My Cafcass section 7 report forgets a child..
Background:
11+ years ago met my now Ex(unmarried), she had a 2.5 year old daughter(14), the father had passed with cancer when that daughter was just 1 year old, so for 11 years I have been stepdad, attached is a fathers day card from stepdaughter as indicator that relationship was as you would expect for the time, a bond in place. - shortly before separation there was a couple of instances where the daughter was physically abused, I witnessed one instance, another I was at work and daughter ended out with a [censored] nose, there was also a busted bathroom door frame, where door was kicked in by Ex... trying to get to daughter.
I also have a 4 year old biological daughter with Ex - luckily too young to get involved, but may still have witnessed bits..
we had a Section 7 report done, with court application being made by Ex not including Stepdaughter in any way, I have since been told I have no jurisdiction by judge, after previous judge had advised me to file application for parental responsibility, but irrespective of my legal right or lack of for stepdaughter, she surely should of been part of the section 7 report which covered the 4 year old, that even saw CAFCASS visit her preschool... - The thing with the exclusion of the stepdaughter is with it, went information regards Police intervention, Social Services Involvement, and a school Early Help report that features apparently a child trying to jump from a moving car to get away from her mother, numerous attempts to run away from home with police being called. I have attached page from Early Help report...
This surely should of had relevance to the section 7 report...
hi,
have you tried chasing cafcass about this?
I have managed to be ignored, through a process of the C100 application made by the mother, this was made with just my biological daughter present, so every court hearing, every report filed by myself, I have continued to say that there is a forgotten child... until eventually being told by a judge to file C100 for Parental responsibility for stepchild.(which I did, only to be thrown out for no jurisdiction)
** Social Services ignored me because based on purely hear-say nothing more they took the word of mother on claims of Domestic Violence to herself, and without Parental responsibility Social Services would not even look at clear evidence of physical child abuse to the step daughter.
** CAFCASS also ignored, my mention of this, and again would not even acknowledge evidence of physical child abuse to a child.
for what good it will do, I have filed a complaint with CAFCASS - which is apparently being reviewed(early stages), to suggest that exclusion from a Section 7 report of the stepdaughter, does not adhere to what the section 7 report is meant to be about, and that it should be family in its entirety.. Thus the report was incomplete at the time of hearing and excluded clear evidence of child abuse and self harming on the mothers side - something confessed to in the first hearing.
There is a very good reason why mother excluded stepchild from proceedings....