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Court reporters - CAFCASS - Sellout - no simple formula
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sellout
CAFCASSt SECt Contact Principles and Practice
Guidance t Draft 1 Draft issued16. 08. 04
Distress, disharmony and incapacitation often follow family
break up and children can be in great need. They are dependent
on their families and need reassurance and support. During
and after the break up they will need stability and the continuation
or development of the important and safe relationships they
will have with those who care for them. Despite their difficulties,
many families meet these urgent needs of their children, but
others will need the help of statutory organisations and the
courts.
It is important for practitioners who assist children and
their families at these times to have a clear and consistent
approach based on the soundest principles. This document sets
out the approach that CAFCASS will take in relation to contact
between children and those important to them. It provides
practitioners with core principles and with sound practice
guidance and procedures that are rooted in research and set
within the legal conte xt of the work. CAFCASS has brought
together into one document material on the various aspects
of contact covering both public and private law, for reference
and ease of use, and to encourage consistent and uniform practice.
Some of the guidance and refere nces to research will already
be very familiar to experienced practitioners, though may
be less so to those new to the organisation.
The document is also intended for another important purpose,
to make the CAFCASS approach to contact understandable and
a:::cessible to stakeholder organisations and to the families
and individuals who will use CAFCASS services. They have a
right to know how matters of such importance to children will
be approached and what quality of service to expect. It is
hoped that the information provided will also be of value
to them in their own decision-making.
Views on the nature and the best ways to resolve contact disputes
vary widely and are sometimes expressed with great emotion
and conviction. Nevertheless, research and experierce in Britain
and other countries show high levels of consensus on a number
of basic messages for families, practitioners and judges:
. There is no simple formulaic
approach to contact or the apportionment of time that will
meet the needs of children; each child has individual needs
arising from a number of variables, personal and circumstantial,
and will require an individual approach.
. The biggest and most damaging obstacle to both the quality
and quantity of post-separation contact, is ongoing conflict
between parents or between them and the children's carers,
if the child is living outside the family.
. Children do not feel sufficiently informed, consulted or
involved in decision- making on matters that directly concern
them. When children do express clear views they do not always
feel heeded when those views fail to fit with what parents,
practitioners and judges would prefer to hear.
. Though the caring of individual family members will differ
in kind, quality and importance, fathers and mothers are equally
important to children.
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