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Dear users i need some help
2 years ago my ex wife moved out with my at the time 1 year and 4 month old baby. she put allegations of domestic violence against me and i have had NAF from police on 2 occasions. divorce has been completed. i have been to court for several hearings. she has the residency of my child and is allowed to keep her location unknown. I have had a fact finding hearing in which court found her allegations compelling and believed her. I had a section 7 report from cafcass after during the interview i was asked what i think about the courts decision and i said i do not agree with it as i did not do anything, cafcass officer turned around and said since i have not agreed with the courts decision i cannot be recommended for DVPc course. I spoke to a solicitor who advised me to speak to the Cafcass officer and say i have had time to think about it and i agree with the courts decision which is exactly what i did and she finished her report stating that i will need to be assessed before being recommended for DVP course also recommended me to take on further courses on parenting. Last week i received an email from cafcass stating that court ordered them to close the case. currently i only have indirect contact and even then i do not receive my childs photos. I have a hearing date on the 29th. i was wondering if anyone can tell me what i could be expecting and why would court ask cafcass to close the case.
thank you
I would advise that you call the court and ask if the hearing is still listed. I’m not sure why the court might close the case, unless they felt that your initial non compliance was still an issue.
You could give cafcass a call and ask them if they can give you further information about your case and the upcoming hearing. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful.
Best of luck
Thank you for replying back to me. the hearing is defiantly listed for the 29th but the court asked cafcass to close the case from there end.
Ah ok, so Cafcass will have no further involvement, I’m assuming then, that as you’ve accepted the fact finding, the court will progress by ordering the course. The assessment for suitability can be carried out by the DVPP assessor.
As the course is 6months in duration, the court may want indirect contact to continue until completion, but you can ask for a review hearing to see if you’ve made enough progress to get contact moved to a contact centre.
Alternatively you could ask for supervised contact to start at the next hearing, it might be helpful to get info about contact centres in your area, and availability, there can be a waiting list for some. Here’s a link to the contact centres website
www.naccc.org.uk
All the best
Thank you so much for your advice its greatly appreciated, i will defiantly check up on the website link
Hopefully the court will accept your change of heart and you can get things moving.
Why don’t you ask for regular photos to be sent to you at the hearing, children grow so quickly.
You might also think about writing a brief two page position statement, to explain your position and ask that you be granted supervised contact in a contact centre, as you feel this would allow your child to re establish their relationship with you in a safe and secure environment... that it would also be useful for the court to have a written report on how contact was progresssing. You can include the information about centres nearest to the mother and their availability. They can only say no, but it’s worth a try.
Court had ordered indirect contact in the form of photos every fortnightly but I only ever received a handful of pictures even those I had to chase her solicitors for I haven't received anything since before Christmas I went to hand deliver Christmas presents to her solicitors and paid for the cab to be taken to her location as her location to me in unknown I still have not received any pictures
Hi Guys
Just an update on my case i went along to the dispute resolution hearing with my barrister and the court accepted Caffcass's recommendation which is for me to be assessed before being enrolled onto DVP course and for me to enrol on parental courses via my local council.
Today i received an email that the same caffcas officer who was dealing with my case will be doing my interview in the next 4 weeks.
Thanks for sharing and wishing you well going forward.
Did the court say anything about the lack of indirect contact or about moving to direct contact?
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