Daughter in Hospital

[Help Needed]

We were accused of hurting our daughter in November 2025 she was poorly with Covid 19 at the time. Since then she has bounced back and forth from hospital 3x times for covid 2x Rhinovirus 1x RSV. Now we are being told that she has a lung infection but they don't know what it is they have given her super antibiotics but it has only gotten worse. They are running many test now cancer has been floated about. I fear they have been blinded so much by alleged abuse that they didn't properly treat her until now. Even though we have been told the next 3 months are critical in her life. We still can't go and see her without the LA being present and that is only twice a week for a hour or two.

I don't know how much I can say about the case at the moment.

What can I do? All I want to do is be by her side in hospital.

[Winter25]

Hi Help Needed,

I am so incredibly sorry you are going through this. Having a very ill child in hospital is every parent’s worst nightmare. Having to fight just to be by her bedside while this is happening is heartbreaking.

This is not an ordinary contact issue anymore. Your daughter is seriously unwell, her condition is getting worse, and you have been told the next few months are critical. That changes the urgency completely.

So your immediate fight right now is bedside access.

If the Local Authority are saying contact has to stay supervised, then the question becomes: why can supervised bedside contact not happen much more often while she is this unwell? They should not be treating this like a standard contact schedule when your child is critically ill.

If you already have a solicitor, contact them urgently today and tell them there has been a major change in your daughter’s medical situation and that you need help challenging the current hospital contact restrictions.

If you do not already have a solicitor, I would urgently look for a family law childcare solicitor and explain that your daughter is seriously ill in hospital, the Local Authority are restricting contact, and you need urgent advice about bedside access. Depending on what stage your case is at, legal aid may be available.

At the same time, stop having vague verbal conversations and make them put their position in writing now.

Send this to the social worker and team manager, and copy the ward consultant, hospital safeguarding team and PALS if you have those details:
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Subject: Urgent request for review of hospital contact arrangements

Dear [Social Worker] and [Team Manager],

I am writing to urgently request a review of the current hospital contact arrangements for our daughter.

We understand there are ongoing safeguarding concerns and we are not asking for those to be ignored. However, our daughter is currently seriously unwell in hospital, her condition appears to be worsening, and we have been told the next three months are critical.

In those circumstances, contact restricted to only [twice weekly for one to two hours] is causing us profound distress and does not feel proportionate to her current medical situation.

Please can you confirm in writing, urgently:

What legal basis is being relied upon for the current hospital contact restrictions.
Who made the decision that contact should be limited to this level.
Why supervised bedside contact cannot be increased on compassionate and welfare grounds while our daughter is so unwell.
When this decision will next be reviewed.
Whether an urgent multi-agency meeting can take place within the next 24–48 hours to review contact in light of her deteriorating health.

If supervision is considered necessary, then we are asking that supervised contact be increased significantly rather than limited to such short and infrequent visits while our daughter is critically unwell.

Kind regards,
[Names]
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I would also send this to the hospital side:
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Subject: Urgent request for hospital-led review of parental bedside access

Dear [Consultant / Safeguarding Team / PALS],

Our daughter is currently very unwell in hospital and we are extremely concerned.

We understand there is Local Authority involvement, but we are asking for an urgent hospital-led review of parental bedside access given the seriousness of her condition. At present, our contact is being limited to [set out current arrangement], which feels wholly inadequate given how unwell she is.

Please can you confirm today who we can speak to regarding this and whether an urgent review meeting can be arranged with the ward team and social care.

Kind regards,
[Names]
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I would also ask this directly in writing:

Is our daughter currently under an Interim Care Order, a Care Order, section 20, or another arrangement?

That matters because it affects who is making decisions and how those contact restrictions are being justified.

On the medical side, I would also be raising this firmly that your daughter has had repeated serious infections, the current treatment is not working, and the doctors are now considering much more serious possibilities. That means the medical picture is clearly more complex than anyone first thought. you are absolutely entitled to say that the current medical crisis may be highly relevant to the wider case and should not be ignored.

