Hello charlottesross and welcome to Apple Support Communities.
I see you're having some issue getting an install of Catalina to complete.
The error message you're seeing may indicate that there is an issue with the installer. Your best first step will be to delete the installer (use Spotlight to search for "Catalina" to find it). Then empty the trash, reboot and try re-downloading the installer.
If you have the same issue after re-downloading, Try installing from a test user account.
How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support
Cheers