My husband is currently being investigated following an allegation by one of his former students. The children are on child protection (ages 10 and 12). We lived in one county who went through the process of removing him from the home etc and he was finally allowed back. We moved counties and the new county has put us through it all again and have said that my husband is not allowed home until the criminal investigation is concluded.
He has been allowed supervised contact outside of the home. A couple of weeks ago, there was an incident involving my husband (nothing to do with the family/children) and childrens services have suspended contact completely (not even phone contact). It has been 12 days so far. My understanding is that they can suspend contact for a maximum of 7 days if there are immediate concerns (eg the children have made an allegation) and can only suspend beyond 7 days with a court order.
The children are asking to see/speak with him and CS are not responding other than no contact whatsoever.
They have and are operating in an underhand manner, have bullied me (non abusing partner) and have used everything they can against me (even burning the dinner).
I need to know our rights if anyone can help or out me in touch with a legal firm who would be willing to take our case.
Thanks so much for reading
Suspended contact
-
Suzie, FRG Adviser
- Posts: 4996
- Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2011 2:57 pm
Re: Suspended contact
Dear Clrhan
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 and your family are currently experiencing.
Your children are on a child protection plan; you have moved from one local authority area to another and this has meant that the new local authority area has put in place different and tighter restrictions than you had in your previous area. Your husband is the subject of a police investigation following an allegation by a former student. You do not say if the student is a child or an adult and the nature of the allegation.
Children’s Services have insisted, as part of the child protection plan, that your husband does not live in the family home, until the outcome of the criminal investigation is known.
Until recently, they agreed for him to have supervised contact outside of the home but following an unspecified incident they are no longer recommending supervised contact and instead are requesting that he has no contact whatsoever, not even by phone.
Although the incident did not involve your family or children there must be a reason they are so concerned by his behaviour or the situation that they have concluded that it is not safe for the children to spend time with or talk to their father. Have you asked the social worker to explain, with specific reasons, why they believe this to be the case?
I can understand that you are concerned that the children, who are asking for their dad, have not been able to see him for 12 days. You and your husband do need an urgent review of this decision.
It is important to remember that when children are on a child protection plan children’s services make specific recommendations as to what they expect parents to do and what restrictions they expect parents to keep to, in order to keep children safe. They are asking you to work with these arrangements. They do not have parental responsibility or the legal mandate to impose these if parents refuse unless they obtain a court order which allows them to do so. Parents continue to have parental responsibility. But if parents do not cooperate with children’s services’ recommendations and they believe this increases the risk of harm to children then they must consider what action they need to take to protect the children. This could escalate matters to a pre-proceedings process or in an urgent situation asking police to take children into police protection, applying to the court for an emergency protection order or applying for an interim care order.
It is best to find a way of continuing to work with children’s services by making sure that you both know why they are currently recommending no contact, asking them in writing to confirm when/how they will review this/what they want your husband and/or you to do to move forward to reinstate supervised contact as before. You should also put forward your proposals to address their concerns and formally request that supervised contact is agreed again as soon as possible. It is not ok for children’s services to refuse to respond to your reasonable enquiries about this and for them to give no time limit or suggestions about how to move forward. They are required to provide parents with information. If you/your husband are no longer willing to agree to the current (no) contact arrangements you should ask children’s services to tell you in writing what will happen ie what action they will take. It is a good idea to copy the social work team manager and the child protection conference chair into any correspondence about the current (no) contact arrangements.
I think your husband should take the lead here as he is the parent who is being asked not to see/communicate with his children at the moment. As you said, you are the ‘non-abusing’ parent and are taking responsibility for caring for the children and keeping them safe. You are being asked not to allow contact and although you disagree with the current recommendation and can say so your husband is the parent most affected.
You and/or your husband can take legal advice about this especially if you do not agree; unfortunately, legal aid is not usually available prior to PLO or care proceedings. Please see this link to legal advice services; you can find a solicitor ideally with Children Law Accreditation via the Law Society website.
You can make a complaint if you are unhappy with how the situation is being handled, the current plan or the lack of response from children’s services. Please see here for more details about how to do this.
The information you refer to about suspending contact for up to 7 days then needing to go back to court for a court order refers to children’s services’ duties when there is an interim care order in place for a child.
I hope this is helpful and that the situation moves forward in a positive way soon.
Please do post back or call our freephone advice line on 0808 8010366, Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm if you have a further query.
Best wishes
Suzie
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 and your family are currently experiencing.
Your children are on a child protection plan; you have moved from one local authority area to another and this has meant that the new local authority area has put in place different and tighter restrictions than you had in your previous area. Your husband is the subject of a police investigation following an allegation by a former student. You do not say if the student is a child or an adult and the nature of the allegation.
Children’s Services have insisted, as part of the child protection plan, that your husband does not live in the family home, until the outcome of the criminal investigation is known.
Until recently, they agreed for him to have supervised contact outside of the home but following an unspecified incident they are no longer recommending supervised contact and instead are requesting that he has no contact whatsoever, not even by phone.
Although the incident did not involve your family or children there must be a reason they are so concerned by his behaviour or the situation that they have concluded that it is not safe for the children to spend time with or talk to their father. Have you asked the social worker to explain, with specific reasons, why they believe this to be the case?
I can understand that you are concerned that the children, who are asking for their dad, have not been able to see him for 12 days. You and your husband do need an urgent review of this decision.
It is important to remember that when children are on a child protection plan children’s services make specific recommendations as to what they expect parents to do and what restrictions they expect parents to keep to, in order to keep children safe. They are asking you to work with these arrangements. They do not have parental responsibility or the legal mandate to impose these if parents refuse unless they obtain a court order which allows them to do so. Parents continue to have parental responsibility. But if parents do not cooperate with children’s services’ recommendations and they believe this increases the risk of harm to children then they must consider what action they need to take to protect the children. This could escalate matters to a pre-proceedings process or in an urgent situation asking police to take children into police protection, applying to the court for an emergency protection order or applying for an interim care order.
It is best to find a way of continuing to work with children’s services by making sure that you both know why they are currently recommending no contact, asking them in writing to confirm when/how they will review this/what they want your husband and/or you to do to move forward to reinstate supervised contact as before. You should also put forward your proposals to address their concerns and formally request that supervised contact is agreed again as soon as possible. It is not ok for children’s services to refuse to respond to your reasonable enquiries about this and for them to give no time limit or suggestions about how to move forward. They are required to provide parents with information. If you/your husband are no longer willing to agree to the current (no) contact arrangements you should ask children’s services to tell you in writing what will happen ie what action they will take. It is a good idea to copy the social work team manager and the child protection conference chair into any correspondence about the current (no) contact arrangements.
I think your husband should take the lead here as he is the parent who is being asked not to see/communicate with his children at the moment. As you said, you are the ‘non-abusing’ parent and are taking responsibility for caring for the children and keeping them safe. You are being asked not to allow contact and although you disagree with the current recommendation and can say so your husband is the parent most affected.
You and/or your husband can take legal advice about this especially if you do not agree; unfortunately, legal aid is not usually available prior to PLO or care proceedings. Please see this link to legal advice services; you can find a solicitor ideally with Children Law Accreditation via the Law Society website.
You can make a complaint if you are unhappy with how the situation is being handled, the current plan or the lack of response from children’s services. Please see here for more details about how to do this.
The information you refer to about suspending contact for up to 7 days then needing to go back to court for a court order refers to children’s services’ duties when there is an interim care order in place for a child.
I hope this is helpful and that the situation moves forward in a positive way soon.
Please do post back or call our freephone advice line on 0808 8010366, Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm if you have a further query.
Best wishes
Suzie
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