s attributed to good support for workforce emotional health and wellbeing, a good professional development offer, opportunities for progression and secondment, and creation of senior social work roles and reduced caseloads to enable experienced staff to supervise and develop inexperienced workers. We have bright young things and wise old heads – with a gap in the middle. We need senior social workers who don't want to […] become managers. (DCS, Unitary, Eastern Region) 4.9 Family court related pressures In January 2023, the President of the Family Division announced the relaunch of the Public Law Outline (PLO) with the re-stated aim that applications for care or supervision orders are completed within the statutory time limit of 26 weeks. At the time of the relaunch the average was 46 weeks, with only 23% of cases disposed within the 26-weeks target. A parallel drive to close cases with durations of more than a hundred weeks may be skewing national 59 average data; while the latest statistics show the average duration has fallen to 41.2 weeks, 32% of newer cases are now disposed within 26 weeks (Ministry of Justice, 2024). Survey respondents were equally divided as to whether the relaunch was a positive impetus for change. Comments noted improved and increased pre-proceedings work helping ensure the right cases were escalated to court and diverting some families to alternative routes. There has been a significant increase in the use of pre-proceedings [in the organisation], with 50% more families entering pre-proceedings in 2023–24 than the previous year. This not only gives parents the opportunity to make necessary changes in the hope of diverting from proceedings but also the opportunity for assessments and direct work to be completed in readiness for initiating proce