Situations can arise where you need to stop your child having contact with their other parent. You may find yourself on the other side of this situation where your child’s other parent has stopped contact and you do not know what your options are in this situation.
Parental responsibility can afford legal rights and responsibilities to both parents. Parents have a duty to safeguard the children from harm and occasionally, the source of the harm may be the other parent. In this situation, the only option may be to withhold contact.
Sadly, there may be situations arising out of a difficult separation of the parents which lead to one parent unjustifiably stopping contact between the child and other parent.
Do Mothers and Fathers have equal rights to the child ?
There is no specific right to contact with the child and other parent. Contact however should not be stopped unless it is adversely affecting the child’s welfare.
Provided a father has Parental Responsibility for the child, then his rights are equal to those of the child’s mother’s rights. A Father with parental responsibility has equal rights as the mother to the child and the Court do not favour a mother’s parental rights over the father’s.
The primary consideration for the Court when assessing issues of child contact is what is in the best interests of the child. Unless it can be demonstrated that there are significant safeguarding concerns by contact taking place, the Court holds the view that the child should have a relationship with both parents where possible.
When can i stop contact between my child and their other Parent?
Contact can usually be seen as justifiably stopped in situations where the following has occurred:
- Domestic abuse between the parents or others which has occurred in the presence of the child
- Abuse of alcohol or drugs
- Inappropriate behaviour adversely affect the child
- Criminal activity of the other parent
It should not be stopped for reasons such as issues with payment of child support, irregular contact between the parent and child or for other minor reasons such as issues with contact times.
What is the legal process for stopping contact ?
In the event you have safeguarding concerns in relation to your child’s other parent and consider that contact should not take place, you can ask the court to make an order prohibiting contact. In some instances, it may be appropriate for you to withhold contact before making an emergency application to the Court.
A C100 application must be made to the Court who will consider your concerns and instruct the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) to carry out some initial investigations. They will likely speak to you and your child’s other parent in order to identify the issues. The Police and Local Authority will be contacted by CAFCASS in relation to any pre-existing records or safeguarding concerns they may be aware of. The CAFCASS officer will note all initial findings within a letter to the Court.
The Court will consider this letter and points made by CAFCASS before determining what the outcome should be in relation to contact.
If it is found that direct contact with their other parent would not be in your child’s best interests, then the Court can consider whether alternative forms of indirect contact such as letters, emails, postal gifts etc are more appropriate. In situations where no contact between the child and parent should be ordered, then a No Contact Order can be made by the Court.
What if my child`s parent has stopped my contact without a court order prohibiting contact in place ?
If your child’s parent has stopped contact then there may be some genuine concern that has caused this to happen. It is important primarily, to understand what their reasoning for doing so is. Often a formal letter can work to assist with this.
From this point, provided their concerns are not unreasonable, steps can be taken to work with them to mitigate their concerns and contact to be re-introduced.
You can both attend mediation sessions, provided you both agree, in order to resolve the issue and we can assist you in finding an appropriate mediator to help resolve matters.
If your child’s parent has stopped your contact with the child then you can make an application to the Court for contact to be re-instated.
If you already have child arrangements order in place that they have breached by stopping contact, then an enforcement application can be made to the Court.
Once the Court have received the application for you to have contact with the child, then a CAFCASS officer will be appointed by the Court to discuss your concerns and they will also investigate with the other parent to identify any issues they may have. Provided the Court are satisfied that there was no good reason for contact to be ceased, then contact arrangements can be ordered for you to have regulated contact with your child. If this is breached, an enforcement application can be made.
If an enforcement order is applied for, then the aim of this is to ensure that the parent complies with the Court Order made. The Court has various powers available in order to enforce child arrangements, including a range of penalties in the event the Order is breached again:
- Enforcement order
- Variation of the existing child arrangements order
- Referral to parenting programmes
- Orders for compensation of any financial loss suffered
- Imprisonment
- Fines