Having a baby as a registered sex offender

[2022BNH]

Hi all,

I hope you are able to provide me some assistance and advice on the below.

Myself and my partner have recently found out that she is pregnant with our child. I am currently on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely for offences that took place in 2010-2012 when I was 15-17yrs old ( I am entitled to a review in 5 years). The offences were against children, although I would balance that out slightly by saying I was a child myself at the time.

My partner has a 4 year old daughter, who was two and a bit when we entered our relationship. I informed my Police Offender Manager straight away who by agreement made a referral to Children's Services. CS completed an Initial Social Work assessment and concluded that I was of no/low risk to the child and that supervised contact could take place. The child's father challenged that decision and instigated Private Law Proceedings against my partner seeking a PSO. The Court ordered a s.7 report to investigate the issue which following significant delay returned the same outcome as the initial social work assessment. The father then agreed to an Undertaking of supervised contact to deal with his application, the LA and father both proposed an Undertaking for 13 years to restrict the contact up until the child was 16, my partner suggested a 3 year Undertaking was sufficient. The court considered the issue carefully and decided that a 5 year undertaking was just and proportionate. Contact then proceeded for a 6 month approx period without any issue, until the child slipped in the shower whilst in my partners care and fell onto a toy causing an abrasion to her outer genitals. Myself and my partner took the child to the local A&E and she received medical care, the father was informed of the injury and referred the matter back to the LA and the Police. The Police quickly determined that an offence had not been committed and indeed have never spoken to me about the issue, the LA on the other hand became re-involved - instigated a s.47 enquiry, followed by an ICPC (which concluded with the child being placed on a CIN plan). I have been involved in the CIN process and attend all the review meetings. The LA are completing a final assessment currently and until then I have agreed to abide by a safety plan of no contact until the start of March.

Clearly not an ideal situation to be in however myself and my partner have considered the issue carefully and balanced up all of the pro's and con's involved and decided to keep this baby. We plan to inform the current allocated social worker next week. The issue of contact with my partners child should be resolved in the next few weeks and we can return back to the supervised contact as before.

When we inform the Social Worker, how are they likely to respond? My initial thoughts were that the child would be joined to the CIN plan along with my partners child in two weeks once she's 12 weeks pregnant, however I'm unsure if they'd go straight to a CPP?. My offences are now over 10 years old, were not against family members etc. My former probation officer (completed license In Dec 21), police offender manager are all supportive of me, both have completed numerous assessments including my OASYS which scores me as Low risk towards children (and all other areas), my ARMS assessment is Low. My SHPO expired in Sept 21. I appreciate and fully respect that the LA will want to complete assessments, however all we want Is a normal life (or as much as possible), I do not see the need for supervised contact with my own child in the circumstances.

Has anyone else in similar circumstances to me ever succeeded in persuading CS to allow unsupervised contact with their own baby?

Thanks for all your help!

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear 2022BNH,

Welcome to the parents’ board and thank you for your post.

You say in your post that your partner is pregnant. You are on the SOR indefinitely for an offence committed between 2010 – 2012, when you were aged 15-17. This was for an offence against children. Your partner has a 4 year old child and children’s services have previously completed an assessment, concluding that you are of low risk and that contact should be supervised. The child’s father made an application for a PSO, which eventually resulted in an undertaking of 5 years supervised contact. Contact commenced for a period of 6 months until there was an incident which resulted in your child’s partner sustaining an injury to her outer genitals; the child’s father referred the matter to the police and children’s services, which led to a S 47 investigation and ultimately the child being placed on a CIN plan. The LA are currently completing a final assessment and you have agreed to a safety plan of no contact until March.

You and your partner intend to inform the allocated social worker next week that she is pregnant. You say you are hoping for supervised contact to be reinstated with your partner’s child in the next few weeks. You say that you have undergone a number of assessments by your probation officer and police offender manager, and these score you as low risk. You say you would like to have unsupervised contact with your baby and want to know if this will happen and what the social worker is likely to do.

Firstly, I am presuming from your post that you live with your partner – is this the case? You have agreed to having no contact with your partner’s child; do you know why children’s services have recommended you have no contact? You also say that a final assessment is being completed by the social worker and that you hope for supervised contact to be re-instated. What kind of assessment is this?

It is important that you and your partner inform the social worker of her pregnancy as soon as possible. Given the nature of your previous offence and the recent incident with your partner’s child, children’s services will almost definitely open a pre-birth assessment on the unborn child. This will be similar to a normal children and families assessment, and will involve the social worker speaking to you, your partner and other professionals involved to assess whether the family will need extra support. There are a number of outcomes that can come from a pre-birth assessment; a referral to early help; recommending a CIN plan; or if there are concerns that the child is at risk of significant harm, an initial child protection conference may be held, and the unborn child placed on a child protection plan. In some cases where children’s services are extremely worried, they may initiate pre-proceedings, which is the step before applying to court, or they may apply to family court once the child is born if they think the child will not be safe in the care of either parent.

It may be helpful for you to take a look at our page for parents-to-be, for more information on pre-birth assessments and the various outcomes.

It regards to contact, the social worker may make a recommendation about how contact should happen between you and your child – for example, that contact should be supervised by a family member. Please note that children’s services, unless they have a court order that gives them shared parental responsibility for the child, cannot legally dictate who the child does and does not see. Nevertheless, if you and your partner do not take their recommendation into account, they may be concerned that you are not prioritising your child’s safety. This may lead them to make an application to the court for an emergency protection order or an interim care order.

I would advise that you discuss with the social worker how you will be assessed during the pre-birth assessment. It is important that you understand any concerns they may have; any support you can engage with and that any recommendations are based on a comprehensive assessment of any risk you may pose. It might be helpful for you to contact the Lucy Faithful foundation on 0808 1000 900, who support those have committed sex offences, and their family members.

I hope you have found this helpful.

Best wishes,

Suzie.