I am genuinely shocked by the number of similar reviews I am reading. In 2026, I find it deeply concerning that so many people appear to be describing comparable experiences, including my own. From... See more
While we don't verify specific claims because reviewers' opinions are their own, we may label reviews as "Verified" when we can confirm a business interaction took place. Read more
To protect platform integrity, every review on our platform—verified or not—is screened by our 24/7 automated software. This technology is designed to identify and remove content that breaches our guidelines, including reviews that are not based on a genuine experience. We recognise we may not catch everything, and you can flag anything you think we may have missed. Read more
See what reviewers are saying
Fraudulent charity and people should not donate. This charity need reporting as they do not do what they claim also allow guardians to put alias name on legal documents that is not legal so there is n... See more
I'd give no stars if that was possible. Completely untrustworthy, the NYAS officer we had the unfortunate fate of dealing with did not consider the child's best interests or wishes in the slight... See more
This organisation is a sham, they should be ashamed! Stay well clear from volunteering with these people, lest your personal information also become subject to a data breach! Information about this co... See more
Company details
Information provided by various external sources
NYAS is a UK charity providing socio-legal services through teams of advocates and lawyers.
Contact info
Fabricating facts liars
Fabricating facts liars : Ms Sarita Massen. She lied in the court and in all her reports. Record everything she says and voice record every conversation. She will lie, twist and make the case and money out of you. This company should get shut down, do nothing but harm.
AVOID NYAS - IF NOT, THEN RECORD EVERYTHING
I wish that I had read the advice before to record everything. NYAS are knowingly flawed and weak. In my case they have attempted to cover the appalling work of Cathy Pilkington.
There can be no denial and the sooner the MoJ prevent this organisation from bidding for any government contracts the better.
NYAS is simply not fit for purpose. beofre your first meeting tell them in advance you are going to record every conversation and follow this up.
NYAS is simply not fit for purpose, are not accountable to anybody, have a high opinion of themselves and simply lie.
Paul Pennington Wilson writes an inflated CV which if you dig, is highly inflated. He told me he would read all case notes and would become an expert on my children. He did neither and attempted to draw the process out as long as possible to secure income. Eventually the Judge refused to listen to him or his recommendations. This review is from an individual who has full custody of their children so is not a bitter response. Document everything and record every single conversation, you will need to.
Jo M Francis should not be allowed near children
Jo M Francis is an evil perpetrator who preys on vulnerable children.
Please beware and record everything like I did!! This individual lied with fake change of residency reports which almost destroyed my family. She did her best to isolate me from support. Telling me that I should commit suicide!!!
This entity should be struck off and never allowed into the court arena again!! SHE NEEDS PROCESSIONAL HELP with her narcissistic personality disorder.
RECORD & DOCUMENT EVERYTHING. DO NOT TRUST
Will start off by saying that the end result at court was positive and in the best interests of the children, so this is not a bitter recrimination from a parent who disagrees with the court’s decision, it is however an opportunity to highlight a terrifying precedent being set in the family courts - NYAS is a disingenuous and shockingly bad advocacy service with no recourse of accountability and an inflated sense of power in the family courts. The caseworkers include racist social workers (not thrown around lightly- this was upon first meeting) they are biased against victims of domestic violence “He has demons from his past but it’s irrelevant now, you need to get over it and think about how he feels” and are selective with clinical information to reinforce their narrow opinions, such as omitting clinical diagnosis of trauma in children caused by being abused themselves and also witnessing violence upon other family members.
If a child or children have not had access to both parents (which should generally be the case as warring parents ultimately only hurt the children & kids should have access to both parents who love them) but on occasion and especially when there have been previous and lengthy Court Findings which prohibited all types of contact (not an easy judgement and took years & years of proceedings to obtain) to protect the children, then the responsibility falls on the court to ensure the children’s health and well being is supported whilst the applicant proves the previous findings should be overturned. The passage of time between proceedings should in no way negate the first judgement, especially when it took years and mounds of disclosure to achieve.
