I recently received the Cafcass report relating to my ex's application for unsupervised contact. Cafcass have recommended contact take place in a contact centre due to the level of verbal abuse and harrassment he has subjected me to but also as they have concerns as to him being unable to meet our lo's needs and they have recommended psychological analysis to determine whether he has any issues.

We have a directions hearing coming up soon but this will be a fairly pointless exercise as my ex has already advised my solicitor he is not in agreement with the contents of the report (no great surprise!!) and so my solicitor has said the judge will most likely just order a final hearing in which case I will have to have a barrister with me and spend up to a day in court along with the cafcass officer who wrote our report and my ex aswell and he will have to present evidence good enough to convince the judge to disregard the report. I know this is highly unlikely to happen but it just seems neverending. I am more than happy with the recommendations of the report and wish my ex would just accept them and just be cooperative but he always wants a fight.

Does anyone have any experience with cafcass? From what I can find online, in most cases the judge will order what the cafcass officer reccomends and it is very hard to persuade the judge to do otherwise, it is all just so stressful and worrying.

He is refusing to sign the contact centre referral form as he doesn't agree with the day or the length of time, but there's no changing that as the contact centre is run by volunteers and only open two days a month so it's that or nothing but he is just making it all so much harder by contesting every minute detail!!!

Would love to hear from anyone else who has any experience of this or words of wisdom!!

no advice hun as never dealt with cafcass before but just wanted to say i hope you sort it men are stubborn as it is but i think it would take quite alot of evidence to make the judge change his mind against the cafcass report xx

aww hun your the next stage above me
i've just got a cafcass letter about them wanting get in touch with me and then with fob

was they interested in the abuse he has given you?
i have a police report on my ex and proof but my solicitor said it doesnt really matter what hes done to me and if i mentiond it all to cafcass they could see me as a bitter ex :/

Cafcass officers can quite often appear fairly blunt and matter of fact so I was quite intimidated by the officer at first and even started wondering if she was bias towards FOB, however the report has certainly come out in my favour (although not from her favouring either me or FOB) but merely down to the fact that my behaviour has been miles better than FOB's so that reflects in the report. In terms of abuse, my FOB has never physically abused me, it has been verbal and harrassing and the police have been involved a couple of times but they only cautioned him, he hasn't been charged with anything, however Cafcass always do full police checks and details are included in the report, so the report has details of fob verbal abusing and harrassing me and this was one of the reasons contact has been recommended to move to a contact centre as they recognise that it is not good for our lo to experience any tension or abuse between his parents during visits. Cafcass main concern is for the welfare of the child and they aren't interested in tit for tit type arguments between the mum and dad BUT if the father has been abusive then that WILL be recorded in the report and will show what sort of a person FOB is. The judge will then see this and make his own mind up but I would say that as long as your FOB has never had unsupervised visits with your child and based on the police reports you have etc, then it is most likely they will suggest contact begins in a contact centre.

Your solicitor is right in that if you concentrate too much on what FOB has done to you or things in the past, then it could make you look like you hold a grudge and are more bothered about what he did to you than his relationship with your child. My best advice to you is still to mention the things he has done, violence etc BUT instead of mentioning anything about the effect it had on you etc, you are best to say how you feel it might affect your son and talk about how you intend to progress things rather thsn being focused on the past and as long as you remain child focused then you will come across in a good light.

thanks so much keep me posted how you get on xx

I've dealt with Cafcass

I too had a report which recommended my ex have supervised contact in a centre - and my ex contested too. It never even made it past the Directions hearing - the Judge just rubber stamped Caffcass's recommendations and that was that

As for him disagreeing with the contact times etc - the Judge won't even entertain him disagreeing with that and him doing so will only reinforce the Cafcass report in that he is unable to meet LO's needs ... making it even more likely that the Judge at the Directions hearing won't refer on.

whats a directions hearing?

can you explain a little on what made it supervised in your case?

A directions hearing is an informal court hearing where the Judge looks at the petitions from both sides and tries to settle the issues. In theory if the issues can't be agreed on then the Judge refers the case on to a more formal 'trial' type court hearing (still with one Judge presiding - no juries or anything like that)

However, if the Judge feels that one party is being deliberately obstructive and where there is 3rd party 'evidence' backing one party (ie a Cafcass report) then they can decide not to waste any more time on the case and make a Judgement there and then

My case was a little different ... my ex had sexually abused a child (not one of mine) - but had never been charged by the police, so there was no proof and it counted as hearsay as far as the court were concerned. Thankfully Cafcass reflected concerns in their report and the Judge granted supervised access only at the directions hearing because he felt that my ex was just wasting court time.

I'd gone to court that day expecting the case to be referred on and was blown away when it was all settled in about 5 minutes

Oh my goodness Tatties Mum you have really given me hope for our directions hearing next week. This has caused me so much stress and worry FOB contacted my solicitor yesterday saying that he was contesting everything in the report and that he has now enlisted the support of a solicitor (he had represented himself in person up until now) and that as he was not in agreement he would be requesting a contested hearing. The hearing next week will be our third directions hearing and the judge is already not very happy with FOB's behaviour (FOB was over an hour late for our last hearing!!) so I really really hope that the judge just orders what has been recommended on the Cafcass report without it going to a final hearing. The problem is that my solicitor tells me that it has to go to a final hearing if either party is in disagreement with the cafcass report. I am in complete agreement with it and just want the judge to stamp it at the next hearing and be done with it all.

FOB didn't attend his Cafcass interview and didn't attend the observed contact. He ignored the Cafcass officer completely by avoiding her emails and phonecalls and yet has put in a complaint about her conduct!!!


Arrrgh so stressful!!