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Success story
A father of two read “high risk” in a Cafcass letter and thought his case was over. His son, 11, and daughter, 8, had spent every other weekend with him until a row on their mother’s doorstep. We explained what a DASH risk assessment could and could not decide, then helped him answer each allegation for a fact-finding hearing. We share it with his permission, details changed.
A row on the doorstep, then a police form
At a Sunday handover he shouted about cancelled holiday dates, and the children’s mother started filming him. He took the phone from her hand. Moments later it lay on the path, its screen shattered. After he left, she called the police.
That night an officer went through a DASH form with her and graded the risk as high. The grading meant a referral to a MARAC, a meeting of local agencies on high-risk cases. No charge followed, but the weekends stopped.
He filed form C100 to ask for a child arrangements order. Responding on a C1A form, the mother set out six allegations, and the Cafcass safeguarding letter repeated the grading from its police checks.
At the first appointment, the judge set a fact-finding hearing for the disputed allegations: the mother would list them in a schedule, and he would answer each one. Until then he would see the children at a contact centre, supervised.
“It says high risk,” he told us. “What judge reads that and gives me my kids back?”
What a DASH risk assessment records
DASH stands for domestic abuse, stalking, harassment and honour-based violence. On the SafeLives checklist, the person reporting abuse answers each question yes, no or don’t know, and the professional adds a judgement. SafeLives says the results are not a definitive assessment of risk. The College of Policing now prefers a newer form, the DARA, for officers attending first, though forces in a 2025 Home Office study used either or both.
So a DASH risk checklist is a safety tool for agencies deciding how worried to be, and nothing on it is a judge’s finding. In court she had to prove what she alleged, to the civil standard: more likely than not.
How we helped him answer the schedule
First, we advised him to wait for the disclosure the judge had directed. The police evidence brought the DASH form, the call log and photographs of the phone.
Then we read the form with him, answer by answer. It recorded no injury. She had answered yes to being very frightened, and yes to him constantly texting and following her. His phone held 41 messages to her that month, mostly about pick-ups, and we advised him to attach them all to his reply.
Next came his reply to the Scott schedule. We advised him to admit what was true, deny what was not, and give dates and documents for each allegation.
He accepted shouting on the doorstep and at an earlier handover outside school, and taking the phone, though he said it slipped. He denied pushing her against the door, following her car or texting her constantly.
We also advised him not to argue with the grading on the DASH form. It was the police view of risk on one night, and her fear was hers to describe. Calling her a liar would also have made his reply harder to trust.
Two incidents proved, and contact rebuilt in stages
The judge found the shouting outside school and the doorstep row proved, including throwing the phone down. Photographs showed pieces well away from the step, which fitted her account better than his. The push, following and texting were not proved; the judge did not find she had lied.
The judge read the DASH risk checklist as one record of her account that night, beside the photographs, messages and both parents’ evidence. A schedule to the order set out the findings, and the Cafcass officer writing the welfare report received a copy.
Practice Direction 12J says the court should order contact only if satisfied that the physical and emotional safety of the children and their mother can, as far as possible, be secured before, during and after contact, and that their mother will not be subjected to further domestic abuse by him.
Contact moved from supervised to supported sessions at the centre. After a review hearing, the weekends returned, with handovers at school so the parents never meet. It took most of a year, and the findings stay on the court record; another family’s evidence could point elsewhere.
If you are the parent named on a DASH form
This week, find the dates in your last order for your schedule reply and statement. Ask whether the court has directed police disclosure, and whether it covers the DASH form.
Keep every original message and call log, and edit or delete nothing. Stick to the interim order exactly. Do not raise the allegations with the other parent or the children, and put nothing about the case on social media. If the order stops working, take advice before going back to court.
“Two checklist questions cover separation in the past year and conflict over child contact, when risk can rise, so a high grading can reflect circumstances as well as conduct. It should be reviewed after any new incident: keep every exchange brief and calm. If abuse is found, the judge considers whether you appreciate its effect and the risk of it recurring. Be ready to speak to both yourself.”
Hannah Overton, Complex Children Specialist & Client Support, Kabir Family Law
Named on a police risk form before a hearing?
If a DASH risk assessment hangs over your case about the children, book a free first consultation and we will go through the schedule with you in confidence. See our approach to publishing client stories.
The legal issue
By informal agreement, an 11-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister made their home with their mother and spent alternate weekends at their father's.
During a Sunday handover he shouted at her about holiday dates and took her phone from her hand while she was filming him; it ended up on the path with a shattered screen. She called the police. An officer completed a DASH risk assessment with her, graded the risk as high, and the case was referred to a MARAC. There was no charge, yet the weekends stopped.
Soon afterwards he made a court application to see the children again. In her C1A form the mother made six allegations, and the court set the case down for a fact-finding hearing, with contact at a contact centre, supervised, until then. He feared the high-risk grading meant the case was already decided.
The law this rests on
- SafeLives Dash risk checklist (guidance, not law): the questions are asked of the person reporting abuse ("It is assumed that your main source of information is the victim"), with yes, no or don't know answers; the results "are not a definitive assessment of risk"; the checklist helps decide which cases should be referred to a Marac. SafeLives notes that it is consistent with the DASH 2009 risk checklist endorsed by ACPO for the police service.
