Victoria Soeder
Cafcass National Office
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
3rd Floor
21 Bloomsbury Street
London
Your ref: CAF 19-138
WC1B 3HF
Our ref: Gov/CAF 19-138
Tel 0300 456 4000
27 September 2019
Dear Ms Soeder,
Re: Freedom of Information Request - Internal Review
Thank you for your email of 06 September 2019. You requested an internal review of the
response to your Freedom of Information request (CAF19-138) which was sent to you on 04
September 2019. An internal review involves a review of the decision on disclosure in the
original response and the way in which the request was handled. The internal reviewer can
either uphold or overturn the original decision.
Melanie Carew, Head of Legal, who was not party to the original decision on whether to
release the information, has now conducted the internal review. Please see their response
below.
In your request for an internal review, you requested:
Please supply all of the information I requested, if emotional harm is identified by an FCA In
CAFCASS risk and harm used in assessment please provide the information i.e the full risk
and harm module, guidance, training, assessment and any other documents/ guidance trying
FCA’s use to document emotional abuse.
Cafcass does not hold specific training on emotional harm. As stated in our FOI response,
Cafcass has a Knowledge Bite which is specific to Emotional Harm. Knowledge Bites are
succinct summaries of key issues with references to source materials that can be obtained
from the Cafcass library. A copy of the Knowledge Bite was provided in your original FOI
response. The Risk and Harm induction eLearning references Emotional Harm but is not
specifically focused on the subject of Emotional Harm in isolation. Please find attached a
copy of the Risk and Harm eLearning storyboard.
Edward Timpson CBE Chair
Jacky Tiotto Chief Executive
Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, is a non-departmental body of the Ministry of Justice
Cafcass National Office, 3rd Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF | DX Cafcass 310101 Bloomsbury 11
Cafcass has a
Child Protection Policy that sets out how we will respond to allegations of
significant harm in order to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, including
emotional harm.
Cafcass does not have guidance or assessments specific to emotional harm. Cafcass has
evidence informed tools which are used by practitioners to support their direct work with
adults and children in order to improve the quality of evidence informed analysis in our
reports. FCAs are encouraged to use appropriate tools, matched to the identified needs in
the case; for example, when assessing the impact of domestic violence, or when
ascertaining the wishes and feelings of children. The tools and resources are available on
our
website. The tools are within a toolkit matrix which provides a guide to which tool can be
selected in which circumstance and for what purpose.
We hope that you feel your question has been answered effectively. If you are dissatisfied
with the way the internal review is handled or with the final decision made at that review
about the information released, you are free to contact the Information Commissioner’s
Office
(https://ico.org.uk/):
Post
Fax
Information Commissioner's Office
01625 524 510
Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Tel
Wilmslow,
0303 123 1113
Cheshire
E-mail
SK9 5AF
xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
Governance Team
Cafcass
xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Edward Timpson CBE Chair
Jacky Tiotto Chief Executive
Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, is a non-departmental body of the Ministry of Justice
Cafcass National Office, 3rd Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF | DX Cafcass 310101 Bloomsbury 11