Hi all
It's a super long story.. top and bottom of it is that I'm devastated that it's come to Children's/Social services etc getting involved - But in theory it shouldn't be such a bad thing, after all they have the best interests of the child in mind don't they? (that's what I thought..).
So anyway, basically the ex partner has issues... there were no concerns for the care of the child other than hearing/possibly seeing arguments between the parents. - I'm not playing this down, they seriously should not be seeing or hearing any conflict. The circumstances are quite difficult, it's not arguing between the parents, it's one way from one to another.. some may say well that's not arguing - that's abuse.. - maybe it is, but anyway, the question is.. We've now had 3 separate Child and Family Assessments. All of which I was told I'd get copies of the minutes from meetings and a copy of the report etc etc, I've never had a copy of anything. I've looked at the policies of almost every council in the country (I shouldn't need to, so now I'm losing hours and hours of time I could be using doing activities with the child! again best interests of the child??..), all the policies stress how important it is that parents are given a copy. They also say many other things about parental engagement and other things they should have done but have never happened. Three separate occasions by three separate social workers...
So I've done a subject access request and asked for everything.. guess what, they've told me it's complicated and it'll take them 3 months.... brilliant isn't it! 3 months for stuff they should have already provided..
To put this all into context, and please don't assume anything, I can't go into everything but I'm now going through the court process re child arrangements.. it's not pretty and full of false allegations. The amount of evidence I have in my favour is seriously overwhelming and I'm sure the court will (eventually, maybe) make the right decision. The problem is this could easily take the court years to sort out, in the meantime the child is being harmed, but at least the court have the best interests of the child in mind........ anyway Cafcass are saying they won't be involved as Children's Services are already involved and they'll take the place of Cafcass.. now I know that a lot of people don't like Cafcass but they can't be any worse than my local "Children's" Services.
My main worry at the moment is.. to my understanding, usually when parents go to court for child arrangements, they'll speak to Cafcass first and they'll get a copy of the safeguarding letter well in advance of the court date and have a chance to prepare to argue anything they don't agree.. In my case, where the Children and Family Assessment from the local authority is going to take place of the safeguarding letter, and I'm not being given opportunity to see that before the FHDRA - This is seriously prejudicial to my case. I know that the judge will simply adjourn, order that I be given a copy and then come back to discuss, but this will add another 2 months onto the process.. and all the time the child is living with an abusive parent. Children's Services pay no attention to that, they don't do regular visits etc, it's a mess, it's shameful to say the system is setup to protect children. It's a complete shambles.
Anyone any ideas?