Child welfare adviser Cafcass has published a new domestic abuse practice policy which states that children’s guardians and family court advisers will no longer use the terms ‘claims’ or ‘alleges’ in reports to court.

The new policy also ‘makes clear’ that the starting point for recommendations about a child spending time with a parent who is under police investigation for a sexual offence or has a conviction for a sexual offence is for the child not to spend time with that parent.

Cafcass said the policy was ‘due to the significant risk of harm and the risk of further harm to the child victim, as well as the impact on the adult victim of the abuse’.

It added: ‘FCAs and children’s guardians are required to provide clear, unequivocal, and compelling rationales in their reports to the court if they do not adhere to the starting points set out in the policy and if in their assessment and analysis, they recommend "time with" or "live with" arrangements when domestic abuse is being investigated, has been found, is known or is reported by a child or adult.’

Words such as ‘claims’ or ‘alleges’ will no longer be used in reports to court as ‘it is for the court to determine the facts’, Cafcass said. 

The new policy follows the Harm Panel’s June 2020 report which found the family justice system did not effectively protect victims of domestic abuse and that FCAs and children’s guardians were not sufficiently resourced or trained.

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Cafcass chief executive Jacky Tiotto said that ‘there are still children and adults in family court proceedings who do not receive the protection they deserve and require’. She said the organisation was ‘intent on eliminating practice that isn’t good enough’.

She added: ‘When the advice put to the court, doesn’t get the balance right between the right of a child to have both parents in their lives and the risk of harm from that contact, when it doesn’t protect a child, when it isn’t in their best interests and when it puts their protective adult and carers in harms way, the consequences can be devastating.

‘We are determined to continue to improve and to strive to protect every child and adult in family proceedings. The new policy is a very significant step to further improve the way, together as a system, we protect child and adult victims of domestic abuse.’