Cafcass is Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service. Cafcass usually get involved in child proceedings once you or your former partner have submitted an application to the court.

The role of Cafcass is to safeguard and promote the welfare of children by considering their needs, wished and feeling in child cases. The court usually asks Cafcass advisors to work with families and advise the family court of the interests, needs, wishes and feelings of a child.

A section 7 report is usually required when the court has requested for this to be commissioned either by Cafcass or the social services to assist them in reaching a decision on a child proceedings case concerning the welfare of a child. A report will assist the court in considering a family dispute between the parents and determining an outcome of the dispute.

A Cafcass section 7 report may be needed in one of the following matters:

• Child Arrangements Order – when deciding who the child is to live with and with who the child is to have contact; if you are looking to obtain a contact order for your child please visit our page on contact orders which will explain everything you need to know regarding this area.
• Prohibited Steps Order – preventing either parent from doing certain things or making decisions without the permission of the other parent;
• Specific Issue Order – an order to determine a specific question arising in relation to a child.

A report will contain background information, key facts and most importantly will set out the child’s needs and wishes in accordance with the Welfare Checklist. When preparing a report the Cafcass officer or social services will need to see the child usually independently as well as interviewing both parents individually. You may be concerned about the report questions which you may be asked. Our team of family law specialists can be contacted by you at any time who could prepare you for your interview and the report questions.

Cafcass must have consideration for the following criteria of the Welfare Checklist.

A Cafcass section 7 report will also include the officer’s findings following an interview with the parents individually and following an interview with the child. The report will include recommendations which will be provided to the family court for them to consider when making an order in respect of a child.

Once a Cafcass report has been instructed the courts will usually list the matter for a Dispute Resolution Appointment (DRA). Within this hearing the contents of the Cafcass report are discussed, and parents are given a further opportunity to try and reach an agreement.

If an agreement cannot be reached on any issues then the matter may be listed for a fact find hearing to determine any allegations or a final hearing for the court to consider an Order in relation to the child proceedings in question.

Although the court usually instructs Cafcass to prepare a section 7 report the Court can direct for the social services to prepare the report. This is usually as a result of the local authority being engaged with the family before proceedings have been issued.

Social services are a government based organisation which aims to protect vulnerable children and adults. Social services promote and welfare of children.

There a number of reasons for the social services becoming involved:

• A family have requested assistance from social services following a family problem or stress.
• A teacher or GP has made a referral following them noticing a difference with the child.
• Social services may have been notified by the police following cases of violence between the parents which may cause harm to the child.
• There may be concerns regarding alcohol or drug abuse in the family home which leaves the child vulnerable.
• A parent may request that a child be temporarily placed in foster or residential care in emergency situations.
• Where children are taken into care following emergency intervention by the police or a court order.
• There may be concerns that a child has suffered a non-accidental injury which the social services may need to investigate.

Therefore in such circumstances if the social services have been involved then the court may commission for a section 7 report to be prepared by the social worker who may have been working closely with the child and the parents.

In some situations, CAFCASS or the social services may prepare a section 7 report which may not be totally correct or reflective of individual family circumstances. Many parents often believe they need to agree to a report. If you do not agree with the report it is important that you notify the court of why the report is not agreeable and your concerns. The Cafcass report is to be used as a guidance when making a decision based on the child’s welfare. In such a situation the judge in the family court will consider your concerns when making a decision as ultimately it is up to the courts to decide on whether or not the recommendations from the section 7 report are to be followed.

The key element to tackling any issues with a Cafcass report is to ensure you thoroughly review the report which has been prepared. Whilst reviewing the report any factual inaccuracies reported need to be identified so Cafcass or the social services can be notified of these in order to correct these prior to any hearing.

Any other issues with opinions, evidence or recommendations will also need to be noted so you can look to address these either at the hearing or by way of a complaint to Cafcass. It is advisable to discuss issues with a section 7 report with your legal advisers who will also be able to assess them and identify whether and how best the report needs to be challenged. 

In many section 7 reports there may be factual inaccuracies such as incorrect names or date of births. In such circumstances it is important that you contact the Cafcass worker who prepared the report or their manager to notify them of the inaccuracies. Usually Cafcass will be in a position to correct the report prior to the hearing.

If upon receiving a section 7 report, you feel that anything which is not factual such as opinion or information in relation to your interview with the Cafcass officer is incorrect must be addressed through the family court. It is therefore important that the section 7 report is thoroughly reviewed and details of all the inaccuracies are carefully noted.  It is important to discuss these inaccuracies with your legal advisor who should be able to assist in preparing a response to the section 7 report as well as preparing a statement which can be used to highlight the issues and concerns to the court.

If a section 7 report is inaccurate or does not take into consideration key important information, then yes, a section 7 report can be challenged. In some situations, if issues with he Cafcass section 7 report are raised at a hearing the court may provide directions for a further statement to be filed by the parents to address the section 7 report and its contents. This allows parents to challenge the section 7 report prepared.

Where inaccuracies and concerns regarding the section 7 report are raised before a judge the parents can also challenge a section 7 report by questioning the author of the section 7 report. Parents can request the family court and the judge to direct the Cafcass author to attend the court. This allows parents the opportunity to cross examine or allow their legal advisers to cross examine the Cafcass officer and raise questions regarding the report prepared.

Parents also have rights to challenge a section 7 report by way of making a complaint to Cafcass. Complaints can be made to Cafcass at either their enquiry stage or once a section 7 report has been prepared. A complaint made during the enquiry stage could possibly lead to the report being made by an alternative officer if you faced issues with the initial Cafcass officer.

If a section 7 report is challenged once it has been made available to the parties and the courts, the courts have the power to direct for an addendum section 7 report to be made or order an entirely new report from another officer.

Our family lawyers are often approached in situations where a parent feels their legal adviser is not fighting their corner with a poor section 7 report. It is extremely important that a poor report is dealt with promptly and any issues are raised with both Cafcass and the court. The courts usually follow the recommendations of the reporting officer and if this is not addressed this can lead to a poor section 7 report being followed which can negatively impact your child law matter.

At Kabir Family Law our experts have experience in dealing with poor section 7 reports and have successfully challenged such reports. We have assisted many parents in thoroughly reviewing reports and in identifying failures and weaknesses. We can further assist you by helping you prepare a statement which entails your concerns and requests these concerns and issues to be effectively dealt with prior to the court reaching its decision. We also offer assistance in making complaints to Cafcass and social services to ensure any poor reports to be either amended or to obtain the reasoning and evidence for making the recommendations in the report.

— Q&A SECTION — 

What happens if I don’t agree with a section 7 report?

Is it possible to dispute a child law report?