Dear Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service,

On the 1st July 2017 you published your "Guidance on the use of professional time to benefit children" as a PDF on your website here:
https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/media/317939/...

In your guidance you make a reference to a template for Cafcass officers to use in future and you include the template at the end of that PDF document.

In the document you reference the template by saying:

"Each child impact analysis will include a structured professional assessment
and recommendation by Cafcass/Cafcass Cymru and may also include some brief
casework. The new template for this purpose is set out at the end of this guidance,
though there may be further minor changes to the template to reflect operational
differences between England and Wales. In other local areas, traditional s7 reports
will be produced for the time being, pending the new proposed interventions being
trialled and evaluated. Child impact reports are not a lighter version of a s7 report.
They are a more intensive child focussed version"

With particular regard to your statement that "They are a more intensive child focussed version" I would be grateful if you would provide the information that I am requesting below:

In Section 3 of the template you say:

"3. Child Impact Analysis
 Set out the evidence base for the impact of the issues in the case on the
individual child
 Analyse the impact, including from child observation
 Include and analyse the child’s wishes and feelings, as appropriate bearing in
mind the child’s age and developmental stage."

Please would you provide details of all training you provide your staff with that relates to Child Impact Analysis including dates on which that training was commissioned, dates it was deployed, completion rates in 2016 and in 2017, and a copy of any such training.

In Section 4 of the template you say:

"4. Structured Professional Assessment
 Bring together a succinct account of the child’s experiences and how their
safety and well- being can best be promoted
 Relate the evidence base back to the application"

Please would you provide details on any new training that you may have provided post January 2017 on coached children and/or on parental influence over children's expressed wishes and feelings. If you do have new training on this please provide dates on which that training was commissioned, dates it was deployed, completion rates in 2017, and a copy of any such training.

In the final paragraph of that template you say:

"In compiling this report, I have had regard in particular to the welfare checklist as required by
Rule 16.20/16.33 Family Procedure Rules 2010 and I have applied a welfare checklist analysis
to the facts of the case throughout."

and you then ask the Cafcass officer to sign their name under this declaration.

Please would you provide details on the training you provide to train your staff that the Welfare of the Child is paramount to the expressed and ascertained "wishes and feelings of the child". Again, please provide dates on which that training was commissioned, dates it was deployed, completion rates in 2016 and in 2017, and a copy of any such training.

Thank you for your help.

Yours faithfully,

G. Harrison

Dear Governance - Cafcass,

Thank you for your reply.

In your reply you say:

"Cafcass has an ‘off the shelf’ training module on ‘High Conflict Child Arrangements Disputes’, which explores the risk to contact and the key elements in high conflict contact disputes and the impact on children"

1. Please provide a copy of this training module and could you confirm which person or organisation authored it for your use.

In your reply you also say:

"In March 2017, Anthony Douglas, Chief Executive of Cafcass, led a live webinar discussion on parental alienation attended by 64 staff members, providing participants with the opportunity to share and discuss their experience of cases featuring alienating behaviours. This included discussion of child impact analysis to set out the evidence base indicating parental alienation. "

2. Please provide a copy of this webinar.

3. Please confirm how many of the 64 staff members were FCAs.

4. Please confirm how many staff members have subsequently viewed this webinar.

5. Please provide a list of all webinars provided to your staff members, and viewing rates, for 2016 and for 2017.

6. Please confirm how many of these webinars are still available for viewing by your staff members as of August 2017.

7. Please confirm the platform and/or software that you use to distribute and view webinars.

many thanks - I appreciate all the help you are providing

Yours sincerely,

G. Harrison

Dear Governance - Cafcass,

Thank you for your response.

You have provided webinar figures only for 2017 - I asked for 2016 and 2017 figures. Could you supply a list of webinars offered to your employees in 2016 with associated viewing rates (at the time and subsequent to the date of the webinar)

In your response you say that 33 of the initial 64 staff members who viewed the live webinar were FCAs. You go on to say that 59 other members of staff have listened to the audio recording subsequent to the live webinar.

Please confirm how many of these 59 subsequent listeners were FCAs.

Would you also be able to provide a service area breakdown of viewers and listeners?

Could you also confirm whether watching the webinar and/or listening to the subsequent audio count towards the CPD for an individual FCA?

thank you

Yours sincerely,

G. Harrison