Ms R's case was being handled by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass). It made numerous errors, including accidentally closing her case and failing to notify the court that a report would not be prepared in time for the hearing.
What happened
Ms R's child access case was switched to a new Cafcass office. There were delays during this process, and also problems with Cafcass' referral of the case to a contact centre to arrange contact sessions between the child and her father.
Due to changes in Cafcass' postal system, Ms R's case was then accidently closed, and therefore Cafcass did not write a report as ordered by the court. Once Cafcass became aware of the error, it failed to contact the court to tell it that there would be no report for the next hearing. The officer also failed to respond to several pieces of correspondence.
While Cafcass acknowledged and apologised for many of the errors, Ms R did not feel that she had been offered adequate explanations. She was also unhappy with the £250 Cafcass offered her.
What we found
Although Cafcass had acknowledged its errors, it had not taken into account the full impact of its actions on Ms R. Her frustration was increased because she had previously brought a complaint about Cafcass to us, which we had upheld.
Putting it right
Cafcass apologised to Ms R and paid her £750 in recognition of the distress and inconvenience caused.
Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass)
UK
Came to an unsound decision
Did not apologise properly or do enough to put things right
Apology
Compensation for non-financial loss