What will happen next?
If an application has been made to to court
about future arrangements for your children, the court may ask
Cafcass to become involved. If this has happened the following
information provides an outline of what may happen in your case.
1. The court will send information
about your case to Cafcass. We will then send you a ‘Welcome pack’
letter, which will include information about our role in supporting
the work of the courts, and the work we will undertake with your
family before the first hearing. We will also usually
contact the relevant local authority and the police, to find out if
they hold any information which might indicate safety or welfare
concerns about your children that the court should be aware of.
Click
here to view the Putting your children first factsheet.
2. We will also try to contact you (and
the other adult in the case) by phone, before the first court
hearing, in order to find out more about your situation.
3. Before the first hearing at
court, we will write a letter to the court telling it about the
work we have done. If this letter contains sensitive personal
information about the people in the case, we may decide to
send it only to the court, leaving them to decide how it will be
shared with the people involved in the case.
4. A Cafcass officer will usually
be at the court to assist the judge or magistrate, who will decide
how to deal with the court case and whether Cafcass will continue
to be involved.
What will happen at the first hearing?
In most cases a Cafcass officer will
speak to you and the other parent or carer separately,
particularly if they have not already spoken to you by
phone.
At the first hearing the court may:
- Decide to order that the proceedings come to an end. This might
happen if you have been able to reach a safe agreement with
the other party and the court is satisfied there are no outstanding
concerns.
- Decide to adjourn the case to a further hearing. Before
this hearing you might be required to attend a mediation information meeting, a Domestic Violence Perpetrator Programme or
a separated parents’ information
programme.
- Decide to adjourn the case to a further hearing, with a request
for Cafcass to undertake more detailed work with your family
before reporting back to the court.
What will happen if the court orders further work?
If the court has ordered Cafcass to undertake further work with
your family after the first hearing a Cafcass officer will usually
make arrangements to meet with you and your children and will
prepare a report for the court on what they consider to be in the
best interests of the children. In most cases their recommendations
are shared with you before the court hearing at which decisions
will be made. The court will read the report and consider
information from you and the other party and any experts'
recommendations before making its decision.