An Open Letter to Cafcass

Dear Cafcass,

At time of writing I have not seen my three beautiful children for twelve and a half months. nine and a half months. Since separating, my ex and I have spent in excess of £10,000 between us on legal fees. My aim is to co-parent, my ex’s aim is to keep me away from my children.

Immediately after separation my ex began to unlawfully prevent me from having any contact with our children. It was at this point she began to exhibit alienating behaviours and subsequently cut off any direct or indirect contact with my side of the family and anyone else that was seen by her to be providing me with support. She also started and still continues to this day to make false allegations against me. There are no current safeguarding issues around me concerning contact with my children.

At that point in proceedings on the advice of my solicitor I requested help from you Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service).

You assigned a Case Manager and a report was written and submitted. The findings were that my ex was emotionally abusing our children and exhibiting alienating behaviours, both of which, you reported should stop now. A ‘robust approach’ with numerous interventions were recommended. A subsequent Court Order was made with all recommendations included.

However most of the Court Orders were breached by my ex and no meaningful interventions went ahead due to outright refusal by my ex. After several more court appearances at great cost in legal fees a second Cafcass report was written.

This report stated that although my ex was still exhibiting alienating behaviours and still inflicting emotional abuse on my children, you, Cafcass felt that to challenge contact between the children and myself would pose a risk of my children feeling ‘undervalued’.

This approach is baffling if not unethical. Your own mission statement Cafcass, is to “represent children in family court cases and make sure that children’s voices are heard and decisions are…

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