Contact research

[David Roth]

Family Rights Group has been conducting a research study into the way family contact works for children living with family and friends carers. Some of you have been kind enough to agree to be interviewed as part of this study, which will be presented at a conference on 17th February.

Family Rights Group is always interested in presenting the views of those having to deal with these issues directly to the practitioners who make the decisions, and in drawing up the report for this conference I would be interested to hear the thoughts of the family and friends carers using this forum about contact. There are three particular issues that I would be grateful for your comments on:

1. Where contact worked well, what helped it to do so?

2. Where contact wasn't working, why was this?

3. What do you think could have made a difference to the way contact has worked for you and the child/ren?

We are also very interested in presenting the point of view of children and young people at this conference. Do any of you know a young person (age 16 or over) who might be interested in talking for 15 minutes or so about their experience of contact? If so, please get in touch with my by emailing [email protected] or phoning me on 020 7923 2628 during office hours.

Thank you as always for your help.

David R
FRG Policy Adviser

[youngagain]

The issues around contact are nearly always that parents and thier families want more when it suits them.The courts uon the advise of Caffcass give parents contact and the parents ae free to legally challenge how much and where the have contact. If there is a perceived risk at contact, although we have P.R. in effect the parents can make a mockery of our concerns.
Where there is a risk at contact people with PR will only feel confident to oversee the contact if they have the legal right to say how ofeten and under what circumstance contact should take place.Every cas eis different but if you remove the PR from ople who have been given it in law and put the rights of the parents before he child then it simply does not work in a lot of cases.PR should mean PR and I for one have stopped contact as it is both my duty and legal right when deemed appropriate by me. Importantly most parents in the circumstances where they do not have PR use the law to enforce contact even if that contact is detrimental to the childrens well being.Identity is very important but how do you measure the different issues

[maricharle]

I have no direct experience with contact so far however I am concerned about a couple of matters.

1) In the Convention on the rights of the child Article 9.3 says, States Parties shall respect the right of the child who is separated from one or both parents to maintain personal relations and direct contact with both parents on a regular basis, except if it is contrary to the child's best interests. It seems to me that in some cases the latter part of article 3 above is brushed aside on the advice of professionals who are not always best placed to make the necessary judgements on behaslf of the child. As Special Guardians seem to be the ones picking up the pieces and dealing with the consequences and fears of the children in their care re contact issues giving them more of a say on what is in the best interests of the child would be a step forward. In straightforward cases or where there are minor issues that can be dealt with sensitively and supportively I totally support the need for contact.

2) Local Authorities are all to well aware of the problems with special guardians be taken to court over contact arrangements for various reasons here I believe there should be more support offered. In particular I believe that where local authorities are not paying an allowance or where they are only paying an allowance for additional needs they should be liable for covering legal expenses for those being taken to court over issues such as contact. Why should special guardians have to meet the costs incurred in this area when they receive very little or no financial support for the children in their care.

If local authorities were paying for legal fees I doubt we would have so many cases being brought forward as those bringing them would have to be put under further scrutiny.

[special4ngel]

For 4 years there was no contact between my GD and her mother. (my daughter)then out of the blue she made contact.After several visits my GD did not come home and as I had RO the police 'found' my GD and returned her home to me. My daughter then over the next week attempted 3 times to remove my GD from me. My daughter went to my police station and told them she was going to take my GD and they were so concerned that they sought an emergency RO with police powers so that it could go back to court.
When in court, my daughter was warned by the judge about her attitude and language to the courts yet they still said that we should both come to a reasonable agreement over contact but suggested once a month.
We left the court and contact was arranged but never took place because my daughter never bothered.
The courts had all the details but turned a blind eye.
Now we have 'letterbox' contact and it is working well, my GD doesn't write and neither does her mother! they occasionally talk on the phone
My GD is 13 and knows how parents should behave and knows her mother can't be like that. We have ignored the judge's order and have left my GD to decide what contact she wants and needs and it is working really well. I now have a very happy, well adjusted confident young lady not the devil child I had while trying to enforce contact that she clearly didn't want no matter what the judge thought in his wisdom.

caz

[LLB]

Contact is a very tricky issue to determine what is in the best interest of the child.

We had a terrible time with contact. The eldest did not want to see his father over ten years ago and was in such a state before a contact visit self harming as well. Social Services insisted it should carry on and we kept our peace. We talked to our eldest grandchild and explained to him despite everything that happened that his father was still his father.

Now at seventeen he has a good relationship with his parents whilst at the same appreciating their faults.

It is us grandparents who have really been put through hell with contact. Supervising contact was emotionally draining and horrible but we kept it up making the day special with tea and everything.

So our experience is that children can come through this and it can benefit them in the end despite what we Carers have and still go through.

[David Roth]

Thank yo uvery much for your comments, this is very helpful

David R
FRG Policy Adviser

[David Roth]

We are still looking for a young person, age 16 or over, who might be willing to talk for about 15 minutes or so about their experiences of contact.

If you know any younge people raised in family and friends care who might be willing to talk at the conference, please get in touch with me at FRG.

Thank you.

David R
FRG Policy Adviser