CAFCASS - Please share your experiences!

[SarahMac30]

I am awaiting a CAFCASS appointment for my 5 year old dd. I have read so many posts on here that are not too positive about how CAFCASS deal with situations. It would be really helpful to hear some more experiences. Has anyone had a good experience with them or are they really just awful and don't listen to the child. Please post with your own stories.
Thanks all.

[e1te]

Even if someone has experience it doesn’t mean that they can always do the right thing for the child.
They are not allowed to analyse anything that’s what they told me. They said all they can do is listen to what people say and write parts of what they heard in a report then tick some boxes and make a recommendation based on the little they have found out in a few short telephone calls.
Unfortunately that makes those reports very biased.

[e1te]

Disagree with that.
They are also against women who are victims of domestic violence and report the lies of the perpetrators as facts. I’m a woman and caffcass have come up with a whole string of things I have apparently done wrong but I didn’t do any of them

[e1te]

‘they accept lies as truth, present lise as fact’


This is exactly my experience

[e1te]

I was not given an opportunity to rebut any of the allegations that were made against me by caffcass. There was no justice then. People should be given the opportunity to give their side after allegations have been made but that didn’t happen. They silenced me. There were lies taken as truth and facts. I have had to wait almost a year to get a chance to do so. Now I have a chance to go to court to give my side but I’m worried the court will only listen to caffcass and not me. We were all children once and although some of us are adults now does that mean that we don’t deserve to be listened to?
I have been in the courts for more than a year. It is the worst thing that has ever happened going to court and being involved with caffcass.
No money for legal representation with people constantly saying ‘get legal advise’...
it’s torture

[e1te]

I could hardly read the report from caffcass it was so false and full of lies it made me feel sick

[e1te]

Caffcass have recommended my child to live with a parent who has admitted to caffcass to being violent to children. I haven’t been violent to children yet caffcass chose the violent parent over me

[e1te]

So it seems that neither of those organisations could help. To do the right thing for you or your child. Caffcass or courts. No use then.
often it is up to the parent to sort everything out for their child alone because the people who are supposed to help only make a mess of things

[NooNooMummy]

Oh God! Can someone just scrap CAFCASS and put in place some
proper training for family courts. Please! Enough already! So many stories
about how CAFCASS simply accept abusers’ lies as facts. That’s been
my experience of them. Jaw-droppingly incompetent and not fit for purpose. It’s so scary cos our children’s lives (and ours) are in their hands.

[e1te]

Because of caffcass I feel like I’m nothing, like my human rights don’t mean anything.
The other party are abusers, not just one but a family of abusers and caffcass take every little lie about me as truth.
They don’t have evidence and they weren’t interested in any of my evidence or witnesses of abuse.
Despicable

[Keepfaith13]

Cafcass have removed my daughter from my care and given her to her father, who she said abused her when she was 3 years old. From my first initial contact with Cafcass, over the phone, as it was lockdown, I was told that my daughter was a lier and that what she had disclosed to me and professionals would not stand in the court of law and that her father had done nothing, she said this despite never having seen or spoken to my daughter or her father. The Cafcass offer said many other inappropriate things to me, which concerned me, therefore I logged a complaint about her to Cafcass, who did nothing and then my MP write to them, as she too was gravely concerned about their unprofessional and negligent behaviour towards my daughter. Since my complaint, they have lied about me, blamed me for my daughter’s allegations of abuse without any evidence, appointed Psychologists to further damage my credibility and character. I dropped my daughter to school and she was taken from there, without me or my family having the chance to say goodbye, or to say we love her or to comfort and reassure her. She now lives with her father who she has not seen for three years and his landlord and lady, again who she does not know. I truly believe that both parents are essential in a child’s life but they have to be protect too. My appeal was rejected and I am not allowed to go anywhere near my daughter’s school or where she lives. I cannot see her or speak to her, my daughter must feel abandoned and rejected by the only constant person she had in her life, I cannot imagine how she is feeling emotionally, she is only six.

