Cafcass letter before court papers

[avenueone]

It is normal process to receive the letter from cafcass before any court papers?

The letter has the first hearing date in it (January) and says an application has been received by my local court but I have not seen what for?

It also has a letter in it to pass to my 7 year old that a 10 year old would struggle with esp. as my DS has never seen his dad and this letter seems to be directed at a just split situation and is causing my DS a great deal of distress.

Phone Cafcass and ask their advice. Explain the situation and the letter not fitting it so they understand why it's not ganded over. They will wantto see him so I assume it's letting him know that.

Thanks - I have told him they will want to see him, he is in bits about it. It is heart breaking to see someone who is usually so happy worried. Some of the questions he has asked me breaks my heart. I'll ring cafcass tomorrow or does anything one think I need to speak to my solicitor first?

There are plenty of cases in which Cafcass aren't asked to do a report, so don't make him any promises.

It's common for the letter to arrive before the court papers. You are only entitled to 14 days notice if the court hearing according to the rules.

I have spoken with someone who works for cafcass (friend of a friend) she said as my son has never met his father it will not be very straight forward and they will more than likely do a report.
What I will promise my son is that he will not have to go to another part of the country with a man he doesn't know without checks and pre contact taking place. No judge in the land will just make me hand him over and he just wouldn't not go as you would expect if you have brought your children up correctly.

Safeguarding checks on both parents can be carried out before the first hearing. Establishing contact with an unknown parent is usually done gradually, say starting off with sending letters or cards, moving on to meeting the parent for an hour or sos supervised contact (in a play area for example) before unsupervised contact and gradually extending the time from an hour or so to several hours and a full day. If that is going reasonably well the next step would be overnight stays.

I'm not sure giving your son the impression that his father needs checking out is the right message to send. Children need to know enough information to understand what is going on but giving them too much information and undermining their confidence is frowned upon. Parents are under a duty to protect children as much as possible from the conflict in these cases. Children who haven't known a natural parent can feel insecure and CAFCASS or social services sometimes do a bit of specific life story work to help a child develop their self esteem and confidence by understanding about families, heritage and their identity.

I think you are spot on STIDW and life story work is exactly what I am going to ask for... it will be very interesting...
My son isn't aware I am asking to have him checked out... I worded that badly - in reality I will be asking for him to be due to a whole load of things that I can't believe I got myself into and are very serious - as parents also have a main duty to protect their children from harm (there will not be conflict as I will never be communicating with this man directly again in my life so he will never seen that). My DS can't know what I am seeking him to be checked for it would indeed destory my DS especially aged 7 and I do not want my son to even know some of things happen in the world just yet - I did tell my DS as neither he nor I have seen this person for so long we don't know anything about him and I said he may feel better if we did, maybe a photograph to start. I have also said he then might get letters from him first which he isn't keen on but it seemed to ease his worry he is going to be picked up and taken away which is the main thing.