Advice on CAFCASS Section 7 report.

[JoJo2106]

I am currently going through the family court and have been since June. At our last hearing in November the court have ordered CAFCASS do a section 7 report and they are coming out for a visit next week. I was just wondering if anyone else has had this done and what to expect from the meeting and what goes into this report. Have read a few bits online and a lot of people seem to have had not good experiences with this which doesn't fill me with confidence.

My ex has had no contact with ds since he was 7 months old, due to a DV incident and him trying to take him. he is now 15 months old and recently supervised contact has began with my mum supervising. This is for 8 weeks until our next court hearing in January.

There's been a few DV incidents over the years and also his problems with alcohol and cannabis. Can these be fed into the report by me or will they not care. Obviously i wouldn't do it in a way to slag him off it's all about ds's welfare and him been safe at the end of the day because I am assuming it won't be supervised forever and will at some point have ds on his own. This terrifies me but I know it's coming and I want them to know the facts as a lot was left out In court as the decided there should be no finding of fact hearing.

Any help or tips would be appreciated

My experience was they weren’t really that interested in violence until I stated he strangled me with Ds in my arms.

Do focus on dc and your concerns how it affects your dc.

Hi @Starlight yes this last incident when ds was 7 months old was with ds involved. He assaulted me while ex had him in his arms as I was trying to stop him running off with him. He denies it of course, he was arrested for it and there was cctv of the incident but because you couldn't see a good enough view they took no further action as it had to be beyond all reasonable doubt. So in his mind, because the police let him off it didn't happen. You can still see who the aggressive person is on the footage tho.

Yes my concern throughout has been for ds safety and wellbeing. I ended the relationship when ds was only 2 weeks old as I didn't want him been brought up around it all. Plus the fact he drove full of drink with ds in car only days old. That was the final straw for me.

Was just wondering what kind of things they'll want to know and what actually goes into these reports.

I had a lot of evidence. I had a letter with mh diagnosis, one where he had tried to kill me . He also received a police caution for strangling me so I had lots of evidence he was unstable.

Do you have evidence of anything ?

How does his drug use effect Ds?

Do you have anything documented with he? School nurse ? Gp

Wow. He once tried to choke me aswell. No evidence of that though. I have photos of black eyes etc which are timed and dated. Plus there us the cctv footage of the latest Incident, I know you can't actually see the blow when he hit me but you can see he is aggressive and him trying to run away with ds. Also he lied in a court statement about the same incident saying he never followed me after I got back hold of ds to go into the house and him coming at me in a threatening manner all with ds looking on, and the cctv shows that he does. He told the court I made it all up. I have photos of my bruised chest and a cut hand after I got back into the house and also ds had a small scratch above his eyebrow so there's a pic of that too.

I also went to my gp afterwards and she examined me as I was hit in my chest area and I have had breast cancer before and have an implant and she concluded I was bruised also inside and wrote on her notes that my injuries were consistent with domestic violence so that's on record too.