The Role of Cafcass

8/14/2019 The Role of Cafcass

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The Role of CafcassSafeguarding and promotingthe welfare of children involvedin family court proceedings

Putting children firstin family courts


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What is Cafcass? The Children and Family Court Advisoryand Support Service Cafcass safeguards 1 and promotes the interestsof children involved in family courtproceedings. We carry out our workthrough the professional skill, experienceand enthusiasm of our practitioners.Most of our practitioners are employed

by us, though some work for us onself-employed contracts. We onlywork in the family courts. These arenot criminal courts.

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1 The Children Act 2004 places a statutory duty on bodies and agenciesworking with children to make arrangements to safeguard and promotethe welfare of children, particularly in terms of being healthy, staying safe,enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achievingeconomic well being.


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What does Cafcass do?Our job is to safeguard and promote the welfareof children involved in family court proceedings.Our practitioners work with children and theirfamilies, making sure that childrens voices

are heard and their needs are met. The maintypes of cases in which the court asks us tohelp are when:

> parents are separating or divorcing and havenot reached agreement about arrangements

for their children

> social services 2 have become involved andchildren may be removed from their parentscare for their safety

> children could be adopted.

We are independent of the courts, socialservices, education and health authoritiesand all similar agencies.

Cafcass The Role of Cafcass

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2 In this leaflet, the term social services refers to the work of localauthorities in undertaking their social services function, and particularlychildrens social care.


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What are the different roles of Cafcass practitioners?

The role of our practitioners depends on thekind of case and exactly what the court asksthem to do. There are four main roles:

> Children and Family Reporters becomeinvolved when parents who are divorcing orseparating have not been able to reachagreement about arrangements for theirchildren. Sometimes agreement can bereached without having to involve the courtany further but if not the Children and FamilyReporter may carry out further work to tryand resolve issues, or may make enquiriesand write a report for the court

> Childrens Guardians represent the interestsof a child during cases in which socialservices have become involved and incontested adoptions

> Reporting Officers ensure parents understandwhat adoption means for them and their childand establish whether or not they consent to it

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> Guardians ad Litem are occasionallyappointed by the court in cases whenparents who are divorcing or separating havenot been able to reach agreement. This onlyhappens if there is some particular difficultyin the case. The child is made a party to theproceedings and the role of the Guardian adLitem is to provide separate representationof their rights and interests.

What do these roles have in common?

All these roles involve some or all of:

> keeping a special look out for the bestinterests of the child

> standing up for those interests

> making relevant enquiries

> writing a report for the court.

An important part of every practitioners work is

to spend time talking and listening to children tofind out what they think and how they feel.


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How can Cafcass know what isbest for children?

Our practitioners are trained and experiencedin working with children and families.

Is what people tell Cafcass keptconfidential?

Any information you give to the Cafcasspractitioner may be included in their reportto the court, and the information may bepassed on for other purposes. For example,it is sometimes necessary to pass informationto another agency if there is a child safeguardingconcern. In addition, we are authorised to carryout research to benefit children and families andfrom time to time your information may also beused anonymously in such research.

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Will the court do what the child wants? The practitioners report will always tell thecourt about the childs wishes and feelings.

This is one of the matters the court will takeinto account but that does not mean the

court will always do what the child wants. The court will look to do what it thinks isbest for the child.

Does the court always do what the

Cafcass practitioner advises?It is the court that decides what will happen,but the court will take careful notice of whatour practitioner says. If a court disagrees withwhat a practitioner has recommended it will

explain why.


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Do my views count?We welcome feedback about all our servicesand activities as this forms an important partof developing and improving our service.We would like to hear from all those who

use our service children and young people,parents, relatives, courts or other agencies.

This feedback might be:

> A comment about our policies or working

practices or any other aspect of the service> A compliment about our work or an

individual practitioner

> A complaint about any aspect of your dealings with us.

We will record, monitor and review all comments,compliments and complaints about our services,and the outcomes will be published in our

Annual Report.

In the interests of developing our serviceand for research purposes, we may approachyou to obtain your views once proceedingsare completed.

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How do I feedback commentsand compliments?

Pass on any comments or compliments(preferably in writing) to the practitionerconcerned, or send them to the local

Cafcass manager at the address on theback of this leaflet. You may also send yourcomments or views to our national officevia email at: [email protected]

At the end of your case you may requesta feedback meeting with the practitionerinvolved in your case or with their manager.

What if I am not happy with the service

Cafcass provides?We aim to provide a high standard of servicein all family proceedings, and to give a voiceto children at a critical time in their lives. It isimportant for us to know when service users

believe we have fallen short of these aims.

We have a complaints process that is designedto ensure that complaints are dealt with as quickly,fairly and effectively as possible. An introductionto the complaints process can be found onthe next page. The full process is set out ina booklet for service users 3, which is available

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3 Your Views Count How to make a comment, compliment or complaintabout our work


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It is important to note that there are timelimits within which we will accept complaints.For adults this is within three months of theevent or incident having occurred. Please referto the Your Views Count booklet for full detailsof these time limits.

You can expect receipt of your complaint tobe acknowledged by us within five working days.

Complaints from children can be received

at any point. A child who wishes to make acomplaint will be offered the support of anindependent advocate throughout the process.

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Child safetyWe undertake checks with other agenciesto find out whether children are at risk of significant harm. This includes where childrenhave witnessed domestic violence. Routine

checks are undertaken with police, socialservices and the Child Protection Register.We will let you know if further checks areneeded with additional agencies (e.g. GPs,schools). Information will be used in thepreparation of a report for court and mayalso be shared with social services.

We will not support arrangements that putat risk the safety of children or young peopleand their carers.

Diversity

We aim to champion the individual needs of children and to respect and value the differentcommunities in which they grow up. We record

and monitor information relating to the diversityof our service users such as ethnic origin,language and special needs to enable us tocontinuously improve the quality of our serviceto children and their families. This information

also helps us to promote equality as required bylegislation including the Race Relations Act1976 (amended 2000 and 2003) and theDisability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005.

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Information The way in which we collect, process and makeinformation available is governed by legislation.

The following points may be of interest to you:

> The nature of our work requires theprocessing of personal information relatingto our service users. All such activities areundertaken in line with the Data Protection

Act 1998. Our entry on the Data ProtectionRegister can be found at: www.cafcass.gov.uk

> Under the Data Protection Act, you areentitled to ask for copies of the informationwe hold on you

> We are committed to providing information

about our service in accordance with theFreedom of Information Act 2000.

For more details on how we work in line withthe Data Protection Act or Freedom of Information Act, please visit the Information

section of our website at www.cafcass.gov.ukor contact your local Cafcass office.

Our website also contains further informationabout the full range of our services.

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Information in this leaflet can bemade available in audiotape andin the following languages:

Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Gujarati, Hindi,Portuguese, Punjabi, Turkish, Urdu and Welsh.

Cette brochure est disponible en franais. Veuillezen demander une copie aupr du personnel.

Este folheto disponvel em portugus.Por favor pea uma cpia a um funcionrio.

Maer daflen hon ar gael yn Gymraeg.Gofynnwch i aelod o staff roi copi i chi.


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www.cafcass.gov.uk

The Role of Cafcass

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