Emergency custody order

[Dad1982]

Morning all,

Looking for advice on applying for emergency custody of my children. The children are under a child protection plan due to my youngest being sexually abused at her mums house by her partners son. The plan states she must have absolutely no contact with the offender until such time that social services consider some form of reintegration. From the very outset their has been major concerns about the ex wife as she is more concerned about her relationship and getting her partners son back in the house than she is her own daughter. To the point she tried to prevent her counselling taking place.
Last week they breached the plan by allowing my daughter to FaceTime the offender completely unsupervised. They actually emailed the social worker to inform her they were going to allow contact knowing full well she couldn’t reply as she was on leave so in their mind they wasn’t told no so it’s ok. The plan clearly states no contact at all. She had threatened me the week before that she would allow contact. It’s only going to get worse and I no longer have any faith in her ability to ensure my child’s safety so I want to apply for custody.
How do I go about it and how quickly can I get one? Social are aware of the breach but I get the impression that despite a strict plan being in place they won’t have much of a reaction which will give the ex free reign to do what she likes.
Should social be helping me apply or putting it through themselves? All I keep being told is use my parental rights by social but that don’t help if the ex turns up at school and takes my daughter! Then my child is caught in a tit for tat battle as to who will take her.
Any help or advice appreciated as I have no idea about any of this area and never imagined I would need to.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Dad1982

Welcome to the parents’ discussion board and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I am Family Rights Group’s online adviser. I am sorry to hear of the difficulties you are experiencing and your current concerns for your children.

The children are already on child protection plans which you explain is because your youngest daughter was sexually abused by her mother’s partner’s son. As a result the child protection plan for your daughter states that her mother should not allow any contact with her partner’s son. However, she did allow unsupervised FaceTime which Children’s Services’ are aware of but have not acted on.

You already have parental responsibility for your children as you were married to their mother. This is what Children’s Services mean when they refer to your ‘parental rights.’

You indicate that you want a court order for your children to live with you. You would do this by applying for a ‘lives with’ Child Arrangements Order(CAO).

In most situations, you must offer mediation to the other parent before applying for a CAO. The only exception is if it is an ‘emergency’ and urgent action is required to safeguard children due to child protection concerns.

You ask if Children’s Services should be helping you to apply or putting it through themselves. This depends on whether they agree that the children are no longer safe living at home with their mother and if they recommend that it is in the children’s best interests for you to apply for a CAO. In this situation they could assist you to apply although they cannot apply for a CAO; if they wanted to acquire parental responsibility they would need to apply for a care order. As there is a child protection plan in place the Family Court would ask them to write a report setting out their views or where/with who the children should live.

I think you should contact Children’s Services directly to query what their view is about the breach of the child protection plan, to clarify if they are intending taking any action or escalating your children’s case i.e. to a Public Law Outline process. You should also find out if they would support the children coming to live with you and if they consider this to be urgent or if they would have any concerns about the children living with you. I suggest that you do this in writing as well as verbally. If you are unhappy with their response you could consider making a complaint if need be.

You can get legal advice about applying for a CAO from a specialist children law or children law accredited solicitors; you can find a solicitor via the Law Society website. You can also get legal advice from Child Law Advice. You may also find these fathers’ services’ helpful. In addition Advice Now provides a range of downloadable guides to making child arrangements and applying to court without a lawyer.

If you need further advice, please post again on this forum or ring our freephone advice line on 0808 8010366 (Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm, except bank holidays).

Best wishes

Suzie

[KatKat10]

@Dad1982 - This is appalling to read that the mother of your child, is allowing virtual contact with the offender, there are no words. Has the offender been charged, I am assuming he is a juvenile?