ahead”