Ms B, who lives in London, complained that Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) had not responded appropriately to her complaint. Ms B’s complaint was about her concerns that a report written by Cafcass for court did not reflect that she was a victim of domestic violence. The report was for the purpose of deciding her ex-partner’s access arrangements with her son. She said that the member of staff who compiled the report was biased against her, viewing her as exacting and anxious and the cause of the abuse she suffered. She said that there appeared to be a serious lack of understanding by the member of staff about what domestic abuse was. Ms B said she was so ‘terrified’ by the Cafcass report that she decided to employ a barrister for the hearing so that she could challenge the report, which she did successfully. Ms B complained to Cafcass, who have a three stage procedure. Ms B felt that her complaint had not been listened to and that Cafcass had reframed it to make it something it was not, so that they could tell her she was wrong. She said that she had been denied a voice. After a meeting and a written response, Ms B asked to have her complaint considered at stage two of Cafcass’s procedure. Cafcass refused to consider the complaint at stage two. Ms B told us that she was distressed that Cafcass had not given her a voice. She felt that they shut down her complaint and she didn’t understand how they could ignore so much of it.

We upheld Ms B’s complaint. We found that Cafcass had not answered Ms B’s concerns at stage one of their complaints procedure when they should have and had not considered their actions against their policy and guidance. They then, incorrectly, did not allow Ms B to complain further through their complaints procedure. Cafcass agreed to consider Ms B’s complaint again in accordance with their procedures, to apologise, and pay her £250 for the upset they had caused her. Ms B later wrote to us to confirm that Cafcass had reinvestigated her complaint and fully upheld it, a resolution she was happy with.