Court but no CAFCASS report

AnnoyedMummy wrote:

My ex won't agree to do any more mediation as he said I was being "unreasonable". He's ended up worse off though, as before, he was seeing her every week, and bringing any member of his family with him.
Since going to court, the solicitors and the judge decided he should only see her every other week, and he can only bring his mum or dad now.
Dizzybee, we haven't been assigned any one yet as far as i'm aware! We are still waiting for that too!
Fiona, I really hope it doesn't take 9 months! I can't take 9 more months of court! I wan't it all sorted and in a regular rountine!
I am really worried about the report, as if the judge does just rubber stamp it, and it's bad, it could be bad!
The judges last time were reluctant to give any contact because CAFCASS needed to be involved. I hope contact isn't stopped this time while we wait for CAFCASS, as I think it would affect my daughter quite a bit. She would be too confused if they stopped contact and started it again however many months down the line!

Hope its ok if I throw in my two pennies worth.

The role of the Judge is to order you to allow a minimum level of contact between your dtr and her father. Many parents don't need such an order or would go beyond the minimum level. The contact order is not a legal limit that you can't cross.

If you were happy with weekly contact, why not offer it now? If you think that your dtr would like to see members of her paternal family, why not invite them?

I know your previouse posts have covered variouse welfare concerns. I suggest the biggest one would be your dtr growing up between two parents who hate each other. Children pick up on bitterness, its very damaging.

Your ex is probably anxiousely awaiting the outcome of court as well. So, if you truly believe contact should not be stopped, why not give him some peace of mind and communicate that to him.

Weekly contact was offered, but as he kept missing sessions here and there when he was having it, fornightly was agreed, as they said if he did want to go out on the weekend, or had things to do, he wouldn't cancel contact, he could do it on the other week. I'm not sure if i'm making sense here?

My ex is thinking (I think with help from others) that after CAFCASS have been involved, he will end up with full custody (although it's not call custody anymore is it?). Although i'm agreed to upping contact, I won't go that far!
He keeps telling people how he's getting ready for her to come and live with him.

Well, at the end of the day you and your ex are the parents.

The Judge, solicitors and Cafcass have no real personal investment other than sending their own children to private school paid for by the money your case has generated.

If you truly want to 'up' the contact, if that's what you think is best for your daughter, then credit to you and make it happen. Can you communicate with your ex at all? Phone him? Make some suggestions?

If you don't want to give up residence, could it be shared....both of you being equal? Does there have to be a winner and loser?

Well I can phone him, or text him, but I don't generally get replies from him!
At the next court apperance I think we will see about upping it. As much as I don't like my ex, my daughter does! You can tell that she enjoys being with him. I think it's more to do with "This man comes and play with me and makes me laugh" than "he is my dad and this is nice" but she does enjoy it still.
I'm not sure he would want joint residence. I think the reason he wants residence, is simply so that I do not!

Sorry Fiona I beg to differ 21/2 years later and 160k legal bills i know and have experienced Judges who 'rubberstamp' a report. Most c officers are x probation officers with little training. Just ensure you are prepared tape your meeting with them. Quite often there is always a lot of incorrect information in report so always challange. They should only represent the feelings and wishes of the child.You dont want to be in the position of the officer being cross examined you want the report to be fair and correct in the first place good luck dont worry shared care residence are just labels unless one is a control freak just think what is best for your child.

Hi, I have been through the family courts, it took 8 years but I will say that the last two where CAFCASS got fully involved were the most productive and got the most action, they made sure they spent a lot of time with the children and compiled very fair reports but ultimately were paramount in getting the children's views across to the judge, who listened and reacted appropriately. I would push for CAFCASS and get your solicitor to ask for a postponement in court, otherwise it would be pointless to go yet cost you solicitors fees for no real reason! My children also got involved with Grassroots through the court that did supervised contact and wrote reports for the court, this organisation were supportive and also reassured me that the children would be observed, as would be the ex. Dont know if it helps but worth mentioning.

I think it's fair to say in some cases CAFCASS can leave a lot to be desired - see the recent Ofsted reports.

Section 7 reports produced during the course of contact disputes contain different parts. There is no standard format. Some bits document what each parent told the CAFCASS officer. Just because the officer wrote down what was said, there is no presumption that either party told the truth. Other parts document the CAFCASS officers' interaction with the child(ren). Finally, some pieces document the CAFCASS officers' recommendations and the reasoning behind them.

It is a waste of time challenging CAFCASS documenting something you, the other parent or the children told the officer. The only bits you can complain about are errors of fact and errors of law where the CAFCASS officer has asserted a certain point of law to underline their conclusion, but the point of law concerned is wrong. CAFCASS do appear to make lots of these mistakes and the place to raise them is in the subsequent hearings.

When errors of fact and/or law are shown judges do not go with the CAFCASS conclusions. This happens all the time. In the last few days a report was ignored because the judge found there was a personality clash between the officer and one of the parties. Of course in individual cases it may be that the judge finds no error or cause to diverge from the CAFCASS report or "misdirects" himself/herself.



Until it is known that a hearing has been postponed I would work under the assumption it is going ahead. One way to speed things up would be to ask for the court to appoint an independent social worker to do the report, but unfortunately this entails a cost of about £2.5k.