Open letter to CAFCASS

“An open letter in respect of my resignation from Cafcass 26 September 2011 Dear  …………………, I have long had my doubts as to whether Cafcass as an organisation is fit for purpose.  I have been critical of the honesty and integrity of the management of the service, things that continue to concern me.  I have [...]

President’s Interim Guidance Extended Again

I don’t think this will come as any enormous surprise. Based on a quick squint at it in teeny scale on my phone it does represent a certain shift if emphasis however. See here: http://www.familylaw.co.uk/articles/Cafcass011010

CAFCASS – What to do?

Thank Goodness for that – the new(ish) President of the Family Division has decided not to renew the guidance and may scrap the duty guardian scheme. See this article extracting an interview reported fully in Family Affairs. On another note, a proposal to scrap CAFCASS and to reallocate it’s responsibilities to local authorities. Clearly something [...]

Guarding the voice of children

Joint Position Statement from the Interdisciplinary Alliance for Children on CAFCASS working practices on the NAGALRO website (click on latest news in left hand menu, doc is currently 2nd item down in list). Nagalro and ALC have written to Anthony Douglas (CEO CAFCASS) to notify him that they will be advising their members not to [...]

Reporting the Reporter

I have a current bugbear, but don’t get me wrong: I don’t want to add to the mass of negativity surrounding the dread word ‘social worker’. This post really only concerns the cases where the quality of s7 reports prepared by social workers in private proceedings falls far short of the expected standard. Most reports [...]

CAFCASS Given Funding Boost

The Times reports on p 23 this morning that Cafcass has been given an extra £1.6m to help with the backlog in care cases.

Radio 4 Reports on CAFCASS Crisis

PM today ran a piece on the Crisis at CAFCASS, inolving comically disguised voices of Guardian’s and a teeny but undisguised snippet from yours truly. Sad that CAFCASS employee’s feel unable to identify themselves without repurcussions. It does not speak of a happy working environment. Listen here on BBC iplayer for another 7 days – it [...]

Two TidBits – Make that Three

Two unconnected pieces of info for you: Firstly, the Bar Standards Board has approved barristers forming LDPs. Big changes ahead I think. Thanks to the LAG blog for this. Secondly, PM on Radio 4 briefly covered the CAFCASS Crisis today – tomorrow they will run another slot with comment from Guardians. On Radio 4 tomorrow [...]

CAFCASS Judicial Review

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. I’m only surprised it wasn’t sooner – mutterings about this petered out some months ago on the issue of the President’s interim Guidance on managing the CAFCASS crisis. But now a firm of solicitors acting for a child involved in proceedings have secured public funding to launch [...]

FNF & CAFCASS Draft Shared Care Docs Criticised

Thanks to Family Law Week for notice of this article on Community Care regarding the role Families Need Fathers is playing in drafting CAFCASS Guidance. . It’s concerning in the first instance that the drafts should have been apparently subject to criticism from respected academics, although it’s unclear from the article what the detail of those [...]