Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service

5. Ms B complains Cafcass did not follow the process when completing a section 7 report for the Family Court. She says this meant an addendum (amended) report had to be made and this delayed proceedings.

6. Ms B says the FCA should have checked the information from the children and their parents and spoken to the children in person. She says Cafcass did not properly consider the information she gave them to support her concerns.

7. Ms B also complains about how the FCA handled information she told them was confidential. She says it was included in the section 7 report against her wishes, without warning and without her consent.

8. Ms B says failure to follow process negatively affected the quality of the section 7 report, and therefore the court’s decision.

9. Ms B says she has not seen her grandchildren for over three years. This has caused her pain, stress and anxiety.

10. Ms B says Cafcass’s failure to complete the report properly meant proceedings took longer than they should have, and this increased the cost of the legal fees. Ms B says this affected her financially and she had to borrow money from a friend to continue with her application.

11. Ms B says her confidential information being included in the report created a risk to her safety and added to her stress and anxiety.

12. Ms B would like Cafcass to apologise and accept it got things wrong. She would like financial compensation.

13. In November 2020, Ms B made an application to the Family Court for a Grandparent Visit Order, because her relationship with her son had broken down and she could not visit her grandchildren.

14. The judge asked Cafcass to complete a section 7 report to help the court decide on the best interests of the children.

15. At the final hearing in December 2020, the judge decided not to grant the Order.

Cafcass did not follow process

17. Before we decide if we should investigate a complaint, we look at whether there is another organisation that is better placed to deal with the concerns and give the complainant the outcome they want.

18. Generally, the best place to challenge Cafcass reports is within the court process itself. The report was written for the court. As part of these proceedings, the court can call the FCA to give evidence and be cross-examined on the content of the report, including the assessment and any disagreement over factual issues. The judge reviews all the evidence and has the final say.

19. The court can challenge:

• what evidence was gathered (who was interviewed and what they were asked) • how the evidence was gathered (were the children spoken to in person) • how the evidence was reviewed (did the FCA consider Ms B’s evidence) • the scope of the enquiry and the decision not to look at concerns already considered by other organisations • what was included in the report (Ms B’s confidential information).

20. Ms B did not challenge the FCA in court, although this was an available option. We understand the decision of whether to challenge issues in court is difficult, with many legal, financial and personal considerations.

21. Ms B had legal advice at the time of the hearing. Ms B told us she decided not to use a barrister because the FCA who wrote the report did not say whether they would be in court until the last minute. But Ms B had earlier notice that a representative from Cafcass would be in court, and she would have been able to raise her concerns about the report even if the FCA did not attend. In its complaint response Cafcass told Ms B her complaints about the FCA’s professional judgement should be raised in court.

22. While the court does not look at whether there were any failings that affected Ms B in the same way that we would, it could have looked at the proceedings and achieved most of the outcomes Ms B is looking for. Although we can recommend financial compensation if we find failings, we cannot review a court decision or give Ms B access to her grandchildren.

23. We realise this matter is important to Ms B and it continues to cause her concern. For the reasons above, we have decided not to look at this issue further.

Cafcass shared confidential information

24. It does not seem that Ms B raised this before or that Cafcass has had the opportunity to consider it. It is important for Cafcass to have the chance to look at a complaint first, give a response, and put right any mistakes itself before we get involved. It is also often the best and quickest way to resolve complaints.

25. Cafcass has agreed to look at this part of Ms B’s complaint. For this reason, we have decided this part of Ms B’s complaint is not yet ready for us and we will not be taking any further action at this time.

1. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has carefully considered Ms B’s complaint about Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass).

2. We appreciate the events that caused Ms B to complain have been difficult for her as she loves and misses her grandchildren. We recognise the impact the events had on her and her grandchildren. We are sorry to hear of the stress, anxiety and upset Ms B has experienced.

3. Part of Ms B’s complaint is about the professional judgement of the Cafcass Family Court Adviser (FCA). This complaint should have been raised during the proceedings. This issue should be considered by the court so we are not investigating it further.

4. We have decided part of Ms B’s complaint should be sent to Cafcass so it can respond to her directly. This is because it has not had the opportunity to look at her complaint about how it handled confidential information. We have explained the reasons for our decision below.