Children and families services: For all other users

Inspecting Cafcass

Before an inspection

Inspectors find out about the service area to see what the inspection might focus on. To do this they use:

  • national, regional and local data provided by Cafcass
  • the last inspection report
  • reports from our monitoring visits
  • surveys of service users.

We will ask the service area to put up posters to tell staff and service users that there will be an inspection and how to contact inspectors to tell them what they think.

Every year we send out a short questionnaire to a sample of adult and child service users to help us in our inspections.

During an inspection

The inspection takes five days. The inspection team arrives and gathers evidence.

The team:

  • reads court reports, case records and other records
  • talks to staff, managers and interested parties
  • sees Cafcass staff at work in the office and in court.

The inspectors give the Head of Service and senior managers feedback on the work of the service area, its overall effectiveness and the main findings of the inspection.

After an inspection

The lead inspector makes sure the service area knows:

  • the grades awarded for each judgement
  • about areas for improvement
  • how to complain
  • if required, what happens if the service area is judged to be inadequate.

The lead inspector writes the report. The judgements have a four-point scale.

Grade 1: outstanding

Grade 2: good

Grade 3: satisfactory

Grade 4: inadequate

We publish the report on our website within four working weeks of the end of the inspection. We send a copy of the inspection report to Cafcass.

Further information

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