Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS)

3. Mrs B complains about the actions of the Cafcass Family Court Adviser (FCA) during her family court case.

4. Specifically, Mrs B says the FCA lied in her reports to the court, and Cafcass has been dishonest in its complaint responses about this.

5. She says this has left her feeling scared and helpless, and at a disadvantage during proceedings and as a result of this she feels unable to work with Cafcass any longer. She says the complaint process has also been stressful and very time consuming and caused delays in her court case.

6. Mrs B also complains that Cafcass has not provided her with information requested in a Subject Access Request (SAR).

7. As a result of her complaint, Mrs B seeks an admission of dishonesty from Cafcass, an apology, service improvements, access to her information, and a financial payment.

8. Mrs B is the respondent in a family court case involving access to her children.

9. She was unhappy with the contents of a Section 7 report written for the court and about the communication of the FCA with her and complained to Cafcass about this. Cafcass told her that it had provided some feedback to the FCA about their administrative and communicative actions on the case, however, it said the complaint about the professional opinion of the FCA expressed in the report should be addressed with the court. Ms B has told us she is unhappy with the responses of Cafcass. She feels the FCA was dishonest in their report and says that this is a conduct matter that should be looked at through the complaint route.

Cafcass told Mrs B that she should make her complaint about the content of the Section 7 report with the court

11. To put this complaint, and our decision, into context, it may help if we explain more about the role of a Cafcass and the FCA, and our role as a final stage complaint handler.

12. In general, Cafcass does not make decisions about who a child should live, or have contact, with. Instead, it helps the court makes those decisions. In most cases, it does this by appointing a FCA who will work with the family and write a report on what, in their opinion, is in the child’s best interests.

13. Whilst The FCA is responsible to Cafcass for their professional conduct, that is the manner in which they behave, they are responsible to the court for their professional judgement, which includes the enquiries they make, the analysis provided in their reports and their opinions and recommendations given to the court.

14. Our position is that any concerns about the content of the FCA’s report should be raised with the court. This would include any concerns about the integrity of the report or any other complaint the person may have may have about the manner in which it was produced.

15. This is because it is not our role to interfere in any way with the judicial process. We have no remit to speculate on how a judge may potentially arrive at a future decision, or to make any findings that a judicial decision would or could have been different if evidence had been presented differently by any party. This is something only the court has the legal privilege to decide in its independent judicial capacity.

16. By law we are also prevented from investigating any matters that are or have previously been subject to legal action, and it appears that Ms B has already raised her concerns with the court, which would exclude us from making any further investigation.

Information rights request

17. If an organisation holds information about a person and does not comply with a SAR (or shares information about a person without their consent) this could potentially be a breach of their information rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 (the Act).

18. We are an independent complaints review organisation; we make final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by the NHS in England and UK government departments and other public organisations. However, we are unable to order the release of information held by any organisation.

19. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the UK’s independent authority set up specifically to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

20. It is the role of the ICO to ensure information is managed as it should be and to recognise breaches of the Act when they occur. Where breaches of the Act are identified, the ICO has the power to serve enforcement notices and orders to organisations.

21. If, however, an organisation fails to comply with any notice or order issued by the ICO, the only way that release of information can be enforced is through legal action. For these reasons, Mrs B should approach the ICO with a view to obtaining independent legal advice should she not achieve the outcome she seeks.

Conclusion

22. For the reasons noted above, we have decided not to take any further action on Ms B’s complaint. We realise our decision is unlikely to give Mrs B outcome she was seeking when she approached us, but we hope we have made clear our reasons for that decision. We thank her for bringing her concerns to our attention and wish her the best for the future.

1. We have carefully considered Mrs B’s complaint about Cafcass. We have decided not to take further action on her complaint as we consider the matters she raises should be addressed with the court. We will explain the reasons why in more detail below.

2. We hope the information in this statement reassures Mrs B we have considered all of her information and clearly explains the reasons we have decided not to take further action on her complaint.