can anyone give advice please?

[Corydalis]

My son is estranged from us (his choice) and has cut off contact with our grandaughter (despite a court order) who lives with him and his wife. He does not allow any face to face contact with the child's birth mother despite court orders to do so. Anyway to try and shorten this my grandaughter's birthmother has been told her daughter has trouble concentrating at school, the mother has ADHD and a family history of this. There is autism in our family so we are concerned my grandaughter should be assessed to eliminate these problems. My son refuses to allow this. Is there anything the birthmother or we can do to ensure my granddaughter is safe and receiving the education she needs?
Thank you for any replies.

[Robin D]

So sorry to hear of your difficulties. Unfortunately, it's all too often an occurrence for one parent to cut the children off from the rest of their family.

I will assume in my reply that Children's Services are no longer involved making this is a private law matter. I will attempt to answer as far as I can based on my own experiences. Please read on to the bottom if Children's Services are involved.

Dealing with your own situation, I regret that I believe your options are very limited. If there is an order ordering contact, you could of course take the matter back to court, but the courts are reluctant to force the hand of a determined parent where contact with grandparents is concerned. That's not to say they will not, just that in my view, it may be expensive and still not achieve the desired outcome.

The birth mother is in a much stronger position (assuming all things are as stated) in that I assume she retains PR? She can certainly take the matter back to court and possibly ask for a 'recovery order' to collect the child and transition the care of the child to herself on the grounds that your son has unreasonably prevented contact, and assessment for the child's needs and that such contact and assessment are in the child's best interests. However, I would suggest she would need proper legal advice before embarking on that course. If she were to make such an application to the court, I would expect the court to ask Children's Services or Court Welfare to look at the situation before it came to a decision.

https://childlawadvice.org.uk/ are possibly better placed to offer advice, whereas as Family Rights Group are the best placed to answer things when Children's Services are involved. Perhaps you could make it clear if they are involved, as it will help Suzie, the advisor here, to know how best to help you.

Best wishes ..... Robin

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

My son is estranged from us (his choice) and has cut off contact with our grandaughter (despite a court order) who lives with him and his wife. He does not allow any face to face contact with the child's birth mother despite court orders to do so. Anyway to try and shorten this my grandaughter's birthmother has been told her daughter has trouble concentrating at school, the mother has ADHD and a family history of this. There is autism in our family so we are concerned my grandaughter should be assessed to eliminate these problems. My son refuses to allow this. Is there anything the birthmother or we can do to ensure my granddaughter is safe and receiving the education she needs?
Thank you for any replies.

Dear Corydalis

Thank you for your further post. I am sorry about the difficulties you are experiencing regarding contact with your granddaughter.

As you state that there is an order for you to have contact with your granddaughter, you can apply to the court to enforce the order. Another poster has suggested in their response that it is unlikely the court will force hand of a determined the parent. The court also does not like when some-one ignores orders of the court. Should you decide to apply to court it will give your son an opportunity to explain his rea-sons for withholding contact from you.

In the birth mother’s case, you state there is also an order for contact, and she too can apply to enforce that order. The court considers it important for a child to have a relationship with both parents unless this is not in the child’s best interests.

Your granddaughter’s mother believes she may need to be assessed for ADHD/Autism, does the court support this view? If the school considers that your granddaughter needs additional support which father refuses to accept, they can make referral to children’s service. Mother could also bring her concerns to the attention of children’s services who can dis-cuss with father and may consider his actions neglect in respect of his daughter’s needs.

There is information HERE about child in need assessment which children’s services can consider when they receive a referral and have concerns about the child.

Mother may also wish to consider applying to the court for a specific issue order for father make their daughter available to be assessed. She is likely to have a strong argument if she herself is diagnosed with ADHD and there is family history of autism.

It is neurodivergent celebration week, and you may wish to look this up for more information.

The poster’s response regarding the remit or our advice is correct as we advise where children’s services is directly involved with children in a family.

Should you decide to apply to the court to enforce the child arrangement order for contact, you would need to complete form C79. You can contact child law advice on 0300 330 5480.

I hope you find this helpful.

Best wishes

Suzie