Privacy notice for adults in family court proceedings

We collect and use personal information when it relates to the family court proceedings, surveys or when you submit general enquiries. This can include:

• Your personal details: name, address, email address, telephone number(s), date of birth
• Diversity information: ethnicity, any disabilities, first language
• Criminal record information: from the Police National Computer
• Local authority record information: from your local children’s services
• Health information: GP records and other health information

By sharing any information about any individuals, you are confirming that they have been made aware of how we will process their data as set out in this privacy notice.

We process your personal data to carry out our public task and statutory obligations which are set out in section 12 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000. Our obligations are:

• safeguard and promote the welfare of children
• give advice to the family courts
• enable children to be represented in the family courts
• provide information and support to children and their families

We process your special category data, such as health and ethnicity data, where processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest (necessary for statutory and government purposes as set out in section 12 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000). We collect your diversity information in conjunction with the Equalities Act 2010 to better understand and apply equality and diversity considerations in our work. It is your choice whether you share this information with us. You don’t need to provide this information if you do not want to.

We process criminal offense data, which includes personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences or related security measures, where processing is necessary for statutory and government purposes.

We collect this information:

• from court documents
• directly from you in telephone, emails or face-to-face interviews and through SMS, webchat, video chat and social media interactions
• from other parties on the case
• any other person the Cafcass practitioner needs to speak to for their enquiries

We also collect information from other agencies as part of our safeguarding work. This is set out in the Child Arrangements Programme (paragraph 13.3). These agencies include:

• the police
• local authorities

We may make enquiries with other agencies such as your GP or your child’s school.

If you object to us making these enquiries, a court direction may be sought if necessary so we can make our enquiries.

We use this information to:

• give advice to the court
• make recommendations to the court in a letter or report
• inform research about family court proceedings
• respond to complaints
• improve the services we provide.

We will share your data if we are required to do so by law – for example, by court order, or to prevent fraud or other crime.

We may contact you once the court proceedings have ended to ask:

• for your feedback on our services
• if you would be willing to take part in research by Cafcass. We only publish research in a way which means you cannot be identified

You do not need to give feedback or be involved with research if you do not wish to.

Our Privacy and data protection information sets out how we will communicate with you.  

Information may be shared with:

• the court
• the other parties in the case
• other trusted organisation such as local authorities and the police
• It usually cannot be shared with anyone else. This is because information about court proceedings can’t be shared without the court’s permission

However, information may be shared with other professionals if it is needed for child protection. This is set out in the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (section 12.73).

Information about your case may be shared with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman if you have consented to this.

 

Commissioned services

We may share limited information with our Commissioned services who provide court ordered activities.

• This work is carried out under strict terms and conditions
• We only share information with these services when completing the activity has been ordered by the court.

 

For information about Commissioned services please see: https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/grown-ups/parents-and-carers/directory-of-providers/

 

Research

The Family Procedure Rules (Practice Direction 12G) allow us to share information with some third parties, including government departments, for research. The data may also be linked to other information that is held about you by third parties. This is to help:

• monitor the effectiveness of family court proceedings
• develop policy and good practice.

This data sharing only takes place if it is approved by the Cafcass Research Governance Committee. This ensures that:

• projects are conducted ethically and are useful for Cafcass and the children and families we work with
• there are appropriate safeguards in place to meet data protection requirements
• information is anonymised before any research is published so you cannot be identified

Please see our approved research projects on the research pages of this website.

We use data processors who are third parties who provide elements of services for us, such as, but not limited to, system maintenance, Cafcass website and communications. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.

• We keep information about Cafcass cases until the youngest child in the case is 25 years old.
• Please note that Cafcass does not record telephone calls.
• More information on how long we keep information for is in the retention schedule.

• You can ask us to correct your information if you believe it is wrong.
• Please contact your Cafcass practitioner if any of the information we have recorded about you is incorrect. We will assess your concerns and take appropriate action.
• It is your responsibility to update Cafcass if any of the information you have provided to us changes. 

• You can get a copy of the information that Cafcass holds about you (a Subject Access Request).
• Please see our website for how to access your information.

The rights available to you depend on our reason for processing your personal data. You have the right to:

• Object to the processing of your personal data
• Request the rectification of your personal data
• Request that the processing of your personal data be restricted
• Request that your personal data be erased, this is also known as the ‘right to be forgotten’.

These rights are not absolute and only apply in certain circumstances. Please contact our Data Protection Officer using the details provided in the ‘How to contact us’ section of this notice should you wish to exercise any of these rights.

• We keep information on our secure system case management system and in secure archives.
• We send sensitive information by secure postal services or via secure encrypted email.
• All Cafcass official email addresses end in @cafcass.gov.uk.

 

If for some reason you suspect that an email you have received is not from Cafcass, please see the below guidance:

If you receive an email stating to be from Cafcass that does not end in @cafcass.gov.uk please contact us at [email protected] to let us know.

If you receive an email from someone stating to work for Cafcass but you do not know them, please contact our Call Centre on 0300 456 4000 and we can confirm things for you.

If you believe someone is pretending to work for Cafcass please contact [email protected]

More detail on how we protect information is in our Information Assurance Policy

If you have any questions about how we use your information, you can contact our Data Protection Officer:

by email: [email protected]
by post: The Cafcass national postal address is now Cafcass PO Box 5076, Slough, SL1 0RX

If you have any concerns about how we use your information, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office who ensure organisations comply with data protection laws: https://ico.org.uk/