My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Use our Single Parent forum to speak to other parents raising a child alone.

Lone parents

positive cafcass experiences?

7 replies

lucyloo78 · 17/04/2013 15:07

Pls shed a little light on this subject & if u have had good experiences with cafcass. thanks x

OP posts:
Report
Piemother · 18/04/2013 20:22

Nope. Afraid they were shit

Report
kittycat68 · 20/04/2013 17:05

you will be lucky!! they mostly side with fathers these days no matter what apparently even if they throw there kids into the wall and punch them in the face and are enmotionally abusive to them fathers should have a relationship with their kids 50/50 !

Report
HopingItllBeOK · 20/04/2013 17:51

Good luck with that. I posted in AIBU a few months back asking if anyone had any positive stories. It is a high traffic topic. I got around 7 replies, all saying No apart from one from a step mother saying Cafcass were great in helping her DP get regular contact with his children. I have yet to find a mother/RP who doesn't feel as if they were shafted by Cafcass, that the children's views were ignored in favour of the NRP's wishes and that took safety concerns seriously.

I'm sure there must be some positive stories though, and I genuinely hope someone comes along here to put me right as I don't want to believe that Cafcass screw up everyone's cases as badly as they did mine.

Sorry if that isn't what you wanted to hear.

Report
betterthanever · 20/04/2013 21:29

I'm up to my third hearing, the first officer has left. They were ok - they had the total measure of my ex but their hands are tied. Who knows what the next one will be like. My nightmare will go on years... the system has to change.

Report
FuckOffMrBloom · 20/04/2013 21:34

Mine never got as far as court because he didn't ask for contact, but the Cafcass officer who looked over my case (I was sorting out residency) was lovely, very reassuring, and was going to tell the court they didn't think my ex having contact was in the children's best interests at all.

Who knows how it would have actually gone though.

Report
iwantanafternoonnap · 20/04/2013 21:35

Mine was good although only went to court once and did not do mediation. I also had not stopped contact or prevented contact or had any problems with ex having DS. I wanted ex to have more contact than he wanted which he refused. I could also prove that it was him that had failed to turn up on numerous occasions to go to party's/holidays/weekends away etc. Which clearly made him a liar.

Ex wanted me to drive half way to where he had moved with OW and I was flatly refusing to do so. CAFCASS backed me all the way and it was written into court order that he had to do all pick ups and the judge gave him a little bollocking and that he needed to start making DS a priority and not to keep messing about with contact.

Mind you contact order means nothing as ex doesn't have anything to do with DS anymore. Interferes with his new life!!

Report
postmanpatscat · 21/04/2013 00:55

The CAFCASS officer at my contact hearing was great, she really listened to DD's wishes (age 15) and put her point of view across in court in a way that reflected DD's feelings and got her the outcome she wanted (dad asked for 50%, he got every other Saturday night!) I think she did a great job and she made the nightmare much easier to handle for me and DD.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.