Submission from Support Not Separation, Disabled Mothers' Rights Campaign & Women Against Rape to OFSTED re its inspection of CAFCASS.
Together we have worked for decades with mothers fighting to keep their children (Legal Action for Women was founded in 1982). In the last 10 years a growing movement of mothers, especially single mothers, struggling to protect our children from violent fathers has exposed a family court system which backs these abusers rather than the victims of their domestic and/or child abuse.
Our evidence is based on extensive collective self-help casework with hundreds of women and on campaigning. We run monthly self-help meetings where mothers share their experiences and a number of organisations contribute their expertise. The mothers we work with have had extensive contact with multiple CAFCASS professionals across the UK.
Our submission draws attention to CAFCASS’ approach to:
- “Parental Alienation” or “alienating behaviours”
- Domestic Violence
- Presumption of Contact and “parental alienation”
- The fathers’ lobby
- Disability
Download the document in full here.