CafCass: the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service.

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If the parents cannot agree on contact, residency and similar matters, then the Court will call on some kind of social worker to prepare a report. If the child has been subject to abuse (i.e. a “section 7 case”, referring to section 7 of the Form C2) then the person may instead be a social worker from the Child Services department of local council. Otherwise it will be a Cafcass case officer (Court Welfare Officers). Cafcass stands for Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service. You are on your way to Final Hearing.

Whether Cafcass or council, it is incredibly important that you get the social worker on your side. This is uphill work because most Court Welfare Officers are actually members of the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) and their guidelines are:

To develop and promote policies and strategies which strengthen and enhance the ability of women to make and carry out choices within separating families.

To develop and implement policies and strategies which challenge the experience of oppression of women in separating families.

To support the rights of lesbians as mothers and carers.

To develop policies and strategies which challenge the discrimination against women in contested residence and contact decisions.

So again women are favoured from the outset, especially if they say they have been ‘oppressed’ (but no-one actually determines this). The judge will take the social workers report verbatim and turn it into law. When you see this happening in court you will wonder why there is a judge present at all, since the judge essentially repeats and endorses everything the social worker says. You may wonder why a highly paid judge cannot impartially consider evidence and think for themselves, but rather prefers to take orders from a lowly social worker, probably not even a graduate and certainly on 20% of a judge’s salary, but this is the crazy way this biased system works.

The Cafcass report itself is immutable and will belong to your case file. You will not be consulted before it is filed, so any mistakes of false impressions in the report will hang around your neck forever. In court the social worker gives evidence first and so sets the whole scene (for some fathers stories about the breathtaking abuses that take place, see www.eventoddlersneedfathers.com). Once the social workers report is finished, then your opportunities to challenge what the social worker says are very limited; the judge’s decision – without hearing any evidence (the social workers report is opinion in my view, not evidence) – is already made!

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The e-book "The Vertical Playing Field" is available in Adobe PDF format (for reading on PC or Mac computers and most other devices) or Sony LRF format (for reading on a Sony Reader PRS-500). I ask for a symbolic contribution of £10.75 but remember! By following any of the tips presented you may well save thousands of pounds, so don't try to save peanuts now and end up spoiling your chances later!

Good Luck ... you'll need it.

Dr. Robert Mellor.

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