- College of Policing, DARA information for stakeholders (2022): the Domestic Abuse Risk Assessment (DARA) is the preferred risk tool for police first responders; specialist police officers and staff carrying out secondary risk assessment are expected to continue using the DASH.
- Home Office research (GOV.UK, November 2025), frontline police responses to domestic abuse incidents involving children: each of the five police force areas studied used either or both of the nationally standardised risk assessments, the DARA and the DASH.
- Domestic Abuse Act 2021 s.1(3): behaviour is abusive if it consists of physical or sexual abuse, violent or threatening behaviour, controlling or coercive behaviour, economic abuse, or psychological, emotional or other abuse, and it does not matter whether it is a single incident or a course of conduct.
- FPR Practice Direction 12J para 2A: domestic abuse has the same meaning as in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
- HMCTS leaflet CB6 (GOV.UK): the person who makes an allegation has to prove it, showing the court that it is more likely than not that it happened (the balance of probabilities).
- PD12J paras 16 and 17: the court decides as soon as possible whether a fact-finding hearing is necessary, considering among other things whether admissions by a party provide a sufficient factual basis on which to proceed.
- PD12J para 19(c): the court considers whether the key facts in dispute can be contained in a schedule or table that sets out what the applicant alleges, focuses on the issues to be tried and sets out what the respondent says in reply.
- PD12J para 19(f): the court considers whether documents are required from third parties such as the police, health services or domestic abuse support services, and gives directions for them to be obtained; for police disclosure, reference should be made to the current version of the Protocol on disclosure of information between family and criminal agencies and jurisdictions (words inserted by Practice Direction Update No. 3 of 2026).
- PD12J para 27(a)(i): when considering interim contact, the court considers whether contact should be supervised or supported, and if so, where and by whom.
- PD12J para 29: the court should, wherever practicable, make findings of fact as to the nature and degree of any domestic abuse established and its effect on the child, the child's parents and any other relevant person; it must record its findings in writing in a Schedule to the order, and a copy goes to any officer preparing a section 7 report.
- PD12J para 36(3): the court should make an order for contact only if it is satisfied that the physical and emotional safety of the child and the parent with whom the child is living can, as far as possible, be secured before, during and after contact, and that the parent with whom the child is living will not be subjected to further domestic abuse by the other parent.
- PD12J para 37(e): where a finding of domestic abuse is made, the court should consider the capacity of the parents to appreciate the effect of past domestic abuse and the potential for future domestic abuse.
- PD12J para 38(d): the court should consider whether it is necessary, in the child's best interests, to review the operation of a contact order, and if so set a date for the review.
- FPR Practice Direction 12B para 13.3: for all child arrangements order applications, Cafcass carries out safeguarding enquiries, including seeking information from local authorities and police checks on the parties; para 13.5: Cafcass records and outlines any safety issues for the court in a safeguarding letter; para 14.13(a): the court tells the parties what the letter says where Cafcass has not already sent it to them, unless that would create a risk of harm to a party or the child.
- Children Act 1989 s.1(1): the child's welfare is the court's paramount consideration.
- Forms (GOV.UK): C100 to apply for a child arrangements order; C1A to tell the court about harm, or to respond to allegations made by the other person.
How we approached it
We explained that the DASH checklist records the answers of the person reporting abuse and a professional's judgement of risk, and that only a judge, weighing all the evidence, could decide what had happened.
Our advice was to hold off until the police disclosure the court had directed arrived; then we went through the DASH form with him answer by answer, setting it beside his phone records.
We helped him prepare his reply to the schedule of allegations. He admitted shouting on two occasions and taking the phone, said it slipped and denied throwing it, and denied the push, the following and the constant texting, attaching his phone records. We advised him not to challenge the risk grading or attack the mother, and to keep to the interim contact order exactly.
The outcome
Of the six allegations, the judge found three proved, covering two incidents: a heated exchange at the school gate, and the doorstep argument, where the judge concluded he had thrown the phone to the ground. The claims of pushing, following and constant texting failed on the evidence, and there was no finding that the mother had lied about them. The judge weighed the DASH form as the mother's account at the time, together with the photographs, the phone records and what each parent said in the witness box.
A schedule to the order recorded the findings. The Cafcass officer received a copy before writing a welfare report that recommended building contact up in stages. Sessions at the contact centre went from supervised to supported, and a review hearing then restored alternate weekends; handovers now happen at school, so the parents never cross paths. The whole process lasted most of a year, and the findings remain part of the court's record. Another family's facts could produce a different outcome.
What to take from this
- A DASH risk assessment records what the person reporting said and a professional's view of risk. It is not a finding by a judge.
- Each allegation must be proved by the parent who raises it, and the family court's test is whether it more probably happened than not.
- Ask what police material the court has directed, and read the DASH form answer by answer when it arrives.
- Answer each allegation in the schedule separately. Accept what happened, say plainly what did not, and support both with dates and documents.
- Preserve your phone, messages and call logs as they are; change or remove nothing.
- Follow the interim contact order to the letter, leave the children out of the dispute, and say nothing about the case online.
Checked and approved for publication by Iblal Iqbal.
Last reviewed .
