[Solved] Ascertainable wishes and feelings of the children

Hi there

A section 7 report is only as good as the reporting officer that is tasked with preparing it. Your approach to them and your response to the questions they ask is important... as you know, keep it child focused and try and remain calm and reasoned. Sharing concerns is fine, but leave them to draw their own conclusions from it.

Hopefully they will be experienced in dealing with and identifying parental alienation, children in their naivety haven’t learnt how to mask coaching and I think a good officer will be aware of the signs.

Try not to be drawn into condemnation of the mother, just show concern and your hope that a way through can be found, to enable you to reestablish your bond with your children.

You could ask about the appropriateness of using the high conflict pathway, or perhaps the making of a family assistance order, let them know that you will work with them to try and get things back on track for your children.

Best of luck

Met today with the case worker. They had not received any of the information from my solicitor such as statements from both sides, school, etc. Obviously I will now have to take this up with solicitor but how on earth can CAFCASS complete a fair section 7 without seeing all of the evidence? They have simply gone off the allegations made by my ex in her safeguarding interview, which were enough for the court to deny any interim contact? My statement denies such allegations and explains the true context of many of her points. Very frustrating overall. I asked about how they will view feedback from the children should they insist that they do not want to see me (a view that can only have been brought about through alienation) and they did not give me anything to be confident about. Although there is absolutely no evidence to support her allegations, their view is that the allegations exist and therefore they should be considered regardless. So basically you do not need evidence?

... that’s why the courts will often allow up to 16 weeks for the preparation of the report, to allow time for all the various bits of information to arrive.

They will take all allegations seriously and it’s par for the course for them to remain tight lipped about what they might recommend in the report. The case worker won’t commit until they have all of the relevant information to hand.

Did you ask about the possibility of being put on the high conflict pathway, or how they might feel about a Family Assistance Order, giving them options that you would be happy to work with is one way of shoupwing that you are willing to work with them.

All the best

I did not get chance to mention either. To be honest I was a little confused by some of the questions that were being asked and had to really think about what I was saying so I did not go off on a rant about the ex. Just going to have to sit back now and hope that they can see some evidence that the kids are being encouraged to feel the way they do by mum.