Cafcass had done enough to put things right

What happened

Mr D's children lived with their mother, but had regular contact with Mr D. Mr D made an application to the county court for sole residency of the children.

The children were party to proceedings and the court ordered Cafcass to appoint a guardian to represent them. The court ordered the guardian to submit a report about the children's welfare (a section 7 report) in advance of a final hearing.

In the report the guardian inaccurately stated that Mr D had a criminal conviction for domestic violence. Mr D alerted the guardian to the error. The guardian looked into this and then made the court and other people involved in the proceedings aware of her mistake. She also apologised to Mr D.

Mr D complained to Cafcass not only about the guardian's mistake, but also about her general involvement in the case and failure to take his concerns about the welfare of his children seriously, while in the care of their mother. Mr D said the guardian took too long to correct the mistake, which he believed influenced the proceedings and caused him difficulties in his personal life.

What we found

We did not uphold this complaint. In terms of the guardian's handling of the case, we found that she had acted reasonably on the concerns that Mr D raised about the children's welfare and took appropriate action.

In relation to her mistake in the report, we looked carefully at whether there was any evidence to suggest that this had impacted on the proceedings or influenced decisions made about the care of Mr D's children. We were satisfied that this was not the case, and that the guardian had acted reasonably in putting her mistake right. We also found that the time it took her to investigate the mistake was not unreasonable, given the enquiries she needed to make beforehand. Therefore, we felt that Cafcass had already done enough to put things right. It had alerted the parties to the mistake in the report and apologised to Mr D.