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Read what happened to other dads
Marriage problems?
Domestic violence
Womens Aid
Divorce paperwork
Arrangements for Children
Form E
The FDR at Court
Residence orders
CafCass
Official terror
The CSA
Other tips
Some web links
Other books of interest to divorcing dads
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.
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.
For some stories about fathers subjected to the breathtaking abuses that take place, see www.eventoddlersneedfathers.com
In court the social worker gives evidence first and so sets the whole scene. 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 (in my view the social workers report is opinion, not evidence) – is already made!
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