[Solved] Any Advice CAFFCASS / Social Services

I'm surprised that the court asked social services to report, and not CAFCASS since that is their job (stands for Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) - I cannot see that there is any way that it can work against you that social services refused, that was not a situation of your making.

I would have said that you have a strong case for the courts to, at the very least, make a further temporary order for residency in your favour - and the longer they are resident with you, the more likely it's going to become a permanent thing. Once the children have settled at school (get them into a school near you as soon as possible), the courts are going to have to have a very strong reason to put them back with their mother and from what you have said, I cannot see any such reason. In addition, the courts will like the idea that your children are all back together again. Having evidence from your ex's family about her is something that wouldn't normally happen, so a court would certainly consider this along with all other evidence.

I would expect that at the next hearing, the court does ask for a CAFCASS report, but there's no reason why you can't suggest to the court that CAFCASS should be involved - they will talk to your children and, their opinion will certainly help the court if they want to stay with you.

FInally, I would suggest - if you aren't already doing so - that you try to maintain contact between your children and your ex's family - they obviously care a lot about the children. 🙂

Thank you actd for your reply.

I think that social services were asked to do an initial assessment due to the time frame we are under with the children due to return to school at the beginning of September, and CAFCASS unable to compile a report in that time frame.

You raised a very valid point, one that I have overlooked where you say the courts will like the idea that the children are back together again, I have always felt uneasy about splitting the children up but did what was necessary for my son at the time.

I know that this must be very hard on the children's family that have acted as "whistle blowers" and have maintained contact with them all, which has been a little difficult with the constant feeling of anxiety and worry that the courts might send the children back to a harmful place.

Thanks again

From the sound of what you have said, there are quite a few similarities between what you are going through, and what I went through.

As I said, get your children into schools near to you as soon as possible. In my case, I had to get my two girls into schools at no notice at all as I took them away from their mother the day after they had started the new school year at their old schools. The proper procedure (at least where I live) is to apply through the relevant council organisation - they were helpful in getting me through the application process in a day, but the whole process still takes about 8 weeks, so alongside this, I went to the schools directly and explained the situation to them, with the result that I had my youngest in primary school by the same afternoon (fortunately, my current wife knows the headmaster of the local primary well) and my older daughter in secondary school by the end of the week, so I can highly recommend doing this if you haven't got the application process finished and approved by the start of term.

With regards to any anxiety they may have, I found with my children that explaining the situation carefully to her all the way along helped a lot - we always had faith that the courts would see that it was in the best interests of the children that they remain with me and they knew that I was fighting hard to make sure that they wouldn't be returning to their mother.

With regards to CAFCASS, in my case, the CAFCASS officer had a short meeting with the children on the morning of the first court hearing and made a preliminary recommendation that the children remain with me - that was enough for the courts until the final CAFCASS report was done.

Hi,
As far as schooling goes, my son and my partners daughter both attend our local school. My ex decided she wanted me to take my son off her hands during the Christmas school break so we arrived at school in January with him and they enrolled him then and there, so I am sure they would do the same with the girls. (in fact, they are aware of my concerns over the girls as my sons behaviour when he first started in school led to numerous visits explaining the home life he had come from).

Your point about anxiety is a good one. The night before the last court case my youngest daughter could not settle and was just hanging on to my partner and saying that she would not go back even if the judge said she had to. We try to be as honest as we can with the girls without worrying them too much. They have settled so well and seem to put it out of their minds until just before each hearing. They are both petrified of having to go back but we just reassure them that we are doing everything in our power to keep them with us.

Sounds to me like you have it pretty much all under control, so good luck with it all 🙂

Keep posting your progress on here, it'll be nice to know when (not if) you get the reisdence order and hopefully we can help you further towards that.

Hi,
Sorry for the delayed post. Things have been pretty crazy here. Went to court, managed to secure residency for the duration of the CAFCASS investigation:) but the judge awarded mum a weeks contact order. Mum is pursuing an appeal against the residency order and has somehow managed to secure a further staying contact order for the children, even though they are due to start school on Monday. How are these children meant to have any sense of stability? They dont know from one day to the next where they are going to be living or going to school! Mum is happily in and out of court with public funding and I am having to pay each and every time as I am just over the legal aid threshold. I have a genuine concern for my childrens welfare, but I cannot sustain this financially. I only found out about the staying contact order late friday afternoon. Is there no way to stop my ex from continually going to court to change things? I wasnt even invited to the court hearing. My ex knows I am running out of money and this all seems like a ploy to force me to give up my fight. How is this fair? Apologies for ranting, I just want my kids to be safe!

