Cafcass Reviews 

My daughter was eight when we first got involved with this service. She is now a few weeks away from 19, at this point his parental responsibility will end and so will this services hold on us. This service was used as a method of control by my ex-husband. He did not want residential responsibility, just the relentless threat of it to my daughter. My daughter struggled badly with his conduct. She only ever missed three contacts in the decade we were with family Court, and she was quite poorly and excessively distressed on those three individual contacts. Each one was used as a catalyst for another set of court action. As a result her entire childhood was in fact supervised by the court because when one action ended another one started. The last few years of contact she had with her father were in a contact centre as she was simply no longer able to cope without support around her when she saw him. This contact broke her over and over. It pushed her to the point of wanting to put a knife through her own chest. She was finally awarded control over her own contact when she was 15 1/2, she continued to see her father for another year out of her own choice at the contact centre. She eventually stopped all contact, and it broke her heart to do it because she loved him, now we’re trying to rebuild our lives but the impact on her it’s devastating. She barely leaves the house she is terrified she will bump into him or he mite follow her. We are now moving home to the other end of the country to try and give her a chance of trying to rebuild herself. Her mental health is destroyed. She was a bright bubbly young girl before court, now she’s a shadow of a person, who’s on maximum PIP and may never live a normal life.
One of the reports by one of the so-called professionals actually stated that my ex should only have supervised contact a maximum of two hours a month! So that professional obviously didn’t go in his favour and the results of that were completely ignored, and he was granted the full contact he wanted. The only reason we ended up in a contact centre for so long was partialy complicated because of her wanting to end her life and being admitted in to hospital, autism diagnosis, ADHD and then Covid and I think the contact centre probably saved my daughter‘s life.
I don’t know how long my daughter’s going to live, every day I worry that she might decide that she will end her life today.
I’m having to relocate my entire family to try and safeguard her, to try and keep her going. Trying to give her the chance of seeing she could have a future.
Its surely is not ethical to only look at the professional reports if it is negative to the Mother and ignore them completely if it is negative for the father. If one of the parents is detrimental to the welfare of the child, no matter which parent it is that should be taken into account. There were no findings no matter how much digging they did of parental alienation, and they really did try to make that stick. If they made a little less effort on trying to force the narrative of parental alienation and made a little bit more effort of looking after our child, just imagine the functioning adult she might have been able to be. Myself and her older sister are now putting things in place to make sure she will be cared for for the rest of her life. This is beyond damage, this is the absolute destruction of a human being.
The are good people in this service, but they hampered and held down by a broken and corrupt system. I believe solicitors and barristers should be prosecuted for the harm they cause, because right now they’re getting paid thousands of pounds to destroy children and lives. Caffcass should be ashamed and the organisation should be held to account for the disgraceful treatment of young people. There is no other organisation that can get away with doing this kind of harm without feeling the full weight of the law.
Every single piece of paperwork every single report. I’ve put them in a box, taped it up and put it away. My mission now is to get my daughter functioning in someway, so she can see a future and put it as far behind her as I can. I hope to leave it in that box forever, because we all want a future.
To this day, I do not know how much of this was my ex partner and how much of this was a broken system out to destroy families. My ex should’ve been educated as to what he was doing and why it was being harmful to a child. He should’ve been informed as to what the results of his actions were going to be and the impacts they were going to have on our daughter. He should’ve been advised as to the harm, not encouraged to commit it.

Family courts, avoid avoid avoid
Do everything you can not to go down this route because once you’re there, you can’t escape and you absolutely cannot protect. If you’re in a domestic abuse situation, run and hide, until your children are 18.

Case worker advised me to not continue with my legal support of a Mk Kenzie friend then the hearing was a bullying experience. Hastings family court. Not fit to support children's welfare.

Cafcass, family court advisors. In my experience they have very little
Knowledge & understanding of what is happening within the cases allocated to them. Investigation on subjects brought to their attention via family court hearings are never completed if at all even looked at. Cafcass have at no point shown themselves as being impartial always very supportive of the female side of any case. One advisor caught having coffee with mother of the children & none supportive results via agencies such as ICFA Programme. To be fair the said agency Cafcass are NOT to be deemed “FIT FOR PURPOSE” & their result score on here is very reflective & should be deemed a True & Correct Record it says it all.

I would give them 0 stars if I could. Cafcass needs to be abolished! They don’t just break families apart, they damage the mental health of all children they deal with, make up lies in their reports and assessments and are so biased and against fathers. I should also mention the amount of People they destroy the life of or even take it away. Blood on their hands is an understatement! Corrupt and an absolute disgrace

Extremely disappointed with the service provided. In my case, the Section 7 report did not adequately reflect two years of consistent, incident-free school records (CPOMs), nor did it properly represent my child’s clearly expressed wishes.

My child’s stated desire for contact appeared to be significantly downplayed, with conclusions that felt based more on interpretation than balanced, evidence-led assessment. Positive progress and efforts to demonstrate change were not meaningfully acknowledged.

Communication throughout felt dismissive at times, and opportunities to support rehabilitation or constructive engagement were not actively pursued. The overall process left me with serious concerns about transparency, proportionality, and whether the approach was truly child-focused.

Given the importance of these reports, there should be greater emphasis on objective evidence, accurate representation of the child’s voice, and a fair recognition of demonstrated progress.

