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Guys,
As you know part way into proceedings, the cafcass officer in my case was replaced with another on the grounds of ill health. The replacement cafcass officer has really not impressed me in her approach to things, and I really and truly believe she favours my ex in the case and shows a high degree of bias towards her. Where as the original officer was impartial and nice to deal with, this woman is the total opposite.
She has also acted inappropriately on a few occasions:
1) When she came to observe contact with me and my son in April this year, which took place at the ex's dads house, she took it upon herself to take statements from the ex's dad and stepmum. She did this in the kitchen, which is opposite the living room where I sat with my son, and I overheard everything, including the dad and stepmum slagging me off and making allegations against me. I still cannot fathom why she did this, as it cause me much distress at the time, and was very upsetting.
2) She arranged to come and see me at the harrogate contact centre in august, but never turned up. She also did not inform me that she would not be attending. This is hugely unprofessional, especially when the point of the visit is to assess how contact is going.
3) She is inconsistent in her reporting. For example the original Co recommended unsupervised contact, yet this CO after talking to me ex made different recommendations. I see this as inconsistent reporting.
4) She has secret conversations with my ex in which they discuss the future of contact. Yet I am never made privy to these conversations. It's like I'm insignificant and my input not worth anything.
5) She contradicts herself and makes excuses for my ex - which is not acceptable.
Ideally I would like this woman removed from the case and someone else assigned to it that may actually treat me with some respect and show some impartiality and approach things with less bias towards my ex.
So my question is, can I get her removed from the case? If so, what's the best way to go about it? Is it simply to just write up a complaint about her and send it to her manager?
Anyone that has had success doing this before, it would be good to know how you did it!
Simon.
I think Boycie was fairly successful in this respect.
Has their report already been accepted at the last hearing? This may have a bearing I any outcome of a complaint, but there's nothing stopping you from putting your concerns on paper to her manager. If after that you are not satisfied then you can go through more formal channels and complain to CAFCASS directly.
Heya, thanks for the accolaide, Ill have to feed back with a very good outcome from this which I recently received from the associate director 🙂
I called the senior service manager expressed my concerns and requested a change. Initially this was not possible (without potentially waiting another 16 weeks being refed into the system) but when she wrote such a useless section 7 - I put in an appeal based on biased and factually inaccurate comments. As a result not to much was looked at in court and an addendum had to be made with a new officer following more complaints to CAFCASS.
Keep in contact with their manager, if your not happy with her response, escalate it to the complaints dept, following this raise it to your MP. It has to be done in a timely manner given the issue of writing reports for court. Happy to chat via PM if you need any further info. I would say your reasoning is entirely valid and appropriate.
You may also be able to request all the officers notes under the FOI act as if there is two very different sets of notes between officers, it represents lack of fairness and impartiality.
With regards to the formal warning, I am not convinced you have been formally warned. Some clerk at a desk told you this, if this is correct - put your complaint in and think about financial compensation for the stress and potential implications of this. I am 99.9% sure this will not go on any police check for jobs. Lastly I would seriously consider putting in a counter allegation on the basis she really was the one whom harrassed you and that she is wasting police time strategically for private proceedings.
As I said however, the police are much more interested in filling goverment quotas of fictitious DV than catching criminals. Its much easier to pick on an innocent victim than catch a real criminal. There is a lot on the internet about DV to men, but sadly it is underdetected and undertreated due to an intrinsic bias in the system. Clearly it is an awful situation true DV, even "emotional DV" but reading Slims post recently about the unforunate friend of his whom took his life, in the context of not being able to see his child. This emotional abuse is the worst form of DV. Statistically physical abuse is equally as common in men if not more common for things men would simply dismiss. Something really needs to be done......
BW
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