Michelle Storr
Cafcass National Office
3rd Floor
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
21 Bloomsbury Street
London
Your ref: CAF 19-216
WC1B 3HF
Our ref: Gov/CAF 19-216
Tel 0300 456 4000
Email
: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
08 January 2020
Dear Ms Storr,
Re: Freedom of Information request
Thank you for your email of 22 December 2019. You made the following requests for
information:
Due to the unprofessional conduct of a 16.4 guardian I kindly request disclosure of her
qualifications and experience and the nature of any complaints against her , and how many
complaints there have been against her .
Abigail (Abi) Kinman ( Staffordshire )
Cafcass is unable to provide you with personal information belonging to an individual staff
member. The information you have requested is personal data relating to an employee to
whom Cafcass owes a duty of confidence.
Disclosure is therefore exempt under Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The exemption from the duty to disclose third party personal data where to do so would
breach a data protection principle is an absolute exemption.
Section 40 of the Freedom of Information Act provides that:
1. Any information to which a request for information relates is exempt information if it
constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject.
2. Any information to which a request for information relates is also exempt information if-
a. it constitutes personal data which do not fall within subsection (1), and
b. either the first or the second condition below is satisfied.
1. The first condition is-
Sally Cheshire CBE Interim 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
a. in a case where the information falls within any of paragraphs (a) to (d) of the
definition of "data" in section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998, that the
disclosure of the information to a member of the public otherwise than under this
Act would contravene-
(i) any of the data protection principles, or
(ii) section 10 of that Act (right to prevent processing likely to cause damage
or distress), and
b. in any other case, that the disclosure of the information to a member of the public
otherwise than under this Act would contravene any of the data protection principles if
the exemptions in section 33A(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998 (which relate to
manual data held by public authorities) were disregarded.
Al Cafcass Family Court Advisers (which includes those acting as Children’s Guardians) are
qualified social workers with a Diploma in Social Work (or recognised equivalent) and at least
three years post qualifying experience in social work with children and families at risk. As a
condition of employment, Family Court Advisers must maintain their registration with the
Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
The
job description for a Family Court Adviser, including person specification, is available on
Cafcass’ website.
Further to experience in social work, our Family Court Advisers receive training while at
Cafcass in order to assist with their continued professional development; as part of
registration with the HCPC, all social workers on a biennial basis must provide evidence of
their professional development.
All social work staff are required to complete six core in-house training modules upon joining
the organisation, which will be completed within the first six months:
• Recording and planning
• Interviewing and Reporting
• Risk and Harm
• Legal Core
• Introduction to Private Law/Public Law.
• Basic training is complemented by other training events available throughout the year
for both social work and non-social work staff.
• Cafcass have an internal National Improvement Service (NIS) who run workshops
across the country tailored to local training needs analysis.
• CafcassLearning, an online eLearning platform, offers learning on a range of social
work and non-social work topics.
• All FCAs are registered with the HCPC and subscribe to the
professional capabilities
(section 5) in accordance with this registration.
Sally Cheshire CBE Interim 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
We hope that you feel your question has been answered effectively. If you are unhappy with
the decisions made in relation to your request, you may ask for an internal review to be
undertaken. 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
Sally Cheshire CBE Interim 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
Sally Cheshire CBE Interim 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