Cafcass - absent father?

[Sparklingcurrant1]

hi

I was wondering how cafcass deals with or views absent fathers?

first time dealing with them and waiting for my appointment with them. Ex was abusive and had a restraining order placed. He has been absent from child's life since birth, it's been nearly a decade now.
im going to court to get a lives with order so I can take her abroad without needing his consent etc

as he has been absent for so long and doesn't even live in the UK anymore, I'm wondering what might happen? Also he would've continued to be absent but I was forced to apply to court as I can't even take my own child on holiday without a lives with order

thank you

Why are you going through all this if he is absent and not in UK?

I've taken my child abroad without the father and never been asked a question in reality.

We are actually waiting right now for the 7 year mark my solicitor informed me of. Once it's been that long you can apply for something called... special measures? special request or something, so we can remove his parental responsibility.

have a look up on what it is and do that. I'll be asking they don't try to contact him given he's had the chance to apply for contact the entire time and chose not to, I am married and she's using his name since age 1.

What you're doing sounds less effective and like they might try to contact him? You have to instruct courts what you want them to do or they'll go through hoops making money for themselves and solicitors.

It depends where you are going to, some countries are very strict on the parental responsibility and you can not visit or transit through without either a letter of consent, court order or death certificate. My Db and sil fell foul of the rules and they were together.

I'd expect cafcas to be a tick box exercise in this situation.

Like which? I took my baby out of the UK into Greece and back without one person asking for anything, though I had the prohibited steps letter to hand but nothing was ever asked about the baby I was traveling with. Her last name on her passport was different to mine too and obviously the father with that name was not with us.

Just curious really. Of course it should be checked. Mind you in Greece they didn't even properly look at any of our passports at all.

@mavismorpoth it's specifically South Africa I'm thinking of. In the majority of countries no you would be unlikely to be asked.

Well that doesn't surprise me but yeah I suspected it was standard across the globe, like airport staff don't really care. maybe America too as they are quite zealous at the airport and like to ask as many questions as possible. Also maybe Israel?

I've never heard of the 7 year mark for special measures, is there any link you could potentially send me so I can have a look please? Thank you. I've tried to Google it and have nothing coming up.

unfortunately my solicitor did have to contact him but he was very uncooperative and was more angry about being contacted. Solicitor said from the looks of things it seems highly unlikely he will want to get involved with the court process.

also for the others asking why I've gone down this path, at the end of the day it is illegal to take a child out of the country without the consent from all those without parental responsibility (horrible rule when there is an absent parent) but I don't want to stress every time we are going on holiday, whether we will be questioned and lose the money we spent on holiday etc. It has happened to people. I want to do things with a peace of mind. Whilst I'm addressing that issue, I've also asked for her surname to be changed to mine etc just to tie up all the loose ends that I have been putting off dealing with

All those with** parental responsibility. Sorry I misspelled

I pressed my solicitor for a timeframe and she reluctantly told me 7 years would be a minimum time to ask and anything under that they would likely seek to consult my ex.

I got a lot of first hand information around family court outcomes by researching forums, reading for hours and hours what people did and what outcomes they had and gathered an understanding of what goes on.

With this in mind we are going to make the application after 7 years of him being completely absent have passed and I'm confident they will allow it given everything else.

It's moot basically, you have to make your case but it just seems that a minimum of 7 years is wise on which to base everything else.

You can't find too many hard and fast answers around things that are dealt with in court because it is a place for arguing and it can be whoever puts the argument forward the best will win, not necessarily logic.

Not a horrible rule because if you have an absent parent with PR you can get a prohibited steps order and a letter to prove it which will show you you are the sole carer of the child.

Anything that goes a way to prevent child abduction is never horrible, always good.

@mavismorpoth aha I see, thank you so much for bringing it to my attention. It has already been 7yrs in our case, I will contact my solicitor and bring it up to her to see how we can use this in court
hopefully it all goes well

you're right, anything which prevents a child from being abducted is good, but I wish there was a simpler way for a single parent to take their child on holiday when the other parent has been absent for years. We applied to court in the summer and our hearing date is next year. It just takes such an incredibly long amount of time to be waiting to get permission to go on holiday with your child. Not to mention all the money being spent on family court

No idea where this "7-year" thing comes from. In England & Wales, PR can never be removed if you were married and the courts are reluctant to remove PR even if the father gained it via another route. Examples of cases where PR has been removed include one where the father had attempted to murder the mother and one where the father had been convicted of sexual offences against children and was considered to be a risk to children and former partners.

Re those questioning why OP is doing this, if she takes her child out of the country without the father's consent or an appropriate court order, she will be committing a criminal offence. This is, of course, an offence that many people get away with every year and it is unlikely OP would be prosecuted for a genuine holiday. However, every year some people attempting to take their children abroad without consent or a court order find that they are denied boarding when they turn up for their holiday or refused entry at their destination.