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Children: Domestic Abuse

Answer

While it is not the role of Cafcass staff to investigate the truth of allegations of violence and abuse, Cafcass officers will identify when domestic abuse is alleged, assess the impact on the child’s welfare and make recommendations to the court, which may include the court holding a finding of fact hearing to determine any allegations of abuse.

All Cafcass practitioners are qualified social workers with at least three years’ post-qualification experience. Every practitioner receives training in assessing domestic abuse and has access to learning packages and programmes developed in collaboration with organisations with specialist knowledge of domestic abuse, including a learning package on coercive and controlling behaviours.

Cafcass has a domestic abuse practice pathway which brings together the range of tools practitioners use for identifying domestic abuse, assessing its impact and making recommendations to the court about programmes to address perpetrator behaviour. Cafcass has recently reviewed the pathway, working alongside partners including organisations that work with parents with lived experience of the family courts, and will roll out updated training for all its staff in the next year. This training will take account of recommendations from Cafcass’ Learning and Improvement Board, which draws on the findings of the MoJ Expert Panel on Harm in the Family Courts.

The timetable for court proceedings is set by the court. This usually allows around three weeks to complete a safeguarding letter for the first court hearing, and around three months to complete a Section 7 assessment report. The proportion of Section 7 reports that are filed on time is one of Cafcass’ Key Performance Indicators. For the period 2019-20, 98.7% of reports were filed by the agreed date.

Social services officers are employed by local authorities and are not the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

185999

Session

2019-21

Subjects

Children CAFCASS Domestic abuse Qualifications Social services

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk