Just needed somewhere to come and express my relief.
I am currently waiting on a resolution hearing date. In the meantime, I have been in touch with Cafcass a few times, mainly because of disorganisation between them and the court which caused unnecessary anxiety as you can imagine. Saying that, this has meant that the Safeguarding letter was delayed, and therefore the resolution date has been delayed, which works in my favour. Also, the lady from Cafcass I have been speaking to has been really nice, which I won't lie, caught me off guard, but has been a breath of fresh air. I even managed to get a slight chuckle from her during the safeguarding interview - UNPRECEDENTED!
On Friday, they finally sent their safeguarding letter over via egress. At least, I thought they had, until I opened the attached document to find that they had actually just sent over their safeguarding letter template without the boxes filled in. This was both a relief, but also annoying because I just wanted to get it over and done with and read what they had to say. Long story short, they sent over the actual letter today.
I just read it, remaining as calm as possible and even though the lady I spoke to was really nice and seemed to be on my side, expecting the worse so that it wouldn't be a shock. To my relief, though, considering how Cafcass are known for really bodging things up, the letter is probably as good as I could have hoped for and I am actually buzzing right now.
Don't get me wrong, it could be a lot better, there's loads of stuff I told them that they missed out, there's a few minor details that they got muddled up (but not worth chasing them on), and my ex has tried to make me sound like a bad communicator (nothing out of the ordinary), they are still waiting on my ex's police checks (always happens), and there could be more they could have done to help me and my daughter, but overall I'd give them a B- for this one, which is a vast improvement on the U (ungraded) they have received from me in the past, mainly for the fact that they have, for the most part, kept their noses out and just told the court it's up to them what they do.
As I say, it's by no means perfect, and there's still a lot of room for improvement, but this current application to court has been my most positive experience with Cafcass to date. So, some Cafcass workers are capable of not fudging things up completely (even if they did fudge it up a bit). I'm not going to get my hopes for the next interaction with Cafcass to be a positive one, but I hope it gives someone else a little bit of hope.
Really glad to hear things are going in the right direction for you; keep going and never give up.
My opinion will cause some stir on here no doubt but over the past 2 years I have had 3 S7 reports; Cafcass officers are mainly fair but you do get some bad ones but that is the norm in any organisation. The bottom line is how you come across to them and if you remain focussed on the children rather than a personal battle with your ex. They are the childrens guardian so not sure why some fathers get embroilled in talking about the ex to Cafcass; they are simply not interested.
It has been recommended in all 3 of my S7 reports that the children should stay with me 12 nights a month and half the holidays; this is despite the fact that my ex has involved professional bodies possibly from the Police, Social Services to Womans Aid. All of the allegations made by my ex were thrown out by Cafcass and the Court.
Yeah, the last two S7s I had weren't great, so I didn't have my hopes up for this one and was expecting another shitshow. So you can see why I am feeling in such a positive mood after Cafcass have finally done a half-decent job. Emphasis on 'half' as there was still a lot of room for improvement, but it's a much better outcome than I would usually expect from Cafcass.
Its best not to pay too much attention to whats in report..ie they will highlight what u say and your ex says etc. what is most important is what contact they are recommending. They always miss things out what us dads thing should be included . however i think there are vaild reasons behind it which u realise in long run. some things u feel they should include would never get looked at by family court anyway. I generally find cafcass do fair reports as long as u dont get over emotional and go off on one about ex as you have limited time to get your point across 🙂