Corrupt Cafcass In Stafford
Cafcass are failing children. My Children and i have been unfortunate enough to have been involved with Stafford Cafcass. My own personal experience involved a Cafcass officer called Lesley Hughes. This lady did not act in the best interests of my child and instead did all she could to make sure my child and i were seperated i believe for revenge for me complaining about her and exposing her. Some of the things that happened were despite being forewarned by another cafcass officer that she worked with that ” What my ex says and what is the truth are completely different things ” allowed my ex to blatently lie in court reports without raising it. I have documented evidence of reports where my ex says different things that contradict each other. She failed to look into all the domestic violence concerns or to follow up crime numbers i had passed on. She failed to access information which is all still available to corroborate my concerns. Despite me having medical professionals , health visitors and womens aid all behind me about my parenting and my ability to look after my son she pushed for him to be placed with my ex partner who at the time was on license for a section 20 offence. I took my 2 eldest children aged 17 and 15 into her office one of whom had been assaulted by my ex partner as they wanted to give their account of the domestic violence. SHE REFUSED TO EVEN TALK TO THEM and made them sit in another room.This lady is an ex manager of Birmingham Social Services who are responsible for the death of 19 children. Do not expect to have complaints dealt with. Lesley Hughes takes time off the minute a complaint is put in about her with stress.
The recent Ofsted report has found them inadequate . This comes as no suprise to me and other parents that have dealt with this organisation. Extracts from the report can be found below:
Overall effectiveness
Grade 4
The overall effectiveness of the Cafcass Staffordshire and the Marches service area is
inadequate.
Despite some clear strengths, the service area is inadequate in several important
aspects and there are significant concerns about safeguarding practice in some
cases. The overall effectiveness of this service area is limited by inadequacies in its
arrangements for safeguarding children and in promoting effective equality and
diversity.
The quality of case planning and recording is variable, quality assurance is
inconsistent and allocation procedures do not take sufficient account of all important
aspects of cases on the waiting list. Engagement with service users is very weak and
assessments are not shared consistently with children and families. Complaints
handling, equality and diversity and the contribution by Cafcass to the promotion of
improved outcomes for children and young people are inadequate, in particular the
effect in private law of family breakdown on outcomes for children.
While
the majority of young service users surveyed say they are satisfied with the service
they have received from Cafcass, most also said that their views made little
difference to what happened in their case.
The data currently provided by the Quality for Children
performance management system is not sufficiently reliable. It gives a more
favourable view of some aspects of practice than is warranted, including
safeguarding.
Areas for improvement
In order to improve the quality of provision and services for children and young
people in Cafcass, the service area should take the following action.
Immediately
•
Ensure that safeguarding practice complies fully with statutory guidance and
Cafcass requirements in all cases.
•
Ensure the consistent application of allocation and duty processes to
safeguard children and young people, including taking account of children’s
ages and time awaiting service.
•
Ensure that performance improvement tools are used consistently to
achieve better outcomes for children and young people across the service
area.
Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass: Staffordshire and the Marches service area
Within three months
•
Ensure that case plans and recommendations to court are shared with
children and families appropriately and in a timely manner.
•
Ensure that strategic partnership working is effective across all courts, local
authorities, commissioned services and relevant community groups.
•
Ensure that complaints are managed and responded to consistently and
comply with the Cafcass complaints policy.
Within six months
•
Ensure that the impact of family disruption on all aspects of the Every Child
Matters outcomes for children is considered fully when planning
assessments and informs reports and recommendations to court.
•
Secure meaningful participation by children, young people and families in
improving services.
•
Ensure that the service area’s equality impact assessments are implemented
effectively.
Meeting the needs of service users
Grade 4
User engagement is inadequate.
No regular or systematic process is in place to ensure effective participation of
service users in service design or development in this Cafcass service area. Service
users make little use of the national ‘HearNow’ system for providing feedback. The
area has established a small working party to consider how opportunities for
feedback can be developed, but this is at a very early stage and representation from
service users has not yet been agreed.
In response to the Ofsted survey of service users’ views, while many children and
young people are positive about their involvement with Cafcass and feel that they
are able to talk about what is important to them, only a third report that Cafcass has
made a difference to the outcome in their case. Most adult service users report that
Cafcass information is easy to understand and they feel listened to by Cafcass
practitioners but almost half state that things have not improved for their children as
a result of the Cafcass service.
Grade 4
The contribution of the service area to safeguarding children and young people is
inadequate.
Safeguarding is not effectively assessed in some cases. In a small but important
minority of cases seen by inspectors, children were left at potential risk of significant
harm. This required the service area to take immediate steps to ensure their
protection, which included the provision of further information to the court and
referral to the local authority. In each of those cases, the service area acknowledged
the failure to safeguard the children concerned. Such examples of failure to follow
Cafcass safeguarding policy and procedure contribute significantly to the judgement
that safeguarding in this service area is inadequate overall.
Managers and practitioners across the service area do not have a shared
understanding of the Cafcass role in safeguarding children in private law cases. This
is despite good access to appropriate training and procedures. While there were
some good examples of risks being identified and assessed, there were also cases
where risks had either not been recognised or given sufficient weight. Managers
have not consistently identified or challenged weak practice in some cases. Although
audit activity addresses safeguarding, this has been unsuccessful in identifying
reliably those staff, whose performance is least effective. Findings from audits have
been used to tailor staff training, but the impact of this has yet to be demonstrated.
Information sharing procedures with other agencies are not consistently applied nor
always understood by practitioners, particularly in relation to the information from
the police and use of the multi-agency risk assessment conference in domestic violence cases. While duty systems are in place across the service area, some risk
assessments undertaken by duty officers and managers are not sufficiently rigorous.
Complaints
Grade 4
Complaints handling is inadequate
The service area does not respond to complaints in a timely manner and the majority
take longer to resolve than required by the national target. Some complaints show a
lack of rigour in their investigation and, as a result, the responses to them appear
cursory and unhelpful to the complainant.
Despite the good information about the complaints procedure provided by Cafcass at
the outset of a case, the majority of adult service users responding to the Ofsted
survey said that they do not know how to make a complaint about the service that
they received from Cafcass. A recent visit from the Cafcass Young Inspectors also
recommended that there should be improvements in information to help children and
young people give feedback on the quality of the service that they receive. Locally,
there is no mechanism to ensure that lessons are learned from complaints and lead
to improvements in service delivery. Inspection findings are consistent with the
results of a local audit which assessed that the response to the majority of
complaints was inadequate.
While the service area was slow to address these deficits, an improvement plan is
now in place. In the direct observation of practice, inspectors saw a number of
children and young people being offered information by their Cafcass practitioner
about how they could give feedback about the service they receive.
Outcomes for children and young people
Grade 4
The contribution of the service area to improving outcomes for children is inadequate
overall.
Although the service area has a stated strategic emphasis on safeguarding, a
significant number of cases demonstrate that some staff fail to take appropriate
steps to protect children at risk of harm.
While there is some evidence of the Every Child Matters outcomes being recorded on
a checklist at the time a case is closed, they are not incorporated consistently into
the assessments of children and young people. Opportunities to analyse Every Child
Matters outcomes at an early stage are lost and several files indicate that
consideration of improved outcomes is only undertaken retrospectively. While
children’s views are frequently well represented in court reports there is insufficient
analysis of the effect of family disruption on children’s physical and emotional health,
educational progress and economic well-being.
Ofsted’s inspection of Cafcass:
Staffordshire and the Marches service
area
Cafcass Staffordshire and the Marches service area provides services to children and
families in Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Stoke on Trent, Telford and
Wrekin and Worcestershire.
Published: October 2009
Reference no: C4 001
I think this highlights the failings i experienced in my case i.e failing to investigate domestic violence , not listening to children , failing to safeguard children and not handling complaints !
