Child arrangement order info
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My ex was sentenced for images in November. I have refused contact to his 3 and 8 Yr old kids and he hasn't seen them sinse June. Now he is applying for a child arrangements order. All I know is cafcass will get involved right? And I don't know what the judge will decide? He has no restrictions on being around kids or his own on his shopo. So what would a judge and social services likely do? He is currently medium risk and probably will go to low after finishing his rehab courses.. Before the court he was very close to the kids I admit. But I had to put there safety first. All I'm asking is for as much advice on what will happen from his court application for child arrangements. And how likely will it be he's granted contact if any to the kids? Can please share your own experiences or advice thank you x, x
Before applying for a court order, parties are generally expected to try to resolve issues through mediation or by creating a parenting plan so that is your best bet to get something close to what you think is best but your ex would have to be amenable to doing that and it wouldn't work if neither of you can budge on what you want.
Court will always look at things from the child's POV, and a CAFCASS worker will try to find out what your children want or think about their Dad. As they are young he/she will draw conclusions for themselves whilst talking to them, and to you too of course. A judge doesn't have to accept the CAFCASS worker's conclusions but they do hold a lot of weight and in our case, (which was a bit different as it was for a Care Order to remove the children from their mother) she reported back that the children had said they wanted to stay with their mum but she was going to disagree with that as being what was best for them (it was really staying at their school which was their safe place that they wanted to hang onto, and she saw that clearly.)
The recommendations on your ex's SHPO won't carry much weight in his favour as the criminal and family court operate separately. Because he has a sexual offence conviction the family court would start from a no contact at all standpoint which he would have to challenge and in any case there would be a risk assessment carried out first anyway and then a gradual introduction to contact to start with if things went in his favour. The court would want to review the specific details of his offences to determine if there was a risk of "escalation" to contact-based harm.
If he was granted contact it might start with things like a letter or card only, it wouldn't be that he could suddenly whisk the children off for a weekend stay with him. And as everything is so clogged up in the courts nothing will happen any time soon.
Just to add that I'm not legally trained, just giving some general info from our experience with the extra knowledge that ours wasn't a Child Arrangement Order although that was included in the judgment regarding their mother seeing them - our son was still waiting to be charged and living with SS conditions involving no unsupervised contact so couldn't have contact on his own terms anyway .....
Court will always look at things from the child's POV, and a CAFCASS worker will try to find out what your children want or think about their Dad. As they are young he/she will draw conclusions for themselves whilst talking to them, and to you too of course. A judge doesn't have to accept the CAFCASS worker's conclusions but they do hold a lot of weight and in our case, (which was a bit different as it was for a Care Order to remove the children from their mother) she reported back that the children had said they wanted to stay with their mum but she was going to disagree with that as being what was best for them (it was really staying at their school which was their safe place that they wanted to hang onto, and she saw that clearly.)
The recommendations on your ex's SHPO won't carry much weight in his favour as the criminal and family court operate separately. Because he has a sexual offence conviction the family court would start from a no contact at all standpoint which he would have to challenge and in any case there would be a risk assessment carried out first anyway and then a gradual introduction to contact to start with if things went in his favour. The court would want to review the specific details of his offences to determine if there was a risk of "escalation" to contact-based harm.
If he was granted contact it might start with things like a letter or card only, it wouldn't be that he could suddenly whisk the children off for a weekend stay with him. And as everything is so clogged up in the courts nothing will happen any time soon.
Just to add that I'm not legally trained, just giving some general info from our experience with the extra knowledge that ours wasn't a Child Arrangement Order although that was included in the judgment regarding their mother seeing them - our son was still waiting to be charged and living with SS conditions involving no unsupervised contact so couldn't have contact on his own terms anyway .....
I highly doubt they will allow unsupervised contact even if they agree he can have contact at least not for a while.
Ive chosen to stay with my partner and he had no restrictions but social services are very happy we have decided to continue supervisee contact. They have stated they would have concerns based on the fact he has done a sexual offence if we had changed that. I just thought id let you know to help ease your mind.
I would say its definely worth discussing a clear safty plan and social services will likely be involved if he has contact due to offending so id say it is worth contacting them now to help have a plan for all senarios put in place to keep your kids safe
Ive chosen to stay with my partner and he had no restrictions but social services are very happy we have decided to continue supervisee contact. They have stated they would have concerns based on the fact he has done a sexual offence if we had changed that. I just thought id let you know to help ease your mind.
I would say its definely worth discussing a clear safty plan and social services will likely be involved if he has contact due to offending so id say it is worth contacting them now to help have a plan for all senarios put in place to keep your kids safe