Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) provides a variety of staff members who undertake different roles within the family court system. Cafcass officers broadly comprise of:
If you're preparing for a family court hearing where Cafcass will be involved, you may find it helpful to use our free Court Statement Writer.
- Family Court Advisors, who are trained social workers and work exclusively within the courts system, protecting and advocating the interests of children.
- Children’s Guardians, who represent the child’s interests and help the court in adoption cases or in cases in which the court intends to make an order to protect the child from harm.
- Family Support Workers, who support contact between children and their families, and who work alongside and provide assistance to Family Court Advisers.
Reforming the System
There are well-documented problems with Cafcass and the organisation has been subjected to many complaints in recent years. Although there is a multi-level complaints system in place, it is recognised that the system needs improvement and concerns of those who deal with Cafcass need to be dealt with more quickly and efficiently.
One common complaint with Cafcass, and particular Cafcass Family Law Advisors, has been that they are typically female and often from middle-class backgrounds. These two factors are often of concern to separated dads, who do not feel that their interests are adequately represented or indeed understood by female officers.
Cafcass Reports can be subjective, and very focused on the officer’s perception of the parties involved. For example, if a father has not seen his child for a year and a half, and is frustrated, angry and hurt by this, the Cafcass officer may perceive this as the father having an aggressive nature normally, which could end up having a detrimental effect on the report. Other officers may become hardened to the job, and may have developed a cynical attitude when dealing with certain types of cases.
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Social work as a whole has been through a recruitment crisis in recent times, especially since high profile tragedies such as that of Baby P have acted as a deterrent for those who previously considered entering the profession. Another problem relates to accountability. While Cafcass determines that ‘all cases must be treated on their own merits’ this means that there can be a huge variation in practices both geographically and between officers.
While every individual has freedom of choice over their career, government initiatives have previously been shown to work in terms of improving a broader demographic in certain professions. In order to do this successfully within social work and in particular Cafcass, it is important to make the career more attractive to potential applicants. Reform of the system, better staff training, an implementation of firmer policies and an increase in understanding of cultural differences may all contribute towards a fairer system.
Your situation may be slightly different. ask a question below ↓ and our editorial team will reply with our advice.
The Current Complaints System
Unless and until the system in its present state is reformed, those who come into contact with Cafcass must use the complaints system. Broadly this is as follows: in the first instance, you should make a complaint in writing to the Regional Complaints Manager in your area. If your complaint is considered to have merit, it will be ‘registered’. You will be given reasons if it is not registered. If this happens, you can ask for a review by a Regional Director (but you must do this within 10 working days). Again, if you are not happy, you can go to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, but you must do this through your Member of Parliament.
The comments you display are completely narrow minded. It is not a case of parents throwing mud shots because there some geniune cases people are wronged in court. In the real world you are completely right people should be able to sort their own affairs out. There are cases though of parental allienation which is form of abuse unless you are suggesting this a fixture of peoples imagination. In cases of such parental allienation my feeling of frustration is triggered by the sense of injustice to both the children and their father that this case gives. That a parent who actively sought to alienate the children from their other parent achieved that aim; for contact to be severed regardless of whether or not the father himself posed any risk (the judge concluded he did not). It is clear from the judgment that the court did consider whether this was the best way to further the children’s welfare, but the outcome that saw a parent who appeared to be guilty of deliberately flouting court orders (a parent who 'corralled professionals to her cause') achieve this left an incredibly sour taste in my mouth.
A brief case summary
I would urge anyone interested in parental alienation and child contact disputes to read the judgment. HHJ Vincent has done an excellent job in setting out the history of the case and the issues the court faced in a clear, readable manner. In summary, however:
The litigation spanned across five years, from 2012 to 2017. At the end of the proceedings, in June, the parties sons were 12 (S) and 8 (T). T had spent over half of his life embroiled in litigation and his brother, over a third.