Some of this is quite disturbing - especially not being invited to a hearing when you have the children. My ex did a similar thing to yours, she was paying her own legal costs, but made sure that by being awkward (including sacking her first solicitor), that mine had to spend much more time than hers on the case, plus 8 hearings in total initially, resulting in my court costs being almost 4 times as much as hers, and in a final case to reduce contact from twice a month to once a month, she represented herself costing her travel only, against £8k costs for me. 😡

Is there any way you can temporarily, and legitimately, reduce your income to below the threshold - if you can get on legal aid, then your ex may give up this strategy.

I'm reluctant to offer more advice at present as I think you definitely need to speak to a specialist on this. I'd ring the Children's Legal Centre for advice - as you have a solicitor at the moment, I'm not sure that they will be able to offer you specific advice, but they may be able to give you some general assistance to focus your case with your solicitor, which may just help to control your costs - worth speaking to them in any case to find out for sure.

Hi ACTD,

Thanks for the reply. I am at that point now where it feels better just have SOMEBODY on my side! Apparently my ex's solicitor accidentally forgot to tell us about the hearing.... So we can apply to have it "set aside" (legalese for squashed) Problem is, it was heard by a Circuit judge and can only be set aside by a circuit judge!! So we have to wait till next tuesday 😡
In the meantime I have just been informed that my ex's solicitors have booked a directions hearing for tomorrow! Direction for what?? My solicitor even said she has never come across this kind of behaviour before. I have spent over £1000 in 2 days and I've had to now apply for a loan. My tax is paying for her barrister and she is making the most of her legal aid! Apparently I cant reapply for legal aid because any changes to my circumstances would be voluntary and it would be seen as me trying to cheat the system... I am an honest man, I work hard, I love my family - how can she get away with this?? At least my solicitor is applying to have her law firm pay my court costs for the hearing to set aside the contact order. We have overwhelming evidence from her family and even the childrens school has agreed to put their concerns and actions into a statement. Is there a point where somebody is going to start caring about the children in all of this? Sorry, emotional now. I do appreciate your replies and will speak to the Childrens Legal Centre - all help is gratefully appreciated 😀

>Is there a point where somebody is going to start caring about the children in all of this?

Yes - you do. Above all else your children realise this and that's the most important thing.

I assume that your solicitor is claiming costs against her solicitors as a separate issue (through the OSS?) - what you don't want to do is to try to claim costs as part of your case as this will increase your costs with little chance of success - if they are, let me know and I'll explain what happened to me 😐

Just to clarify the social services/cafcass issue. The Judge was totally right to order a section 47 investigation be completed by social services. Although I'm not sure he can order a section 47, he could have ordered a section 7 report to be completed by social services.

Cafcass cannot do section 47 investigations. They are just that, investigations under section 47 of the children act when it is thought a child is at risk of signficant harm. Only social services can do such an investigation because they are the statutory agency. Cafcass is not. When Cafcass are involved in a family and they believe the welfare issues are so bad as to warrent a section 47 investigation, even they call social services. Your social services department was wrong - but most social service offices don't like dealing with private law issues so they try to pass it off to Cafcass.

Good luck.

Hi, just wanted to give an update on our court case.

WE WON!!!!!! after jumping all the hurdles that her solicitors placed in our way, I went back to court for a directions hearing that was ordered in the original court order, ( I have obtained six in total throughout this process) and after all the allegations that were laid against me, she didnt turn up nor did any council for her. I found out that she had not even complied with any of the undertakings ordered in the original hearing, nor did she even file any statement of evidence.

All I can say to anyone reading this, find a good solicitor, and I have to say my solicitor was absolutley fantastic. All the T's were crossed and I's dotted which ment that my partner and I could not be called into question about our motives throughout this case, even down to contact through a contact centre for mum.
Keep going, even when things look so desperate you cant see any light anywhere let alone at the end of the tunnel.

My case cost around 8k, with the majority of this coming from a loan by my partners family, but worth every penny as I now can sleep at night knowing that my children are safe and loved.

Thanks to all for advise and support

An excellent result, and very well done 🙂 )

I would agree entirely with your comments about getting a good solicitor, mine made all the difference- not cheap (well over £30k in my case) but worth every penny.