[Solved] Can someone explain reports ordered by the court

Hi Candy, rushing out the door so forgive my copy and pasting the info below......

Depending on which Cafcass office deals with it and the ages of your children, they will be spoken to either at school or at the Cafcass offices, this should be done with them alone, not with either of the parents present. Their w&f will be incorporated into the S7 report.

You will be interviewed either at home or at the Cafcass offices. Don't worry, be open and honest, don't slag off the mum and remain child focused. Don't be surprised if you don't hear anything for a while as they can be slow to start and then rush things through towards the end.

Once you receive the report, any factual inaccuracies can be taken up directly with the author and anything you disagree with can be raised with court. Good luck. Here's the info I've copied and pasted for you 🙂

Section 7 - court may ask the local authority for a welfare report when they are considering any private law application under the Children Act 1989 i.e. an application for residence, contact, prohibited steps order or specific issues order.

When compiling such a report, the author should use the headings as outlined below as a framework:

The report must cover:-

Background;
History of Children’s Services’ and other agency interventions;
Profile of each child;
Profile of each adult who is a party to the proceedings;
The response of the family members to the current circumstances;
A summary of the social worker’s assessment;
The social worker’s comments regarding the welfare checklist (see below);
The social worker’s comments regarding the ‘no order’ principle (see below) and its relevance to this case.
The social worker’s recommendations should take into account the orders available to the Court under the Children Act 1989 – see sections below on Section 8 Orders and Family Assistance Orders. If there are any doubts about the recommendations that may be made to the Court, the social worker should seek advice from the Legal Department.

Section 37 - When, during any private law proceedings under the Children Act 1989, i.e. proceedings for child contact and child residence, a question arises about the welfare of the child, and it seems to the court that it might be appropriate for a Care Order or Supervision Order to be made, the court will direct the local authority to undertake an investigation into the child’s circumstances and report its findings to the Court, this is called a Section 37.

During the investigation, the social worker conducting the investigation will need to consider:

If the local authority should consider applying for a Care Order;
If the local authority should provide services or assistance for the child and her/his family ;
If the local authority should take any other action in relation to the child.
The report must cover:

Background;
History of Children’s Services and other agency interventions;
Profile of each child;
Profile of each adult who is party to the proceedings;
The response of the family members to the current circumstances.
This report can sometimes take 14 weeks to prepare, but if a judge is concerned about a child he can ask a report to be carried out sooner.

The social worker will speak to you and will in most cases speak to the child/ren, but what they say and how they talk to the children will depend on the age of the children.