The parties separated in 2007, after a violent attack by the father on the mother. They reconciled in 2008, shortly before T was born.
The parties separated again in 2011 and problems with contact started to arise in August 2012. In September 2012, T’s nursery made a referral to the local authority concerned that 'mum appears blinkered and appears focused on dad and not letting him see the children'.
On 26 October 2012, the father made an application for contact to court. At or around the same time, the mother sought assistance from Women’s Aid.
The first hearing was held on 12 December 2012. The court ordered that the children should have staying contact with their father on alternate weekends. The mother had argued against any contact.
Thereafter a pattern ensued: soon after contact was ordered, the mother would allege a reason for it to stop. In HHJ Vincent’s words, the mother was 'unwilling at every stage for contact to take place…When it has happened, she has looked for difficulties and at the sign of any difficulty her response has been to renew allegations against the father, recounting her version of history and to suggest that contact should stop'. The parties would go back to court. Contact would be ordered again. The pattern would repeat. Eventually, the children went for a two-year period without a
Haven't seen my son since 10th April, strangley the day she received the court papers she stopped all contact.
But the Cafcass officer clearly told me that she’s 3 years old and is the time to spend with him overnight . So I don’t know what to do now
My son resides with me since birth. He is 4yrs old. Me and wife separated after I called police and they asked her to leave. Its been 10 months and 3 court hearings and a really bad Sec7 report ,very bias.
Remember I have been physically assault ed emotionally assaulted logs of common assault .assaulted while I carried my son in my arms etc.. recordings of verbal n emotional abuse towards our son.
So mother attended 12 hours supervised contact over 2 weeks. Recommended Outcome from contact centre . Mother to have 1 overnight contact per week . To increase to 2..that sounds reasonable for someone in her position.
So here is the confusion.. given I have Promoted unsupervised contact 3 days a week after school 3-530pm CAFCASS addendum report was for 4 over night contact report?????? The sec 7report was full of holes.. they did not send me the assessment recommendations of the contact centre stating 1night. Alot of shady crap gping on..
Lucky for me Im a Social worker..I cannot believe how all this time I have safeguard ed my son from harm from his mother they come up with 4 nights. More than the resident parent ME. Oh nearly forgot. Mother abandoned her son at 8months n pissed off bk overseas to later return 5months later..
So its a contested hearing in 2 weeks time..
Anyone else been in this situation.. ?
Sounds unreal . My position statement proposed parenting programme for mum..programme to address her anger before any overnight contact is considered.. checks to be done in her current resident ie refuge shared accom as courts said he can go there..
Usually a man who is the perpetrator would have a list of crap to attend and complete to get 1 day per week.
So I will see if they follow protocol on victims of DV.. lets see if its about the best interest of the child or a paper exercise . Im sure the magistrates are confused that im a man who has hus kid n is a victim of DV..
I will expose CAFCASS on the stand and his mother.. I have all the fact based evidence. But im not a female. How corrupt the system is...
If you a dad .. I feel ur pain.
