Mr J Elliott
Cafcass National Office
3rd Floor
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
21 Bloomsbury Street
London
Your ref: CAF 19-101
WC1B 3HF
Our ref: Gov/CAF 19-101
Tel 0300 456 4000
Email
: xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xx
26 June 2019
Dear Mr Elliott
Re: Freedom of Information request
Thank you for your email of 18 June 2019.You made the following requests for information:
Do you have any of these abuse programmes yet for female perpetrators? Or is it still just for
Male perpetrators?
Please note Cafcass currently only commissions Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Programmes
(DAPPs) to address abuse to women perpetrated by men. This is because the current
programmes commissioned for the Family Courts are only suitable for men who have abused
women.
Cafcass recognises that men can also be victims of domestic abuse and we would always
seek to offer appropriate support and may refer male victims of domestic violence to
available services, such as Respect. We are currently unable to offer programmes for female
perpetrators as court ordered activities as this is an area still in development across the
domestic abuse sector and there is no accreditation base as yet for widespread provision or
commissioning.
Cafcass are committed however to equality of access and will maintain our interest in new
developments with a view to future provision. Cafcass is committed to ensuring a gender
informed approach to interventions for domestic abuse, we also recognise that any
programme offered as a commissioned service needs to have a strong and credible
underpinning of research and evaluation to offer best outcomes. We are looking to expand
the range of programmes we offer in the future and are currently at the stage of consolidating
our understanding of the research and wider learning in this area.
Edward Timpson CBE Chair
Julie Brown Interim 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
If still no female ones, what's your policy/policies regarding female perpetrators? And what is
the policy/policies/rules or expected outcome if a male can prove that the female was the
abuser?
Cafcass recognises that men can also be victims of domestic abuse and we would always
seek to offer appropriate support and we may refer male victims of domestic abuse to
available services, such as Respect, and in relevant cases we seek to identify where
community resources could support the family.
All our tools and policies in relation to domestic abuse are available to our practitioners to
work with service users when the perpetrator of the domestic abuse is male or female.
Cafcass practitioners are required to assess risk, including that arising from domestic
violence, in two ways: when the court orders a risk assessment as part of a Section 7 report
if it feels that there is some risk to any child subject to proceedings; and under
s16A of the
Children Act 1989 Cafcass practitioners are under a duty to undertake a risk assessment
whenever they have cause to suspect a child subject to proceedings is at current risk of harm
and to pass this information to the court. Please see the Cafcass
Operating Framework
section 5.412 for more information, The role of Cafcass is to safeguard and promote the
welfare of children and we have a
Child Protection Policy that sets out how we will respond
to allegations of significant harm, including domestic abuse.
Cafcass will undertake an assessment which will include interviewing both parents and the
child/ren. Cafcass has a structured framework for assessing cases where domestic abuse is
a feature called the
Domestic Abuse Practice Pathway. The pathway can be used to help
structure the analysis of cases featuring domestic abuse to ensure systematic review of risk
to the child in a complex set of relational/family dynamics where domestic abuse is a feature.
The pathway provides the practitioner with a set of structured guidelines which include links
to policy, best practice guides and legislation concerning domestic abuse. The FCA may also
use other information gathering and assessment tools from our
evidence informed tools.
Practitioners should use appropriate tools, matched to the identified needs in the case, when
assessing the impact of domestic abuse. Our practitioner’s also have regards for
Practice
Direction 12J, which sets out what the Family Court should do in any case in which it is
alleged or admitted that the child or a party has experienced domestic abuse.
For more information about how Cafcass assesses domestic abuse, please see our
website.
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/):
Edward Timpson CBE Chair
Julie Brown Interim 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
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
Julie Brown Interim 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
Edward Timpson CBE Chair
Julie Brown Interim 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
