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Cafcass: Children will get right to advocacy

1 min read
Children who complain about the service they receive from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) will have the right to independent advocacy under a new complaints policy to be introduced in July.

Christine Smart, the organisation's new children's rights director, said that as a Cafcass regional director she had only dealt with four complaints from children. "That shows maybe we are not advertising ways they can air their views," she added.

Smart, who takes up her post full-time next week, also suggested that Cafcass could set up a database of practitioners around the country who would be willing to act on behalf of service users.

Only one of the 231 complaints Cafcass received from April to September 2004 came from a child.

Cafcass has offered to arrange locally for independent advocates to represent children in the complaints process, but the new policy will set it out as best practice.

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