[Solved] S7 Cafcass

Ergh!

Short version:
So long story short the S7 had not been submitted and case adjourned until September. Case worker said they submitted it and has evidence of courts accepting it but somewhere along the line something went wrong and no one could find it!

Long version:
Whilst waiting for our hearing I said to my partner there is no harm in contacting the case worker to find out as we do not want the hearing to be adourned. We contacted the case worker a couple of times, left a voicemail and sent an email but had no response.

After 4 hour wait he finally got called into the court room. Said what he wanted, mum disagreed and the judge said as they do not have the S7 report they cannot find a middle ground and expected my partner to give a little but he did not want to budge until reading the S7. Mum refused to drive as she said if dad wants contact dad can make the effort...even though thats not the childs interest due to timings on Friday evening.

My partner mentioned contact for this summer as it states in the current order for 'the child is to spend up to 5 consecutive nights by the time child is 4 years old and up to 7 consecutive nights by the time child is 5 years old and 7 nights from child fifth birthday' .
(Child is currently 4) Mum has always said he should only get 5 nights this summer. They've now agreed in court for 5 nights 5 nights and 6 nights for the 3 weeks he gets over summer (an extra day on the last week of contact but better than nothing!)

S7 report came in 10 minutes after they left the hearing (which is annoying because it is so positive!) Talks about mums allegations and having no police reports/social services etc, so they wrote in the report that there is no evidence that these incidents ever took place and deemed no merit for my partner to go on domestic abuse programme as he showed no controlling or coercive behaviour whatsoever.
Said that child seems like she has a close bond with mum and dad and when they spoke about dad child was extremely positive and showed no signs of being scared or at risk of danger so definitely did not believe that my partner smacked his child as mum alleged. They also contacted the nursery regarding this allegation and nursery also said child speaks positively about dad and had no concerns.

S7 report recommendations to the judge:
Friday to Sunday night contact
Mum to drop child to us on Friday straight after school
All school holidays to be equally shared (Summer to have 1 week with dad 1 week with mum 2 weeks with dad and 2 weeks with mum)
Both parents should be able to take child abroad but provide the other parent itinery documents
Child should have video call with dad once a week
Child to spend fathers day with dad

So pretty much everything we asked for! Although it is just a recommendation and the judge does not have to follow .. its a shame the report came in 10 minutes too late but case adjourned until september where the s7 will be available. The summer will fly by before they need to be in court and hes got the additional time this summer more than what hes ever got.

He can ask for the case worker from CAFCASS to attend the meeting so i think that would be a good idea to refocus on whats best for the child as opposed to what mum wants (i.e Friday evening / Travel / holidays abroad)

So roll on september to have the hearing we should have had yesterday!

That’s really good news Ldad... as you say it’s such a shame it wasn’t available, but the time will fly by and I see no reason why the judge won’t take the reports recommendations on board, particularly as the case was adjourned for the very reason of not having it.

All the best