[Stephf1970]

Hi
Cafcass are totally bias, my ex-wife told a whole lot of lies about me to prevent me having any access to my son. She twisted conversations I had with my son and as she is female, Cafcass believed her. I am on my second hearing in court & it seems to me, if you're the father, you are the bad parent, even though only a year ago, I had custody of my son but that won't be discussed and all the evidence I produce to prove these allegations are lies, no one wonts to see them. all the concerns I have that I told Cafcass, in their words was deemed unfit to say in court but everything my ex-wife said against me was used. I find it funny that I am a qualified teacher of professional cookery, qualified teachers assistant for nursery & primary school children, level 5 diploma in safeguarding but unsafe to spend time with my son. I will never disclose anything again to Cafcass, they should concentrate on all the children that are murdered every year by their mothers and father, yet they cannot seem to recognise the signs of an abused child.

[NooNooMummy]

Stephf1970 - where are your stats on this? Or are you just guessing? I think you’ll find that perpetrators are usually male. Just saying…

[Stephf1970]

Of course they are, women never do anything wrong. Rose west, Myra hindley, Magdalena Łuczak, more recently, Olivia Labinjo-Halcrow, ring any bells, cafcass failed them all and every year there is another serious case review and like myself another family separated because they have failed.

[TDBomb]

Do nor expect a children's guardian to listen to your child. They will often work in coordination with the child's social worker. It is my opinion that they are bias and look for the easiest route forward. My own experience has taught me that there is nothing fair about a family court.

[GranDaisy]

I think the first thing you should do is check out all of the scathing reviews of Cafcass on Trustpilot. it's an eye opener. You will be hard pushed to find many decent reviews for Cafcass and what is very clear is that they are biased towards the mothers in over 95% of cases regardless of the facts. I am a grand-parent who has spent time with my granddaughter since her birth and even though I have a Child Arrangement Order which the mother is in breach of Cafcass have got involved. BIG MISTAKE.

You would expect a Cafcass Officer to be a caring and understanding person and most importantly a good listener. Mine was the opposite and she talked over me. You would also expect a face to face interview at a place where the child stays or visits so the Cafcass Officer can understand that person better, build a rapport and see for themselves the environment that the child is spending time in. Again not my assigned officer. She didn't have time as was going on her holidays!!

I won't go into any specific details of my case, I will just make bullet points showing the incompetence of Cafcass.

• Did not listen and did not take notes about the information I gave regarding my relationship over the years with my granddaughter
• Clearly did not read the documents pertaining to my case before submitting her report, neither statements or court orders had been read
• She did not speak to my granddaughter about anything we discussed. Not one single word of our conversation regarding mine and my granddaughters relationship and times we spent together, was mentioned during their interview.
• Several factual errors were made in the report including the age of my granddaughter and the length of time since her mother stopped me seeing her. All the information was readily available in all of the court documents had the officer bothered to read them. She did specify when sending the report to me to let her know of any factual errors which I did by email which was ignored
• The report was based 100% on lies, hearsay and false allegations the mother made against me to the Officer, had she read previous statements she would see that these false allegations had previously been dealt with in court and dismissed by the judge yet four whole paragraphs were dedicated to these lies. She also submitted a paragraph stating there are Safeguarding issues against my son which I allegedly know about. If she had bothered to look at both the Cafcass Safeguarding reports, one of which was only done a few weeks before the hearing she would see there are no issues whatsoever against my son, the only issue being one against the mother herself
• There was a further paragraph dedicated to totally irrelevant false allegations which had no bearing on the welfare of my granddaughter regarding the posting of presents to her. Again a subject discussed previously and dismissed by the judge.
• Out of the whole report which consisted of four A4 sheets there was only six lines dedicated to the interview with my granddaughter which says it all.

In conclusion I would say to anyone, if at all possible do not allow these people to get involved in your case, it will cause a lot of stress, upset and heartache to all parties involved, in particular the child themselves. I am bitterly disappointed in Cafcass and the judicial system on the whole. Okay, it may depend on the Cafcass Officer and Judge on the day but based on the reviews I have read, and that I advise you should definitely read, avoid at all cost!!

[wineinparis]

Hi, my experience with cafcass was ok. They listened to everything I said but they didn’t want to know too many details, really they just wanted you to answer their questions. They seem to have quite a bit of sway in the first hearing but saying that the judge luckily did not go with one of their suggestions which frankly was ridiculous (EVERY weekend with one parent). My advice is try to tell them everything you can so at least you have got everything off your chest and done your best. Also you might have to do a course with other parents and everyone really doesn’t want to be there but it’s only a few hours then it’s done. Wishing you luck. I know how hard it is, you can do this x