The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service is the body that advises the family court about children in private law proceedings. It is independent of the court, of local authorities and of both parents, and its officers are qualified social workers.
Most parents meet Cafcass twice. The first contact is a safeguarding telephone call shortly after an application is issued. The second, in cases that do not resolve, is a section 7 report.
The safeguarding letter
Before the first hearing, a Cafcass officer speaks to each parent by telephone and carries out checks with the police and the local authority. The resulting safeguarding letter goes to the court and to both parties.
Parents routinely underestimate this call. It is short, it happens early, and it is often the only account of your position the court will have read before the first hearing. If allegations have been made and you have not addressed them at this stage, the first hearing proceeds with those allegations unanswered on the file.
The section 7 report
Where the court needs more information it orders a report under section 7 of the Children Act 1989. This is the substantive piece of work. It typically involves interviews with both parents, a home visit, and, depending on age and understanding, direct work with the child.
The report ends with a recommendation. The court is not bound by it and does depart from it, but a judge who disagrees with a section 7 recommendation has to explain why, and most do not.
The section 7 report is not the decision. In most cases it is the document the decision is built from.
The caseload behind it
Cafcass received 42,172 private law children’s cases in the year to March 2026, 8.2% up on the previous year and the highest annual total since 2020-21. At the end of March 2026 it had 29,313 open cases involving 46,501 children.
That volume is the context for complaints that reports are formulaic or that officers spent little time with the family. The Public Accounts Committee has examined the pressure on family court services and found children and families being let down. A parent who feels their report was thin is often describing something real, and the cause is usually structural rather than personal.
How to approach it
Answer what is asked rather than what you wish had been asked, because an officer with a large caseload is working to a defined set of questions. Focus on the child’s day rather than on the other parent’s character, since a report about your child reads very differently from a report about your ex-partner. Provide documents rather than characterisations, as dates and messages carry weight where adjectives do not. And if you disagree with the finished report, the route is to file a position statement setting out precisely which passages you dispute and why, rather than complaining about the officer.
Cafcass operates a complaints procedure, and complaints about the conduct of an officer go there. Disagreement with a recommendation is a matter for the court rather than the complaints process, and confusing the two costs parents time they do not have.
Sources
Every factual claim above traces back to one of these documents. If a link has died or a document has since been amended, tell us and we will update the piece.
- 01Cafcass: what we doCafcass
- 02Guidance on responding to allegations of alienating behaviourFamily Justice Council
- 03Improving family court services for childrenCommittee of Public Accounts
- 04Cafcass reports sharp rise in private law children cases across EnglandFamily Law
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