separation happend in March 2015, she removed children in the middle of the night and didnt provide contact. sept 2015, court awards me the custody for the interim period, a senior cafcass officer made himself the guardian after accusing of being abusive as my son said I smacked his wrist for being naughty and my daughter said I smacked her too once, but she didnt give details. the guardian made a 15 page report mixing up audio recordings, turning around the hearing sept 2015 in mothers fabour, justifying all mothers actions and made me out to be abusive to the children and rigid and controlling towards my ex-wife. I have sent him a 56 page statement, highlighting step by step of his errors and biased view of his report. nothing came of it. it was simply ignored. final hearing June 2016, court ordered me to move out in 24 hours and mother move back in, i was given contact as follows: every thursday 16:30-19:00 or overnight , every fortnight friday 16:30-19:30 and saturday, sunday 10:00-16:00 or overnight. overnight contact is under the condition that I manage to get a suitable accommodation as the order of June 2016 made me homeless. throughot the last month contacts have been erratic, stopped and restarted contact. recently, I had not seen my daughter regurlarly for a long time and as of two months ago, contact with my daughter completely stopped. fisrt week of june 2017, i was due to see the children for four days, I notified the mother they will be staying overnight as a family member made room for us and asked her to provide their clothes, when I went to collect the clothes, she only gave me my son's and refused to give me my daughter's. couple of hours later she text me to say that she changed her mind and will bring them over. she came over, asked to speak to my daughter, then started to put my dughter in the car next to her boyfriend and take her away whilst I was dealing with my son, I noticed and brought my daughter back. due to the lack of regular contact and verious other reason my was becoming detached, so, I thought keeping her overnight would be the best as we will finally get to spend some quality time. unfortunately mother had other ideas, she kept calling the police, went to court, got exparte order, and urgent order with pinal notice. the four days I was hoping to spend quality time with my children turned out to be a nightmare. I have had two hearing so far, she made allegations, but judge would not make a judgement due to the kind of allegation she has made, however, the new order does not replace the order of June 2016 or the order of June 2017 (daytime contact should continue), but the mother would not agree to any contact other than indirect contact.
Court ordered section 7. I received an email from last years cafcass officer/guardian. stating that he has written to the court as he wants to deal with it. I feel he should'nt be dealing with it. I would prefer a fresh pair of
A child protection agency is used to abuse children, please excuse the irony.
My 32 month old son no longer knows who his father is due to a very biased and one sided section 7 report and the fact i have been prevented from seeing my son for 15 months.
After my initial telephone interview it was recommended I have immediate direct access to my child, who at that point knew and loved me, my ex partner simply refused and told countless lies, with no evidence. 10 months later and £10.000 in legal fees Cafcass are still attempting to prevent me from seeing my child, even though after a 2 day hearing it was found that my ex partner has a long history of mental health illness and has been domestically violent and abusive against me and has been proven to lie on countless occasions to cafcass and the court. My ex partner is currently under investigation for a section 20 assault using a full glass bottle against me and parental child abduction. She has attacked my physically in front of my child during the hand over process and it has been proven she has been physically violent towards me during the length of our relationship and beyond.
Cafcass recommended I attend a domestic violence perpetrators program, even though I am the victim and even stated I shouldn't see my child for over 2 years, until I complete the program that would have contacted my ex partner as a victim and recommended a victim awareness course. I felt like I was sat at the mad hatter's tea party and after 15 months of of no access and constant lies being said about me if I showed any signs of frustration I would immediately be classed as aggressive.
I am now going to see my local m.p and will be making every effort to prevent this from happening to any other children or father's. Please anybody in a similar situation contact your local m.p. cafcass complaint procedure is a joke and a waste of time and energy.
I attempted to speak to the cafcass officer who dealt with my case's line manager after proving cafcass had been used to abuse my child and I was innocent and that I felt something needed to change to prevent the same thing happening in the future. Her response was to threaten me by way of explaining, in a very subtle way that if I don't keep my mouth shut about the abuse to my child and myself she would prevent me from seeing my child as finally directed by the court in an order. The manager even stated that she felt the section 7 report was more accurate than the findings of the court after a 2 days hearing, even though at the hearing a mountain of evidence was provided and the section 7 report was created from no evidence and the hearsay of a violent and mentally sick Individual.
My ex has tried every trick in the book to undermine the shared care our children have enjoyed since our separation. 4 years 5 judges and a Cafcass officer have all unilaterally agreed to continue this.
Then my ex manages to get me arrested and claims i drink too much along comes Ms Wilkenson from Cafcass for a full section 7, no evidence, no facts children all happy what does she recommend. The father not to see the children at all during the week, other than one overnight for my middle son because it's apparently convenient for him to get to cricket.
It's an absolute joke, and makes a mockery of Cafcass and our judicial system. When is this rediculous, bias system going to stop.
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