Cafcass Child Impact Assessment Framework
The Cafcass Child Impact Assessment Framework (CIAF) sets out how children may experience parental separation and how this can be understood and acted on in Cafcass. The framework is designed to keep the child’s needs, wishes and feelings central to the recommendations made to the court on who they should live with or spend time with.
The framework continues to be used by Cafcass and has been updated and further developed in consultation with stakeholders. The framework brings together existing guidance and tools, along with a small number of new tools, into four guides which Cafcass private law practitioners can use to assess different case factors, including:
Domestic abuse where children have been harmed directly or indirectly, for example from the impact of coercive control.
Conflict which is harmful to the child such as a long-running court case or mutual hostility between parents which can become intolerable for the child.
Child refusal or resistance to spending time with one of their parents or carers which may be due to a range of justified reasons or could be an indicator of the harm caused when a child has been alienated by one parent against the other for no good reason.
Other forms of harmful parenting due to factors like substance misuse or parental mental health difficulties where these are assessed as harmful to the child.
The structured framework sets out how children may experience parental separation and how this can be understood and assessed at Cafcass. The Framework builds on existing knowledge and guidance and follows a consistent and evidence-informed approach helping practitioners to find an outcome which is in the best interests of the children involved.
The guides and tools are interconnected and interrelated to reflect that children’s lives are complex and may be affected by elements from more than one type of behaviour at the same time.
As a Consultant, I worked alongside Cafcass’ Principal Social Worker and key stakeholders to develop the Child Impact Assessment Framework (CIAF). My role included:
Desk review of the prevalence and impact of high conflict and alienating behaviours in private law proceedings, and domestic abuse, including a gap analysis of the existing system and assessment framework.
Facilitation of consultation workshops with key stakeholders.
Drafting early evolutions of the framework, guidance, and assessment tools.