Contact

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Wilbur
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun May 19, 2019 11:05 am

Contact

Post by Wilbur » Tue Jun 18, 2019 7:34 pm

Help needed please, 7 yr old grandson is subject to a SGO and with relatives due to his mother’s neglect. My son has mild learning difficulties and was assessed as unsuitable to have him. Before the SGO was given I supervised contact fortnightly with my son and grandson without issue. Just before court the relatives looking after my gs said they only wanted us to have contact 6 times a year as they have to supervise contact with the mom and it was taking up too much of their time. They said if this wasn’t agreed they would put my gs back into care. The guardian was also unhappy with level of contact and we agreed on 7 times a year reluctantly. Court order says 2 -4 hours which relatives immediately cut to 2hrs. We have gone along with this hoping for an increase in due course but now the social worker is going to finish her involvement. we asked for a 4 hr contact to take gs bowling which has been refused and relative said he would reduce it to 1 hr. what can we do? Is there anything or anybody to help is. It feels like he is being taken away from us completely do we have any rights?

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Suzie, FRG Adviser
Posts: 950
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 12:25 pm

Re: Contact

Post by Suzie, FRG Adviser » Fri Aug 02, 2019 4:50 pm

Dear Wilbur

Welcome to the Family and Friends discussion forum.

My name is Suzie, online adviser at Family Rights Group. Thank you for your post. I am sorry you it has taken some time for you to receive a response.

I am sorry to see that your son is not able to have contact with his son now that a special guardianship order has been to your relative who is looking after our grandson.

It is not clear from your post whether court made an order for your grandson’s contact with his father. If there was a child arrangement order for contact made, then the special guardian cannot simply reduce contact. He or she would have to make an application to the court to change this. However, as may be the case, the court only stated that contact can be agreed between the parties, this does not seem to be working well now.

If there is a court order and the special guardian has breached the order by reducing contact, your son can apply to the court to enforce the order. If there is no order, then he can apply to the court for an order so that his contact is defined by the court.

Please read our advice sheet Special Guardianship: what does it mean for birth parents?.
It is unfortunate that things are not working out with your relative now the order is in place. Your son could ask children’s services to mediate in the situation to see if it can be resolved without going to court.

Should your son decide that he would like to apply to the court for his contact to be sorted out then, it may be helpful to contact Child Law Advice on 0300 330 5480. They offer advice where the person seeking advice does not have a solicitor.

We do have an advice sheet DIY Child Arrangements Orders: information for family and friends carers which explains how to apply for a child arrangement order. The advice sheet is written for a situation where children's services have made an application to the court but the procedure for applying is the same in all cases so I hope you will find it helpful.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Suzie

Wilbur
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun May 19, 2019 11:05 am

Re: Contact

Post by Wilbur » Wed Aug 07, 2019 11:54 am

Thank you for your reply. There is a court order in place of between 2-4 hours 7 times a year with extra time to be agreed on birthdays. Contact was reduced immediately from 4 hrs to 2 hrs by the foster parents and extended contact was refused for birthdays. Their argument is that if my son has extra contact the mother will want it to and they have to supervise that contact. Whilst there is no doubt my grandson is better off in the sense he is going to school in clean clothes, doing homework, and not having to worry about his moms boyfriend, my son is the innocent one in this and is gradually loosing his son. Social services have said they do not want us to go back to court as the foster carers threaten to put him in care if they do not get their way. I don’t want to cause trouble and now the foster parents are wanting to take my gs out of school for 2 weeks and social worker is going to write to endorse this?

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