However, **if you are the Resident Parent and children have had no contact with their other parent, then the assumption will be that you are guilty of parental alienation and you are at fault** no matter the reasons for previous findings, no matter the medical histories and contemporary therapeutic needs of the children, you will be expected to only do exactly what the caseworker wants.
•Your children’s words will be twisted
•Your children’s “wishes & feelings” will be ignored
•Caseworkers will lie
•Camhs reports will be ignored or edited to convey inaccurate findings
•You will have no other recourse that to deal with bias against you.
Advice:
RECORD PHONE CALLS AND TRANSCRIBE THEM
RECORD ALL IN PERSON MEETINGS
USE EMAIL OR SOCIAL MEDIA WHICH CAN EASILY BE TRANSCRIBED (WhatsApp has a feature to export dialogue with time stamps etc) use this
FOLLOW UP EVERY CONVERSATION OR CONTACT SESSION IN WHATEVER FORM (be it text, call, video call or in person) WITH AN IMMEDIATE WRITTEN FEEDBACK SESSION SO THAT YOU GET AN IMMEDIATE RESPONSE FROM THE CASEWORKER they will inaccurately recall events and accuse you of sabotage, or not engaging, have your requests for feedback and subsequent conversations documented ready to disprove delayed accusations that appear in reports months after the fact
DOCUMENT/SHARE KEY DETAILS SURROUNDING CONTACT SESSIONS NO MATTER HOW INNOCUOUS - what time of the day things occurred, what the child’s mood & attitude was like prior, how was their appetite and sleep beforehand.
REMEMBER THAT NYAS’ POSITION IS THAT IT IS YOU WHO ARE ALWAYS AT FAULT AND SABOTAGING ATTEMPTS FOR THE OTHER PARTY, do not believe any positive comments or compliments that come your way but document their occurrence to disprove contradictory statements or accusations later at court.
DO NOT HAVE A NEGATIVE RAPPORT WITH YOUR CASEWORKER, EVEN THOUGH THEY WILL LIE ABOUT YOU, GO ABOVE AND BEYOND IN YOUR EFFORTS TO ENCOURAGE CONTACT WHILST HAVING FAITH THAT TRUTH AND CONSISTENCY WILL PREVAIL-YOU MUST DOCUMENT EVERYTHING.
BE COURTEOUS BUT DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ADDRESS INCONSISTENCIES OR CONTRADICTIONS IN THEIR DEALINGS WITH YOU - Liars keep lying to cover their lies, when confronted with truth however, the lies quickly unravel and they will demonstrate to the judge just how inconsistent and unreliable their testimony is.
*circumstances were unrelated to the emotions or history between ex partners (on one side anyway) if your children are in danger from a pedophile and/or violent abuser who has had a clinically documented destructive effect on the health and well being of children then you must have clear and unambiguous evidence to prove this to the judge, not just accusations.
NYAS WILL NOT GATHER COURT MANDATED DOCUMENTS IF THEY DO NOT SUPPORT THEIR POSITION AND WILL DELAY FOR SO LONG THAT DISCLOSURE IS THEN DISMISSED - DO NOT LET THIS HAPPEN. Chase up with their appalling legal team and always file information yourself, press the judge for disclosure.
SEND DOCUMENTATION TO NYAS LEGAL & JUDGE not the caseworker who will ignore it.
DO NOT BE INTIMIDATED
Interested in money not children
In March 2020 I was told I owed NYAS almost £300. I felt emotionally blackmailed. I paid the money simply to see my children and they still refused. By September I raised complaints with NYAS & Charity Funding Regulator. In the end I raised a chargeback with my bank as a fraud transaction. I have since been advised I was actually £95 in credit! This was a funding dispute with CAFCASS passed on to me.
I have not seen my children for a year since being referred to NYAS by CAFCASS. A toxic organisation.
