Specialist risk assessment help

[Scaredand confused]

Very long story short, my fiancé is on SOR for possession of IIOC. He has two children from his previous marriage. His ex wife is who reported finding images.
We have gone back and forth to court for him to have contact. For the first few months the mother agreed to supervision by family and herself. She then refused this and contact centre in place. Approx 18months ago I took over supervision and contact has continued to increase massively. We are now at the point where the only really disagreement is overnights which children’s mum won’t agree to. Cafcass suggested a specialist risk assessment to include me as protective factor as well as whether he need’s supervision.
My issue is they want us to pay for it. I’ve made enquiries and know that Lucy faithful charge well over £5000 but they also advised not to self fund as could be refused as not able to include everything if self funded.
Please could someone talk to me about the specialist risk assessments and who does them/who pays?
He has made so much effort in taking things as carefully as possible for the children. He has had different assessments done and all low risk.
I really need some advice on what is right as cafcass say one thing Lucy faithful the opposite

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Scaredand confused

Thank you for your further post.

I see from your post that your fiancé is on the Sex Offenders Register (SOR) for possession of indecent images of children (IIOC). There has been ongoing court proceedings regarding contact with his two children from his previous marriage.

He is now at the point where he is having contact with his children, supervised by you and the hope now is that overnight contact can take place. The children’s mother is opposed to overnight contact and the Cafcass Officer has suggested that a specialist risk assessment should be done. You are concerned about having to meet the cost of this assessment.

It is not clear from your post whether there is an ongoing court case now. If there is, as the Cafcass Officer has suggested the specialist risk assessment, perhaps the court could direct that this is done through Cafcass and they make the referral or payment could be from court funds. Alternatively, your fiancé may wish to ask children’s services who may have been previously involved but now closed their case if no contact or only supervised contact in place and likely to have concerns anyway if proposal is to move to overnight. In which case they might be able to carry out on engage a service to carry out the specialist risk assessment.

You mention Lucy Faithfull in your post and I am including a link to their website which shows that individuals can engage their service. There is a further link HERE to another service offering sex offender risk assessment.

This is a private law case and outside the remit of our service as we advise where children’s services are involved with a family.

I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie