Victoria Soeder
Cafcass National Office
3rd Floor
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
21 Bloomsbury Street
London
Your ref: CAF 19-147
WC1B 3HF
Our ref: Gov/CAF 19-147
Tel 0300 456 4000
Email
: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
26 September 2019
Dear Ms Soeder,
Re: Freedom of Information request
Thank you for your email of 04 September 2019.You made the following requests for
information:
Action day :4th September Broken Bonds : Palace of Westminster : Parliamentary Debate
(current parliamentary situation allowing)
The plight of grandchildren estranged from their grandparents.
“Broken Bonds between Grandparents and their Grandchildren is a form of abuse. This has
been recognised and the EU court of Justice ruled that ‘Grandparents have the right to see
their grandchildren. CAFCASS use harmful methods that do not enable this.
Today Dame Esther Ranzen , Nigel Huddelsston MP Dr Matthew Offord MP with researchers
in the field of family Psychology and experts in law about the detrimental long term effects
and serious HARM caused to both Grandparents and Grandchildren which information from
FOIA and CAFCASS unfit to deal with these groups discrimination shared. It is reassuring to
know that many experts know exactly the harm and damage CAFCASS are causing to
Grandparents.
Added to disability discrimination and associative discrimination CAFCASS undertaking
practice gathering witness statements that only a judge can order, Disability having been
invisible to CAFCASS builds a cumulative picture of how CAFCASS have added to cause
HARM; not just in words but clinically can be demonstrated.
Edward Timpson CBE Chair
Jacky Tiotto Chief Executive
Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, is a non-departmental body of the Ministry of Justice
Cafcass National Office, 3rd Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF
CAFCASS are Indirectly Discriminating against disabled grandparents in multiple ways but
‘organisationally’ operating with a “Principle underlying private law” Adult Behaviour” should
be defined and described as behaviours NOT classifications DIAGNOSES or Jargon which is
horrifying where they have a yet to be ethically established and cogent explanation which
may have affected groups of disabled people with a medical diagnosis. CAFCASS refusing
to justify the source of the principle in its entirety means Experts are required to examine the
principle. In the meantime CAFCASS should explain this monstrosity ?
As it stand the PCP in its entirety is INDIRECT DISCRIMINATION applying it to all adults in
the same way. CAFCASS believe that GRANDPARENTS who have done nothing but lavish
a grandchild with love ( which CAFCASS admit) without even a parking ticket to their name
MAY be a risk to Grandchildren because of ‘symptoms of il ness’ which includes emotional
outbursts which Grand parents with Dementia, Frailty, Autism, Anorexia, Epilepsy, Multiple
Sclerosis, Huntington’s disease, Brain injury, Stroke, Depression, , PTSD, Malnutrition,
Alzheimer’s. These emotional outbursts are clinically defined as arising in consequence of
Diagnosis . CAFCASS believe grandparent with medical diagnosis REGARDLESS of
reasons for symptoms/emotional outbursts BEHAVIOUR is a RISK “ in their words “EVEN IF
THERE IS A MEDICAL REASON FOR IT”
This is the outcome of such a dangerous PCP with no Equality Act application. They have
spent years destroying families but now they’re set loose on grandparents: “with no tools or
training” to meet the needs of this group, worse with disability.
1. What information do CAFCASS hold that allows an FCA to DISREGARD medical
explanations ?
Cafcass does not hold information that allows Family Court Advisers FCAs to
disregard medical opinions.
FCAs may report on medical information about a service user obtained from a
medical professional and include this information as part of their assessment. All
practitioner recommendations are based on their professional judgement of the
child’s welfare and on their professional assessment of the circumstances as
presented to the court, which will include the result of any safeguarding checks with
wider agencies.
2. Doctors having medical school and clinical training totalling 10 years, Psychologists
being BSP accredited and Psychiatrists ‘12’ years clinical training to assess a
Grandparents medical conditions, symptoms and behaviour and other specialists of
each listed group ‘years of training to diagnose’ then what training does CAFCASS
hold (seemingly elevated over these specialists) to allow the FCA to DISREGARD
medical reasons ?
Edward Timpson CBE Chair
Jacky Tiotto Chief Executive
Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, is a non-departmental body of the Ministry of Justice
Cafcass National Office, 3rd Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF
Cafcass does not hold or deliver training which allows FCA to disregard medical
reasons. FCAs may report on medical information about a service user obtained from
a medical professional and include this information as part of their assessment. All
practitioner recommendations are based on their professional judgement of the
child’s welfare and on their professional assessment of the circumstances as
presented to the court, which will include the result of any safeguarding checks with
wider agencies.
3. What information does CAFCASS hold and what guidelines do CAFCASS follow to
define a ‘principle underlying private law’ and who ratifies the principle and gives ethical
clearance before it is applied to humans.
Please note that the ‘Underlying principles of a Cafcass private law assessment’
document outlines the principles for Cafcass FCAs to consider when conducting their
analysis and assessment in private law cases. The ‘Underlying principles of a
Cafcass private law assessment’ document was developed internally within Cafcass
as part of the
Child Impact Assessment Framework. The framework and its
documentations, including the Underlying principles of a Cafcass private law
assessment’ document builds on existing knowledge, skills and practice guidance
within Cafcass. The ‘Underlying principles of a Cafcass private law assessment’
document is a collation of the fundamental principles of our private law practice which
are detailed within our tools, policies and the
Operating Framework.
When CAFCASS’ seemingly strange, ad hoc and arbitrary PCP is applied in assessments
without application of the Equality Act which they have adopted and maintained which
excludes from the ambit of the Equality Act CAFCASS are discriminating causing harm
therefore CAFCASS need to explain this PCP in its entirety as it has been applied in real
terms in assessment: thus harmful.
CAFCASS have now elevated themselves above highly specialised leading medical experts
in the international field.
CAFCASS, not having tools or skills to work with grandparents and medical issues that
affect this group and not applying the Equality Act discriminating against age and disability
are not fit to work with grandparents and are applying unvalidated tools to this group.
CAFCASS were warned, repeatedly about the dangers of what they were rolling out without
expert scrutiny so they have no excuse where harm and damage has resulted from their
rollout. They have horrifically marched to the beat of their own drum. Whilst they scrabble to
cobble explanations experts can scrutinise this draconian sham.
Edward Timpson CBE Chair
Jacky Tiotto Chief Executive
Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, is a non-departmental body of the Ministry of Justice
Cafcass National Office, 3rd Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF
Please note this is not a valid Freedom of Information request as this is not a request for
organisational information held by Cafcass.
We hope that you feel your question has been answered effectively. If you are unhappy with
the decisions made in relation to your request, you may ask for an internal review to be
undertaken. If you are dissatisfied with the way the internal review is handled or with the
final decision made at that review about the information released, you are free to contact the
Information Commissioner’s Office
(https://ico.org.uk/):
Post
Fax
Information Commissioner's Office
01625 524 510
Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Tel
Wilmslow,
0303 123 1113
Cheshire
E-mail
SK9 5AF
xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
Governance Team
Cafcass
xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Edward Timpson CBE Chair
Jacky Tiotto Chief Executive
Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, is a non-departmental body of the Ministry of Justice
Cafcass National Office, 3rd Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF
