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Hi, We desperately need some advice. My partner is currently applying for contact with his son and his ex partner is being extremely unreasonable and saying she won't allow it. There have been lots of very nasty false allegations from her which social services seem to have believed despite him not being charged.
Now CAFCASS are preparing a report and my partner and I attended an interview in which he was thoroughly questioned and the CAFCASS officers manager was present. His ex partner has made allegations that he takes drugs which he categorically does not and he has said he will take a drug test.
During the interview he was asked if he takes drugs to which he replied no and she questioned it no further. She asked about our relationship and discussed his ex's allegations. She seemed a little offish but it all took place without incident.
About a week after the interview she demanded that I have a safeguarding check which I agreed to as there is nothing they will find. She also demanded to see my partner again but on his own without me or the manager. During this second interview she accused my partner of looking "stoned" during the previous interview and didn't believe him when he said he was tired as he had not slept due to worrying about the interview and having to get up early and drive 40 miles to an appointment at 9:30am - saying she's a good judge of character and has been in her job a long time.
She was dismissive of him and seems to be believing his ex's lies and said his ex is "genuinely scared of him" - these are all lies to stop him seeing his son but the CAFCASS lady is extremely biased against him. She repeated questions she'd already asked about our relationship and no less than interrogated him. She said he looked like a drug addict and she took a print off from a Facebook picture his ex took in (in which he blatantly just jokes about looking drugged up) as concrete evidence. Yet when my partner mentioned that he had proof in the form of a screenshot of his ex actually smoking cannabis she dismissed it as being "[censored] for tat". I could go on but we'd be here all day and this is already long winded so basically he is extremely unhappy at how he's been treated but petrified to make a complaint as it is her who is preparing the report! And obviously we are worried that a complaint at this stage will make matters worse. This is a living nightmare, we not only have complaints in to social services, the IPC, the court case ongoing but now this on top of it! Can anyone advise as to the best course of action? Sorry for the essay, thank you for your time.
Hi there
I'm sorry to hear the problems you are having, it can be a nightmare and if you read through some of our past stories from members you will see this is far too common.
Have you read through the CAFCASS Operating Framework? Here's a link
http://www.cafcass.gov.uk/media/212819/cafcass_operating_framework.pdf
There are a couple of points that might be helpful to back up your complaint, the fact that the report must be evidence based and saying he looked stoned is her opinion. Check out the section on analytical writing and you can see that any conclusions the writer draws should be evidence based.
I would certainly ask to speak to the senior manager about the officers attitude and allegations towards your partner and as they are now checking you you should also be present when you escalate your complaint. There is a procedure to complain and it won't make it worse...these people need to bought to book when they overstep the mark in my opinion.
Best of luck with it.
You should make the point that if the reporting officer is going to use facebook evidence, which is effectively a screenshot, then she must be open to accepting the same type of evidence from your partner....it's not a matter of [censored] for tat, you are just counter arguing your case. If they won't accept it as part of their report your partner can use it as evidence and attach it to any statements he is asked to make during the case.
This is normal CAFCASS procedure I'm afraid they are absolutely shocking and blatantly make things up to discredit the father and they get away with it without impunity but all is not lost you can complain but nothing really gets done I would get a cannabis hair strand test done and shut them up once and for all so when she files her report you can file a negative drug test at the same time and make them look like a right bunch of muppets.
Alphabiolabs do cannabis hair strand tests for £220 which detect cannabis use previously but he'll be best going for a 3 month one it's expensive but atleast they will pipe down and it will show court you mean business.
The same happened to me and my ex took in screen shots of me djing in Ibiza she plonked them on the judges desk and said "look look he's a drug addict he dj's in the drug capital of the world" The judge looked at her gone out and asked if I had a nice time then I whipped out my negative drug test and that was that.
It's worth getting one done as they will use it as an excuse for him to not have contact with his child as cannabis is as bad as heroin in the courts eyes.
Slim 🙂
Here here to the recommendations above.
Put in a formal complaint and request a different caseworker who is under a new manager. Be forward in your complaint but consider that CAFCASS have to send a copy of the complaint to the court and their respective reply/response
Thank you so much Mojo, Mr Slim & Yoji for your prompt responses! That is all so helpful, thank you! We will look into how much it costs to independently do a drug test then, I'm not sure if it will need to be for other substances as well as cannabis? Does anyone know how much a 3 month strand test for all drugs would cost? Not sure that would be attainable at the moment as we are a bit broke for cash.
So the general consensus is to pursue a complaint straight away and this wouldn't ruin the report? Do we have a right to ask for another worker then?
Thanks again, your advice is much appreciated!
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https://www.change.org/p/british-prime-minister-parliament-investigate-cafcass
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