Section 7 now requesting section 37

[CrazyCatLady159]

Cafcass have completed a section 7 and they have basically dismissed every concern about DD's father and regarding domestic violence with his new partner, put the blame on me for refusing contact for 9 months (even though a court ordered a prohibited steps order)
And they have now advised that contact be weekly instead of fortnightly in the intern while waiting for a section 7 report.

I am at a loss as to where to go from here.
Contact was stopped due to a judge ordering a prohibited steps order - yet this has come out in the report that I stopped contact. This is simply untrue. They cannot / didn't see the police report about this incident and said that other family members may need to be interviewed to be primary careers as how the situation is now cannot continue.

What is A section 7? From what I can see online it's where social services decide what / if to keep my daughter with myself or send her full time to her dad / someone else - I cannot see how this has happened from him and his new partner having a domestic violence incident

Sorry for rambling I'm sat here crying as I'm typing after reading the report

The courts decide, not Cafcass or social services. You should notify the Cafcass worker who wrote the report or their manager of any factual inaccuracies and you should make sure the court is aware of your concerns. The courts don't blindly follow Cafcass recommendations.

Sorry - I note from the thread title that you are also asking about a section 37. I presume that is what you are asking about towards the end of your post.

If the court has asked for a section 37 they are concerned about your daughter and are asking the local authority to consider whether they should apply for a care or supervision order or provide services or assistance.

@prh47bridge

Thank you for taking the time to respond.
It is the section 37 that I'm more concerned about they've just posted us the section 7 which says they advise for a section 37 - now I'm panicking I'm going to loose custody even though my dd has stated she doesn't want to live with her dad and wants to stay with me

At this stage it isn't even certain that the judge will accept their advice.

@prh47bridge do judges normally go against cafcass?

I assumed that they followed every recommendation from cafcass
I guess I'm now at the stage to wait and see what happens

No, they don't normally go against Cafcass. In most cases they will accept the recommendations. But they don't follow Cafcass recommendations blindly. If the judge thinks that Cafcass have got it wrong they can go against their recommendations. If you can show that there are factual errors in the Cafcass report that affect their recommendations there is a decent chance the judge will not follow the recommendation.

@prh47bridge thank you. There are many factual errors or completely missed out points, so I'll make sure to pick these up in my statement and on the day

Thank you so much for your help