Family Rights Group | Kinship carers’ Forum

Hi

I am trying to find out if we can 'complain' about a CAFCASS Officers (Guardian) report?

The report is very poorly (and unprofessionally) written and has ommitted much factual information which in turn, seems biased against us - the way it has been written means whoever reads it is not getting the full picture, salient pieces of information have been ommitted which are crucial for the correct interpretation of our evidence/argument etc.

This report has been sent to the Court and all parties already so realistically, the damage has already been done and I did want to write to the Court etc to 'put them right' but thought I should complain to the CAFCASS officers (Guardian) Manager, but she said we could not do this and it has to be done in Court - is this our only recourse or can we do anything outside of the Court arena by way of complaint etc?

thanks in advance.

Why never say they are wrong? If they are wrong then they are wrong...

I am so fed up with having to jump through hoops and not upset anyone! No-one gives a damn about upsetting us!!

Just because they are so-called 'professionals' does not give them the right to look down their nose at me and mine - they do get it wrong and HAVE got it wrong, majorly wrong twice in our case and I am not prepared to let it happen a third time....

We do not have a solicitor, can't afford one and don't qualify for legal aid unlike the parents - the whole system is wrong!

if I sound bitter and annoyed.... its because I am - how many more years of this do we have to endure? How many more people are going to try and tell me how to live my life - how many more people are going to have 'opinions' when my own opinion is completely discounted without a second thought

Oh Cellbar, we had the most terrible, terrible time with the guardian in our case. This was three years ago and we also lost a finding of fact relating to our eldest grandson's dad's violence which I have never recovered from.

The man CAFCASS and the Judge said did not need anger management and I had only perceived his violence is currently on bail for actual bodily harm x 2 and grievous bodily harm x 3. These attacks happened within a four month period. We pleaded with the court and Cafcass€ to listen to our concerns in this regard.

On 1 September this year, three years after the final hearing, I received a letter from CAFCASS saying they had not investigated our complaints properly. This came out of the blue andfollowing intervention by the Parliamentary Ombudsman for 6 complainants across the country.

The man investigating the case has now said that as the finding went against us, it would clearly influence his latest findings. It is as though they have played mind games with us again and I now have to go through a further attack on my integrity. Why on earth even bother in the first place?

The guardian had no right to tell you you could not complain. Of course you can - I think she means you can challenge aspects of her report you disagree with in court but I would write correcting factual errors. Starting the complaint process is stressful and it is incredibly difficult to get the complaint from stage 1 to stage 2 and I have never heard of anyone making to stage 3 as this involves an independent body investigating.

I am sorry to be so negative. I hope someone comes on and gives you a positive perspective so you can form a more balanced view. I too get so tired of hearing how I have to be careful of what I say, we are all so timid and afraid. I am living proof the Judge and Cafcass do not always get it right and I take no joy from this, just remain fearful for the children and myself.

There is a page on the CAFCASS website that leads to their complaints procedure, which it could be worth your while reading: http://www.cafcass.gov.uk/contact_us/feedback.aspx

The different stages are fairly similar to the stages of local authority children act complaints procedures. Stage 1 is an attempt to resolve it locally, Stage 2 is an independent investigation, and Stage 3 is a review of that decision if you are unhappy with the outcome of Stage 2.

You do have to be careful that you are not complaining about matters that it will be for the court to decide. For example, you might not like the CAFCASS officer's recommendation, but that is that officer's professinoal opinion, and it will be for the court to decide whether to act on it or not.

The matters that you have raised are to do with the way the report is written - that you say it is not well written and misses out important facts. The first place to raise that would be with the particular CAFCASS worker and their manager, but you also have to make sure that the information that is not in the report does get into court for the judge to consider.