Who are CAFCASS?
Cafcass are an independent organisation that represent the interests of the children in family court cases. Their name stands for “Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service”. Their role in children act cases is to assess the family, independently report and to make recommendations about what orders the court should make for the future arrangements of children and their parents.
What’s New?
In October of this year, Cafcass announced and published a new ‘Domestic Abuse Practice Policy’ setting out how they will make recommendations to the court and what the starting point should be when domestic abuse is an issue. The aim of the policy is to further protect victims of domestic abuse within Children Act proceedings and provide a higher level of consistency in CAFCASS recommendations. The policy aims to reflect the updates provided for in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and the policy applies to all Family Court Advisers, Children’s Guardians, and their managers. The key points of the new policy are set out below.
- When an adult describes a sexual offence or other criminal acts of violence the court MUST receive a risk assessment report, refer the case to the local authority with a recommendation that the local authority support the victim to complain to the police. In the case of a No Further Action (NFA) from the police this must be followed up and escalated if Cafcass consider children are at risk of harm.
- When there has been a report or disclosure of any form of domestic abuse (including any sexual offence) and a child is living with the accused parent, Cafcass must urgently assess the child’s safety and welfare. The starting point in these circumstances must be a discussion with a manager and consideration of what actions are required to safeguard the child, which will include whether there should be any recommendations to change the current living arrangements.
- Where a parent is being investigated by the police for a sexual offence, has a conviction for a sexual offence and/or has served a prison sentence for a sexual offence, the ‘clear starting point’ is for a child not to spend time with that parent due to the significant risks that exist.
- There are reminders about the need to look out for patterns of behaviour especially in repeat / long running proceedings, and not to dismiss or minimise domestic abuse as ‘historical’ or one-off.
- If a fact-finding hearing (FFH) is being recommended which is a hearing when the court decides of the allegations of domestic abuse are true) consideration must be given as to whether any existing contact should continue.
- There should never be a recommendation for parents to supervise contact where one parent has ‘disclosed’ domestic abuse – even if they are offering.
- Cafcass must not support or recommend any contact (direct or otherwise) or spending time arrangements, where the resident parent and child are currently living in a refuge, having ‘disclosed’ domestic abuse by the other parent. Secondly if it is necessary for someone to be living in a refuge for their safety, then the criteria for high risk of harm or further harm will have been established.
- Cafcass officers are expected to assess life-long harm caused by domestic abuse and to adopt a starting point of not recommending contact following domestic abuse without clear evidence of recognition, acceptance of responsibility, action to demonstrably change their behaviour and attitudes and an assessment of reduced risk.
- Where there is any report of sexual offending, the starting point is to consider suspension of contact. If a FFH is scheduled, the starting point should be no direct contact until after the FFH. If there is a pending police investigation there should be no contact until the end of that process (which could be years by the way and could be well after the FFH in the family court). If there is a conviction the starting point is no contact.
- Cafcass have sought to establish which terminology should be used with regards to certain issues. For example, there is a prohibition on the use of ‘claims’ or ‘alleges’ which can be seen as insensitive or undermining to domestic abuse victims.
It seems to be collectively accepted that Cafcass’ approach already largely follows the new policy, but the new policy seeks to cement what the starting points are for Cafcass in certain circumstances and will serve to keep recommendations consistent.
The new policy can be found on Cafcass’ website here: – https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2024-10/Domestic%20Abuse%20Practice%20Policy.pdf
