I don’t know why I was shocked when going through the complaints procedure with Cafcass because my expectations were already low, but they were so dismissive it was almost unbelievable.
I was a victim of coercive control and Cafcass claim to have a protocol to explore this:
-The extent with which these factors remain present in the relationship
-The current risk to victim and child
-The impact on parenting capacity
-The impact on the child
-Mitigating protective factors
The only factor the Cafcass officer explored was:
-The impact on parenting capacity
The Cafcass officer commented that it could ‘impact her emotionally’. Sounds like victim blaming to me! No mention of any other factor. After leaving my ex I’ve had malicious ss referrals, lies about my mental health, the smear campaign, finances withdrawn, belongings withheld etc.He has also caused emotional harm to our children.
When questioning why the Cafcass officer didn’t explore all factors of coercive control she said she didn’t have to! No sweat Sherlock but it’s your responsibility to do your due diligence and to ignore something so significant is negligent at best!
I had a phone conversation with someone who deals with complaints who spent the entire time talking about why I shouldn’t complain and what I could have done before starting the complaints process.
I’m looking into speaking to my local MP to complain to the PHSO to see if I can make any progress that way. I urge anyone else if you can find the strength to take these measure with these shoddy Cafcass reports. They will have to listen eventually. With these new coercive control laws in place they’ll not be able to so easily brush it under the carpet either!