Cafcass misspelt name in report

Summary 799 |

Miss B complained about the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service's (Cafcass's) care and efficiency and the amount of information in its reports.


What happened

Cafcass misspelt Miss B's daughter's name in a letter to the court. It then sent the court an amended letter. Cafcass did not pick up this error as part of its complaint handling.

What we found

We partly upheld this complaint. Cafcass had misspelt Miss B's daughter's name in a letter to the court but quickly amended this and sent the amended letter to the court. When Miss B complained about this issue to Cafcass, it failed to acknowledge that it had originally made a mistake.

Miss B also complained about the professional judgment of a Cafcass officer. We took the view that these matters would have been best challenged in court where the officer could be called to give evidence and be cross–examined.

Putting it right

Cafcass acknowledged its error and accepted that it should have spoken to the original officer to find out what had happened. It apologised to Miss B for its poor complaint handling.

Health or Parliamentary
Parliamentary
Organisations we investigated

Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass)

Location

UK

Complainants' concerns ?

Replied with inaccurate or incomplete information

Result

Apology