This depends on:
- The situation and the way in which children’s services are involved
- Whether there is any court order in place that gives children’s services the right to decide about contact.
It is very important for a father to understand the precise situation before taking any action.
First steps fathers in this situation can take:
- Check with the social worker to find out whether there is any court order in place giving them the power to decide what contact takes place
- If there is a court order, ask for a copy of it
- And ask the social worker to explain what it means.
If there is no court order in place, the contact arrangements can be decided between the father and the mother. But if children’s services are worried about the child, they may be advising the mother about what contact to allow.
The next step a father can take is then to:
- Write to the social worker explaining when he would like to see his child, and if the social worker does not agree
- Ask the social worker to explain in writing these things:
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- Why they think that contact with the father is not in the child’s best interests
- What he can do to change the situation
- Whether there is a location or arrangement in which contact could take place safely
- Whether anyone in the family or an outside agency could help with contact arrangements.
If there is no agreement, the father could apply to the Family court for an order about contact. This is called a ‘lives with’ child arrangements order. This order says who the child should spend time with.
How will the Family Court make a decision if the father applies for a child arrangements order?
The court may ask the social worker to write a report for the court. This is caked a section 7 report. It will be about what contact they think is in the best interests of the child (see section 7 of the Children Act 1989). It will be part of the evidence that the court will use to reach a decision about what the right contact arrangements for the child are.
When the Family Court makes any decision relating to a child, the child’s welfare must always be the court’s ‘paramount consideration’. This is known as the welfare principle. Or the paramountcy principle. It means the court needs to think what is in the child’s best interests when it makes decisions (see section 1 (1) of the Children Act 1989. This all applies where the court is deciding an application for a parental responsibility order.
To help work out what is in a child’s best interests, the court must use the welfare checklist. This is set out at section 1 (3) of the Children Act 1989. Read more about welfare checklist here.
And when the Family court is deciding the application, the court must presume the involvement of the father in the child’s life is a good for the child (‘will further their welfare’) unless:
- there is evidence to suggest involvement with the child would put the child at risk of suffering harm
- and this would be the case, whatever the form of the involvement.
The law about parental involvement is found in section 1(2A) of the Children Act 1989.
For information about how to seek legal advice about this see the Fathers needing legal advice about spending time with their child on this page below.