CAFCASS' NEW COMPLAINT PROCEDURE

 Cafcass publishes new complaint's procedure: (LINK)

For all those who have undertaken a Safeguarding interview with an FCA from CAFCASS only to find much of what you mentioned was ignored in the court report, you might be interested in the above.

CAFCASS’s revised complaints procedure. They are at pains to illustrate the difference between feedback and a complaint and even offer to resolve complaints on the phone. Not a good move in our experience. It seems from their website that complaints have almost been subsumed into feedback or concerns even offering a snazzy feedback form, yet complainants only get an address to write to. They also differentiate between professional opinion and errors of administration, procedure, or conduct. This is the standard reply to safeguarding letters that omit many of your concerns or comment…. “It’s my professional opinion” … “raise these matters in court.” Surely the essence of any complaint procedure should be that the organisation treats the complaint as an opportunity to improve itself not to avoid it. The local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s guidance on making a complaint is very helpful in this respect. (LINK) In the final analysis it seems the most effective process, as with all organisations, is to write a formal letter entitled COMPLAINT to the legal and HR department.