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For full transparency, I am not an official adviser. I am a parent with lived experience of the family court system, offering strategic guidance. Always consult with a solicitor regarding ongoing court proceedings.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Help Needed,

Welcome to the parents’ forum and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I am the online adviser at Family Rights Group. I am very sorry to hear how unwell your daughter is and imagine that this must be a deeply distressing time for you. I hope that the following advice and information is helpful for you. You can click on the hyperlinks in my post to take you to more information and advice on our website.

You don’t say whether there are ongoing care proceedings or whether your daughter is in care under a section 20 arrangement (this is also referred to as a ‘voluntary arrangement’). So I will give advice for both situations which I hope is helpful.


If there are ongoing care proceedings (and there is currently an interim care order in place) then I would suggest the following steps.

1) Contact your solicitor urgently to explain that you have recently been told that the next 3 months are critical and that you believe that it is in your daughter’s best interests to have more regular contact with you whilst she is in hospital. You can ask the solicitor to raise this urgently with the local authority and the court and ask for your contact sessions to be increased.

2) If you do not have a solicitor then I would recommend that you instruct one as a matter of urgency. You can find a solicitor by using the search function on The Law Society website HERE. If care proceedings are in place then you are entitled to legal aid to pay the legal costs.

3) I would suggest that you contact your daughter’s independent reviewing officer (IRO), the social worker and the team manager to request that a looked after child review meeting is held as soon as possible to discuss contact arrangements. These meetings should be held regularly, and whenever there is a significant change in circumstance. As you have recently been given significant information about your daughter’s health concerns this would be good grounds to argue that a review meeting should be held. Statutory guidance called "The children Act 1989 guidance and regulations: Volume 2: care planning, placement and case review” states that the IRO must be informed of any “significant health, medical events, diagnoses, illnesses, hospitalisations” and that the IRO must then consider whether a review meeting is necessary. During the meeting contact arrangements should be discussed and you can put forward your views and wish to have contact with your daughter more often.

4) I would also suggest that you contact your daughter’s court guardian to make them aware of your daughter’s health condition and that you would like to have contact more often with her. The guardian can bring this to the attention of the court.

5) Finally, I would suggest that if you have tried all the above and contact has still not been increased, then you could get advice from your solicitor about applying for a section 34 contact order. This is a court order which says who a child in care should see or keep in touch with. Parents can apply for this order if they feel that children’s services are not agreeing a reasonable level of contact.

You may find it helpful to read further information about contact arrangements for children during care proceedings on our website HERE.


If your daughter is accommodated under a section 20 arrangement then I would suggest the following.

1) As advised above I would suggest that you contact your daughter’s independent reviewing officer (IRO), the social worker and the team manager to request that a looked after child review meeting is held as soon as possible to discuss contact arrangements. Statutory guidance called ”The children Act 1989 guidance and regulations: Volume 2: care planning, placement and case review” states that where a child is in a voluntary arrangement, contact is: “a matter for negotiation and agreement between the responsible authority, the child, parents and others seeking contact”. There is a legal duty on children’s services to ‘as far as is reasonably practicable’ agree the arrangements for contact with the parent(s). This is because children’s services do not have parental responsibility when a child is accommodated under a section 20 arrangement. Parent(s), who hold parental responsibility, must agree to the contact arrangements set out in the care plan.

2) If you feel that the IRO, social worker and manager are not following the statutory guidance or meeting their legal duty to agree contact arrangements with you then I would suggest that you submit a formal complaint and escalate this if necessary. You can find advice and information about doing so on our website HERE.

You may find it helpful to read further information about contact arrangements for children accommodated under a section 20 arrangement on our website HERE.


I hope that this is of some help. Please post again if you have any further queries or you can call our free, confidential adviceline on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm). We also have a webchat which is currently open on Monday and Thursday afternoons.

Best wishes,
Suzie