On applications for permission to remove a child from the jurisdiction, a Cafcass report on the child’s wishes and feelings will often be ordered...
Q On applications for permission to remove a child from the jurisdiction, a Cafcass report on the child’s wishes and feelings will often be ordered. In my experience this will lead to a full s 7 Children Act 1989 report being produced which contains a recommendation as to what the court should do and sometimes in ignorance of the special criteria which have to be adopted in relocation cases. The litigation will be inflamed as a result. How in practice should this problem be tackled?
A The order of the court will no doubt have made clear what Cafcass is being ordered to do. If it is not clear on the face of the order, the legal representatives (if there are any) will need to ask the court to make a more precise order before work starts, to avoid problems later. One possible step is to order that the report is not disclosed to the parties without leave of court. The
