Victoria Soeder
Cafcass National Office
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
3rd Floor
21 Bloomsbury Street
London
WC1B 3HF
Your ref: CAF 19-142
Our ref: Gov/CAF 19-142
Tel 0300 456 4000
30 October 2019
Dear Ms Soeder,
Re: Freedom of Information Request - Internal Review
Thank you for your email of 05 October 2019. You requested an internal review of the
response to your Freedom of Information request (CAF19-142) which was sent to you on 19
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:
Your response is not clear do CAFCASS hold a duty of care towards adult and vulnerable
adults their FCA’s engage with : yes or no ?
In response to your Freedom of Information request (CAF19-142), information was provided
to you about Cafcass’ practice for FCAs, which sets out their duties to vulnerable adults. This
response is therefore upheld, as Cafcass have provided this information to you in the
response to your Freedom of Information request.
Cafcass has a duty to report to the court if an Family Court Advisor believes that a child is at
risk of harm under s16A of the Children Act 1989. In our private law work, we may consider
it necessary, as a result of our involvement in cases, to pass information about children to
local authority children’s services, where it appears that their duty (under s47(1) Children Act
1989) to investigate child protection concerns appears to be engaged. These steps are set
out in the
Cafcass Child Protection Policy. Cafcass does not have a statutory duty of care
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
towards adults and our statutory remit refers to the duty to safeguard and promote the
welfare of children.
You contacted Cafcass on 07 October 2019 in regards to your request for an internal review:
If it helps you to answer the question clearly the purpose of CAFCASS under the act CJCSA
is in four parts the fourth being: “provide information, support and advice to such children and
their families “ therefore is it correct their is an automatic duty of care with any adults
CAFCASS engage with ?
NB gathering witness statements seems to ‘change’ the remit of CAFCASS as this process
in in stark opposition to CAFCASS purpose : to provide information, support and advice to
children and families: it is divisive and in no way ‘supportive’ but harmful and reckless. The
purpose of CAFCASS as outlined in its accountability to Parliament has dramatically
changed therefore please provide any new agreement signed between CAFCASS, MOJ and
Secretary of State as to the new ‘current purpose of CAFCASS’
Please note Cafcass has not signed any new agreement with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
and Secretary of State as to a new current purpose of Cafcass.
You contacted Cafcass on 13 October 2019 in regards to your request for an internal review:
1.In response to my question 2c you have responded to say CAFCASS does not hold
information in respect of their duty of care to vulnerable adults. HMCTS say that CAFCASS
are independent of the court therefore why does CAFCASS not hold information on their
duties towards vulnerable service users ?
2. CAFCASS remit is to support children and families therefore do CAFCASS have or not
have a duty of care to adult family members they undertake work with ?
In your original Freedom of Information request (CAF19-142) you asked
‘I am aware that
CAFCASS represent children in the family courts and do not require information in this
request in respect of their duty of care to children. It appears CAFCASS seem to be implying
that by focusing solely on the child they hold no duty of care to adult service users therefore
who holds a duty of care to adult & vulnerable adult service users?
a. CAFCASS
b. The family court
c. Both CAFCASS and the family court
or neither’
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
In our response to your request, it was explained that Cafcass does not hold information
about the role of the family court in holding a duty of care to adults to vulnerable adult service
users and this information would be held by the courts. This response is therefore upheld, as
Cafcass do not hold information on the family courts and whether they hold a duty of care to
adult service users and vulnerable adult service users.
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