Right well this is my first blog here so appologies if its in the worng place.
Bit of background first. I served 12 years in the armed forces and came away with PTSD. I was with my ex while i was getting diagnosed. But split before I got the yes you have it. So my ex knew about it. I am currently going through the court process and getting treatment for PTSD at the same time. No stress there then. So forward to CAFCAS who I must say are one of the most unproffersonal bodies I have had to deal with. The case woker did not even do the pre court interviews as they claimed that it had got lost in the system.
CAFCAS then carried out the interviews after first visit to court. Leaving them till the last minute to do. Now here comes the interesting part. The chap from CAFCAS did the telephone interview with me and then called on Monday saying that there were no issues and that all i needed to do was take some paperwork about it to court. I thought great thats another thing i dont have to worry about. Oh how wrong was I. He has contacted my Ex and told her he was getting a social worker involved. So fast forward to Wednesday. I get a call from Social services stating that CAFCAS have some concerns. Social worker was shocked that i knew nothing about it. As was my brief. So social worker has now given the all clear to both my ex and cafcas. My Ex on the other hand is now using this to the fullest has stopped contact with my son and left me feeling lost and depressed facing a christmas not seeing my son. I know some of you guys struggle to get any contact with you kids . So no mine is not the worse case here.
Rant Over
I find the underhand way CAFCAS have dealt with all this to be both shocking and massively un proffesonal. Do any of you guys have any experiences like this with them?
Hi CM and welcome to the Forum
I'm sure you've had a roam around the forum and have likely discovered that problems with CAFCASS are not uncommon!
I feel that as social services have given you the all clear the court will take this onboard. When is your next court hearing?
The fact that your ex knew about the PTSD and agreed to contact regardless is an important point here, to suddenly stop contact at this point when she had already allowed it to go ahead makes her look obstructive. If she felt there were concerns because of your PTSD then she would surely not have agreed to contact in the first place.
I see you have legal representation, perhaps your solicitor could write to her (or her solicitor if she has one) and put this point across, as well as mentioning that the social worker had no concerns. Then request for contact to be resumed as the sudden stopping of contact will have a negative effect on your son. Offer alternatives such as having a family member supervise contact until the next hearing...you could also offer contact in a contact centre. If she refuses this then you could ask your solicitor to apply to the court for urgent new directions for interim contact.
Best of luck with it.
Thanks dude. Yes CAFCASS are not the best people to have to deal with. I have raised a formal complaint regarding this. My Ex is being obstructive as well wants to offer me a hour with my son on xmas day(With her and her whole family). Just waiting for Cafcass to contact the social workers again. They spoke to social worker who has told them that its a none-issue but they want more information from them. Why they did not ask them when they contacted them on Friday is behond me. I have read through there Frameworks for how they are meant to operate and they have not followed half of it. So Formal complaint to there complaints team and if that dont work then its to their managing body through my local MP.
In my experience I too found that what CAFCASS say to your face and what they say and do at other times are two very different things. There is a disturbing lack of transparency and consistency in they way individual officers operate, and so too as a whole organisation.
After a series of incidents involving the 2nd CAFCASS officer assigned to my case, I felt I had no choice to complain to them. I set out each point in detail, and honestly expected them to see my point and address each with a viewt o rectifying the problem. I was shocked to read the response to my complaint that in nutshell dismissed all my points under the guise of "profession judgement" being exercised by individual officers, and more worringly, that I was just an upset father unable to deal with the decisions they made and actions they had taken.
Suffice to say, I then prepared a lengthy rebuttal to the final response, again feeling I could disprove the points they had made. I was able to show with evidence that they had lied in certain situations. The whole file was then sent to my MP and the complaint now rests with the ombudsman who are investigating the whole thing.
My case went to a final hearing, and I got what I set out to achieve, despite CAFCASS's involvement, but I still pressed ahead with the complaint because CAFCASS need to be held accountable for poor service, and I want better for other fathers whose relationships with their kids are at CAFCASS's mercy.
So indeed, do press on and involve your MP and the PHSO if the complaints response is not adequate.
Simon.
Oh don't worry about me not complaining Simon it's going as far as I can get it to go. My ex now wants my son who is 2 checking out for ptsd. Which makes me laugh. She has said she will be ignoring the court order and that I can only see my boy for an hour tomorrow so that should be interesting. I think it will do more harm than good but my brief says I should take any contact I can get.