Cafcass & Social Services.

[Dvh149]

Hi, We are currently in the process of having a parenting assessment undertaken as in October my partners child has been removed from mothers care and placed with her grandparents, due to concerns regarding her mothers unstable behaviour. Yesterday my partner attended a meeting with the Social worker and his ex who is carrying out the parenting assessments of his and his ex and they went through various scenarios regarding contact if one or the other gets full residency. The Social worker said to my partner that she was going to recommend that his child is returned to her mother. They then continued to discuss various scenarios. Does this mean that his child will 100% be going back to her mother or is there any chance that Cafcass will disagree with that recommendation? There is a resolution hearing scheduled for March to discuss Cafcass report and see if a resolution can be made without going to court.

Cafcass are more influential than the SW, generally. Will you meet Cafcass before the hearing?

I'm my case the SW recommendations were taken over that of Cafcass, who acted as fact finders for the court

Yes we will be meeting with Cafcass I believe prior to the hearing. The last Cafcass report was at the end of November and Cafcass and SW recommendations back then were that the child was not returned to mothers care until after the hearing. she has 2 hours per week supervised contact at the moment.

sorry I meant to say was not returned to her care at the moment due to safety concerns.

At the meeting with Cafcass make sure you don't criticise the ex, stay child focused, minimise the emotional impact on yourselves. I think it would be worthwhile checking on the Cafcass website for any info you can gleam there.

www.cafcass.gov.uk/grown-ups/parents-and-carers/