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Cafcass - How to approach them during their assessment?

Fabio78

Fabio78

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Hi,
would like to have your opinion on the following. At the moment Cafcass is preparing its assessment for the hearing on children safeguard. Meanwhile I do not see my children for over a month, as the mother decided like this just out of spite. However, I had with them a few phone contacts. Through these contacts I could understand that the negligence of my ex towards the children continue (eg. they eat on the ground, they are literally segregated in the house so that I can not see them, they are most likely brainwashed by the mother - she did it in the past - as they appear intimidated by her when talking with me).
Is it the case to get in touch with Cafcass (with whom I already had the interview weeks ago) to update them on this situation and my concerns, or could it be counterproductive?

I wanted to do it first thing tomorrow morning but I thought it would be useful to share it here first

I mean, I understood that these people (cafcass, court, social workers & Co.) they are extremely weird and, in particular, extremely biased by old school feminism. So eventually reporting a concern to protect my kids is going to be paradoxically against me and them?

NOTE: this thread is about Cafcass only, in order to facilitate other members who in future might need to read only about this specific issue. Nevertheless, the entire background of the situation can be found here
 
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hi fabio
hope you are well, i will give my experience and view on the subject matter but i will say this is only my view and some fathers out there may have a difference in opinion. i had my interview with CAFCAS for safe guarding and because mother said i had hit my daughter (obviously a lie) they visited my home and submitted their report to court prior to the final hearing. this was fine the report infact was a very glowing report and actually stated there was very little structure for the children when in the care of their mother! But i do think CAFCASS as you say are Bias and still predominantly lean towards the mother but again this is slowly changing. My problem with cafcass was that i was reported and fully investigated for an allegation the kids mother made, yet when i reported my son had cut his hand playing with a real sword at his mothers house belonging to their mother and he sustained an injury because of this, they simply took her word that it was a wooden sword. They did not want to see pictures of the injury they did not even visit her to check the environment or bother asking for evidence of this "wooden sword" which apparently can cut a childs hand. From that point on i thought it would be best to keep myself to myself as my final hearing was looming just weeks away. i didnt want anything to do with cafcass i got my report for court and just kept anything else to myself until i knew the court final hearing had been done. the last thing i wanted at that time was to attend my final hearing and it be postponed pending a further investigation from CAFCASS etc. basically didnt want to rock the boat it would be counterproductive.

just my experience but this is one that is a double edged sword.
 
gurmukh1985 said:
hi fabio
hope you are well, i will give my experience and view on the subject matter but i will say this is only my view and some fathers out there may have a difference in opinion. i had my interview with CAFCAS for safe guarding and because mother said i had hit my daughter (obviously a lie) they visited my home and submitted their report to court prior to the final hearing. this was fine the report infact was a very glowing report and actually stated there was very little structure for the children when in the care of their mother! But i do think CAFCASS as you say are Bias and still predominantly lean towards the mother but again this is slowly changing. My problem with cafcass was that i was reported and fully investigated for an allegation the kids mother made, yet when i reported my son had cut his hand playing with a real sword at his mothers house belonging to their mother and he sustained an injury because of this, they simply took her word that it was a wooden sword. They did not want to see pictures of the injury they did not even visit her to check the environment or bother asking for evidence of this "wooden sword" which apparently can cut a childs hand. From that point on i thought it would be best to keep myself to myself as my final hearing was looming just weeks away. i didnt want anything to do with cafcass i got my report for court and just kept anything else to myself until i knew the court final hearing had been done. the last thing i wanted at that time was to attend my final hearing and it be postponed pending a further investigation from CAFCASS etc. basically didnt want to rock the boat it would be counterproductive.

just my experience but this is one that is a double edged sword.
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Interesting..... thanks, I will keep this in consideration (hope everything went well for you at the final hearing, finally).
 
Cafcass in my view are a dangerously incompetent organisation.

Safeguarding letter: I regret in my safeguarding call telling the officer I had concerns about the mother, as he them labelled us a 'high conflict couple'. I should have told the Cafcass officer only that I strongly denied all allegations, that I was a hands-on father, and that any concerns related to the mother would be raised directly at court.

FHDRA: In the FHDRA, Cafcass was present and having not heard nor seen any evidence from me they recommended that only INDIRECT contact should take place, not even supervised contact at a contact centre. The judge thankfully ignored them and ordered supervised contact in a contact centre which went really well

Section 7: Cafcass officer tried to trick me. He asked me if I had any concerns about the mother and I said no (I do have several but that's not how the game is played). He then turned to me and said "Are you sure, because the mother is going to lash out at you". The report breached the operating guidelines and I raised a complaint against the officer. He treated mother's allegations as fact despite that there were no FFH, and his recommendations were just ridiculous. To his credit, he did correctly noted that the children were happy with me, they wanted more contact, and there were no safeguarding issues. Thankfully the judge ignored the Cafcass recommendations in the main, but at the same time my hopes for 50/50 were dashed. It is now looking more as 60/40.
 
I see... thanks.... well.... at this point the answer to my question seems quite clear...
But I still do not understand:
blindex said:
Cafcass in my view are a dangerously incompetent organisation.
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I mean, court is biased, social workers a bunch of terrorists who work for everyone but the wellbeing of the children, Cafcass "a dangerously incompetent organisation".... Jesus, but generally speaking we (and our kids) are in the hands of this persons? (I am wiriting my letter to MP) Why no one do anything? Scary!
 
In general yes, that's not to say that there aren't good individual officers out there that can do a good job. The 'system' is badly designed and underfunded though which does not help.

It all depends on the judge really. In my case I was dealing with district judges who know the law and can see the woods from the tree if you get a good one.

At one point, more than one judge in my case said that Cafcass are only too ready to make recommendations for FFH, or for limited contact without considering any evidence, etc.

There are parliamentary committees looking after this led by father's pressure groups but no one gives a shit. The radical feminist groups are too strong a force

 
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Ok. I think it would be pointless to raise issues with Cafcass right now. They “may “ see you as an anxious concerned Father but they are more likely to see you as just being derogatory about the ex.

A solicitor once said to me - they (social services) won’t do anything unless he (son) is hospitalised.

However I know you’re really worried about the kids. And if you’re careful you could say to Cafcass - look I’m really worried about them - schools are closed for the summer and so there’s no one to keep an eye on them. But actually what is that going to achieve? What you’re basically doing there is telling Cafcass you don’t trust the Mother and don’t think she’s fit to look after them - without any hard evidence.

One thing it could be worth doing is sending a formal letter to ex via her solicitor saying you have concerns as to the childrehs welfare, they are not at school so no one has seen them and you need to see them to see they are ok.

Then if she still refuses you have grounds to get a police welfare check done.

The concern is - with a hearing next month her solicitor could claim you’re hostile and harassing ex. And it might affect the case.

Ultimately if you’re genuinely concerned they are at risk of harm then you want things checking out. But if it’s just crap parenting - leave it right now. Parents are allowed to be crap parents providing there’s no real dangerous stuff going on.

Another option might be - do you know anyone who lives near them who could let you know if they seem ok or if they think things are not great? If so then they could report to social services with concerns.
 
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