This "charity" will churn as much money as they can out of the situation. They are not regulated and have a deficient complaints procedure.
Note: Record everything My 3 year old son arrived with a head injury which was not recorded by the organisation despite 2 members of staff seeing the injury.
This charity really does not care
This charity really does not care about children. They have failed my son badly. He has not seen his sister for over a year and they simply could not be bothered to advocate on his behalf. They simply engage in amicable complisity with the local authorty. My son does have rights under Article 8 and they have failed to advise him of them or put them in an argued case to the local authorty. It is simply a disgraceful organisation with no compassion for the children they claim to represent.
Disgusting organisation.
Would give zero stars if was possible! Disgusting people. Don’t know how Isabel O’Donoghue sleeps at night. Ignored child’s wishes and feelings, lied in general, twisted child’s words and left her distraught, put her in harms way, ignored a 27 page report from social services and concerns from within, turned up on wrong days and was abusive, didn’t complete reports or do anything she was going to in the report. Said she wasn’t bias yet ignored any concerns of child, social services and ourselves and sat laughing a joking in court with the other parent. After all this when Child was forced to go other parents she has had to see 100’s of arguments, been in a car with dangerous driving, not washed once before school, made to wear clothes that don’t fit, left in the care of unsuitable carers n so much more also lead to the child having to have counselling. In her own words “no one helped me”. I’m sure this was all in the best interest of an 7 year old child. Well done Isabel!! Nyas are an absolute disgrace. Maybe in future Nyas should make sure their social workers have better training, behave professionally and actually LISTEN to the children’s wishes and feelings that they promote themselves on doing so much.
NYAS not fit for purpose
NYAS, completely disorganised, not fit for purpose and certainly not child friendly. Arrogant admin staff turn what should be a ‘fun time’ for parents and their children into a very stressful event with Draconian rules. Courts feel NYAS is the best means for having supervised contact and are blissfully unaware that the service is slipshod and inadequate. Untrained contact facilitators are unreliable and a law onto themselves and the turnover means too often that your child has a stranger to contend with.
Jo Masterton-Francis - Corrupt
Jo Masterton-Francis is an evil corrupt individual who was paid by my ex husband to Report a Change of Residency for my child.
This monster must not be allowed to continue destroying families.
NYAS WAKE UP TO WHO YOU EMPLOY!!
FAILED TO PREVENT MENTAL ABUSE OF 8YR OLD BOY IN CARE .
Nyas failed to help our 8yr old Son in Council Care. when we asked them to have him referred to Nyas so he could express his true wishes and feelings about his family they contacted the Council but the social worker declined stating "I'm not comfortable with that idea" with no explanation why. we asked NYAS to take the matter further and they agreed. weeks went by and nothing happened. we contacted her boss and he confirmed that they were looking into it. weeks later we contacted him again and he seemed less helpfull then he told us not to contact the NYAS worker direct anymore. they then stopped answering our emails.
it transpired they had been contracted to the council in July 2014. 4 months before our Son went into care yet the council never told us about NYAS while we were repeatedly asking them to get help for our Son.
It would appear NYAS did not push the issue of the blocked referral for fear of losing their council contract. this makes them guilty of allowing our Son to be mentally harmed by the council and not reporting it to the Police.
The Trustpilot Experience
Anyone can write a Trustpilot review. People who write reviews have ownership to edit or delete them at any time, and they’ll be displayed as long as an account is active.
Companies can ask for reviews via automatic invitations. Labeled Verified, they’re about genuine experiences.
Learn more about other kinds of reviews.
We use dedicated people and clever technology to safeguard our platform. Find out how we combat fake reviews.
Learn about Trustpilot’s review process.
Here are 8 tips for writing great reviews.
Verification can help ensure real people are writing the reviews you read on Trustpilot.
Offering incentives for reviews or asking for them selectively can bias the TrustScore, which goes against our guidelines.