Caffcass has let my son and Granddaughters down so many times it has now destroyed our family, my grandchildren have been allianated against their Dad for years , he has proven so many times what a liar their Mother is and yet they still favour her . Good Dads haven’t got a hope in hell with this unprofessional, bias absolutely useless bunch of so called social workers, there has to be something done to give good loving fathers a chance to be in their children’s life , at the end of the day it’s the children that miss out 😡

A social worker from CAFCASS was assigned to produce a section 7 report for my family situation. She was completely biased, one-sided. Didn't even video call me or visit me. Just took the resident parents side entirely and word for everything. Dismissed my daughter's wishes and feelings out of hand - despite CAFCASS claiming to represent the voice of the child. Then of course when submitting a complaint, they just mark their own homework and back each other up. I am now completely cut off from my precious children, and can only write to them, despite no one still telling me what I am supposed to have done to my children to harm them specifically. The courts just took the CAFCASS advice and were equally as dismissive. The whole system is rotten and one-sided and needs radical overhaul and change.

Your useless you wouldn’t know the truth if it was to jump out at you people lie in family court and you stand by them you ain’t got a clue

If I could give less than 1 star I would.
Absolutely appalling customer service. No sympathy , empathy and completely unprofessional. One of their “case workers” said “ I don’t mean to be rude but” and then sounded like they laughed.
They lie through their teeth giving out false information , they say they haven’t said things which they have and vice versa. They listen to false allegations and run as far as they can with them.

Section 7 report demonstrates one sidedness. did not listen to my concerns, even though evidence was available to view, even though I had police reference numbers. Even worse, I do safeguarding report in my job, I put my report to them, totally ignored. If there could be a minus star, they would get it. Im now building my own case against cafcass, abd they will be safeguarding for child neglect

My experience with Cafcass was extremely upsetting. I found their communication dismissive and, at times, dishonest. Important concerns were overlooked, and I felt completely unheard throughout the process. Instead of support, the experience added significant stress during an already difficult situation. I would not recommend their service.

Would give a minus if possible. They do not protect kids. They coerce protective parents into silence alongside family court actors and judges. Disgraceful system. In years to come we will all be suing the state! See you then CAFCASS.

Cafcass are corrupt and place children in harms way forcing the child to have the abuser in their lives and almost encourage the abuse to keep them in work. they lie in reports for court that you cannot challenge. They don’t listen to the truth even with heavy evidence and they break the mental health of young minds as they themselves are not believed yet the abuser can say what they want and it’s accepted with. No evidence this company should be locked and shut down, less children would suffer is cafcass didn’t exist there a terrible company if ur dealing with them record absolutly everything as they lie but judges go off there advice so record record record
Only giving a 1 star as there is no option for 0

Shouldn't even be 1 star
Setup for father's and some case handlers look like children themselves telling a fully grown adult how to manage children, when they look like they just left college themselves.
Not fit for purpose and should be dismantled asap...

I thought my CAFCASS worker Leeds courts was our only hope of been heard. I told my 12 year old to speak to her because we could trust her and she would stand against social services.

My daughter was right to say (at 12 years old) we couldn’t trust her. She went against everything she promised.

My daughter is now self harming with a man that nearly killed her mother. They have accounts of the man attacking her brother with a knife, logged by police and social services and witnessed by public. And he resides with a woman that had her children removed for being a drug addict.
Yet I have to complete a domestic violence course to show I understand healthy relationships and relationships whilst he doesn’t have to do a perpetrator’s course… yet has custody of my child whom has told every professional possible she doesn’t feel safe, she’s self harming and wants to come home!

What more can I do?!

They was lovely to my face, understood my situation had absolutely nothing to do with my kids. Agreed with me my parenting skills was top notch. They had positive interviews with my son too who said nothing but good things about me. THEN LIED AT THE TRIAL. Said it was in the best interests of the children to be adopted. CORRUPT

Cafcass got involved as part of the new pathfinder program to speed up the court process. In a nutshell the social worker was dreadful. Sent me an outline first draft report & rarely spoke to me. I was a father with residency of my daughter for over 6 years. It gradually became clear the social worker was highly biased towards my daughter's mother and she point blank refused to read any of the detailed history of the case in previous reports. She rarely spoke to me but it was clear she was entirely convinced by my ex-wife's dishonest account and was keen to support her in any friendly and supportive way possible- shockingly poor really. Did I think she was sexually discriminating against me as a male and father- yes. My ex-wife has a history of domestic abuse towards me, but I know some social workers do not believe such a thing ever exists. A shame really because my historical experiences with Cafcass had been very good to this point. They say they are the voice of the child but I think often they are the voice and friend of the mum, and if you are the father, then you will always struggle.

liers cheats and one sided carnt see whats right infront of theres eyes just look at cafcass reviews obviously not working cafcass useless organisation

the worst organization I have ever encountered, the child's well-being is unimportant to them, it doesn't matter what slum you live in or how badly you treat your child, what matters is that you are a mother and not a father.
The worst thing is that these pseudo-specialists are used by the court as a source of impartial analysis of the environment and then children fall into depression and commit suicide, all thanks to this wonderful pseudo-organization helping children, shame and disgrace.

Appalling experience! Cafcass Officer ignored evidence, did not act impartially, was not factual, raised her voice, forcing her opinions on how child should be made to see her father and judge believed her theories. This was a domestic abuse case yet she tried to move the child to live with the abuser without even viewing his accommodation. He lives 80 miles away and I had to meet him half way to hand over. Child greatly distressed and wouldn’t stay with him. Cafcass Officer then accused maternal side of alienation, influencing, erecting barriers. Entered a complaint but they mark their own homework so concerns were dismissed and case immediately closed.