Is this legal negligence

[justabloke]

My partner is going through a court battle with her ex regarding access to their kids. There has been no access for various reasons over nine (ish) years and she has moved twice.  We have submitted the relevant forms to the court to keep our address private.  So far this has been respected  and the relevant reports redacted. However in the latest court bundle a report from social services has been included which includes multiple references to our address.

What recourse do we have ?

Thanks

[monkeys mom]

If the report hasn't been shared with her ex yet then I'm be contacting social services to hide the address.

Unfortunately whilst you can request the address is hidden, when multiple agencies are involved there seems to be some that don't get the message often when the case is handed down to someone else in the agency and the note to keep the address out of it gets lost.

My ex kept his address hidden even though he was like your partners ex and was the one who had moved, not been in touch for years and suddenly wanted access. He was forced to share his address with me as there was no reason to hide it and if my son was to stay there I had a right to know.

Good luck

[WT4]

Sadly, SS have proven themselves time & time again to be hopeless at admin .. especially this type.

Was your partner's address withheld because of DA/DV?

[justabloke]

Hi,

To fair to Social Services the previous reports have been redacted by the Guardians legal representative before they were circulated.  For some reason the docs were sent to the opposing legal directly by SS and not to the guardian.  They knew we had the paperwork in place and offered to update the bundle for the Guardian.

The whole case is a mess quite frankly.  Talking to my partner and her friends there was clearly Abuse if not violence but at the time my partner was younger naïve and the system wasn't as tuned in to abuse and controlling behaviour as it is now,  There are no police records for example to back things up.

Wierdly although the last court order said the absent dad was to meet the Social Worker he didn't expedite the meeting and SS forgot. the judge went ballistic at both them.

If it was me and access to my kids I would be chasing up every meeting and contact to keep things moving.  It seems he just likes his days in court...
 

[WT4]

It seems he just likes his days in court...

This is a red flag indicating he's only interested in having an impact on his ex.

[justabloke]

Couldn't agree more.  He even held on to his legal aid cert for 11 months before starting proceedings. Doesn't sound like someone motivated to see their child to me.  However Cafcass and Judge wont have anything to do with such suggestions and my partner has been lambasted by the judge and cafcass for even suggesting it might be factor in this....

The only one who does see this is actually a behavioural specialist nurse at the NHS.  She is working with us on special needs behavioural issues and getting a more upto date diagnosis

[monkeys mom]

Again, very similar to my own experience. Even though I had records abuse was dismissed virtually from the start as it wasn't directed at our son even though I felt it proved the type of man my ex is.

CAFCASS were next to useless and kept pushing for contact regardless of what I pointed out to them. Unfortunately (in this type of case) the law starts from the view that the child should see both parents (but not that it will force a parent to see a child only that it will make a child see a parent!) The more I pointed out issues with reports (while my ex just hid behind his barrister) the more i looked like the vengeful ex just wanting to spite him. In the end I got lots of professionals after learning the hard way that if others say what I'm saying then they will be listened to - I got letters from school, counsellor at womens refuge, psychologist and GP all to state the impact on son was not caused by me (which CAFCASS was stating in their reports) but that my son may have underlying issues and in their opinion pushing contact was not in his best interest.

I also filed a complaint against my CAFCASS officer and was being assigned a new one when my ex dropped the order and went away - I dragged out the process as I knew it would deter him (he hated spending the money) and because CAFCASS never released reports on time so I nearly always got them either the day before or actually at court - I usually got hearings adjourned so I could digest the findings and this again cost my ex more money. He just gave up as I knew he would.