Jimmy
Cafcass National Office
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
3rd Floor
21 Bloomsbury Street
London
WC1B 3HF
Your ref: CAF 15-15
Tel 0300 456 4000
Our ref: Gov/CAF 15-15
9th February 2015
Dear Sir
Re: Freedom of Information Request
Thank you for your email of the 6th February 2015 where you made the following requests for
information:
What are the stages of your complaints procedures regarding the conduct of Cafcass
employees? As in, a complaint being registered, 15 working days to respond - Then
what?
Please see below for our response.
Please see here for our
Cafcass Complaints Policy and Procedure; sections 1.20 -
1.29 (pages 3-5) set out the procedure Cafcass follows when responding to a
complaint made by a party, and Appendix 1 (page 7) shows the procedure in diagram
form.
Information can also be found on our
Complaints Factsheet, a section of which can
be seen below:
What will the complaints team do?
A member of the team will contact you by phone to get fuller details of your
complaint and the steps you want us to take. Wherever possible, we will also
talk to the Cafcass worker who is the focus of your complaint. Based on our
assessment of the nature of your complaint, and what we have found out, we
will then provide you with a written response.
Baroness Tyler of Enfield Chair
Anthony Douglas CBE 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
If your complaint is about a Cafcass worker’s professional opinion or
judgment, such as the recommendations that have been made in court
reports, we will always send the court a copy of your complaint and our
response so that it can take this into account in the decisions it makes. You
are also free, subject to the judge’s agreement, to tell the court about what
you think about our work, or the advice we have provided to the court.
Complaints about the performance or conduct of a Cafcass worker may be
referred to the worker’s line manager for information or action. Where there
are serious concerns about the worker’s conduct these may be referred to the
relevant senior manager to consider whether informal or formal action is
required under Cafcass’ Performance and Conduct Policy. These complaints
may also be drawn to the court’s attention where Cafcass considers that they
are relevant to the proceedings.
We will, wherever possible, send a letter to you (and the court where
applicable) no later than five working days before the next hearing or, if there
is no immediate court hearing, within a maximum of 15 working days.
The letter will outline our understanding of your complaint, and what action, if
any, we are taking to resolve it.
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
(www.informationcommissioner.gov.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.xxx.xx
Baroness Tyler of Enfield Chair
Anthony Douglas CBE 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
