Before Court Proceedings
If the child is on a Child Protection Plan or the pre-proceedings protocol (PLO process) has been initiated, there is no legal mechanism by which Social Services can prevent a parent from having contact with their child.
If there are significant concerns about a parent (maybe for example because of a history of violence, suspected sexual abuse or drug use), Social Services may advise the other parent not to allow the child to have any, or any unsupervised, contact with the risky parent. This may then be part of the Child Protection plan or PLO Written Agreement. Usually in this situation, the Local Authority will suggest how contact can safely take place pending further assessment, such as contact supervised by another family member or in a contact centre.
If the parent does decide to allow contact between the child and the parent with whom there are concerns, there is nothing that Social Services can legally do at that stage to stop it.
However, we would usually advise parents to cooperate with Social Services and to comply with the provisions of any Written Agreement, Child in Need plan or Child Protection Plan. This is because if there are significant concerns and the parents are not following the advice of the Social Worker, the Local Authority may decide to issue care proceedings and obtain an order so that they share parental responsibility with the parents. They may also seek to remove the child from the care of the parent.
Previous Or Ongoing Court Proceedings
If the Local Authority have commenced care proceedings in respect of a child and the Court has made an Interim Care Order in respect of that child, the Local Authority then shares parental responsibility for that child with the parents (or any other persons who have parental responsibility). Similarly, if a final Care Order is made in respect of a child, the Local Authority shares parental responsibility with parents (or anyone else who has parental responsibility). This child is then described as being ‘in care’ and ‘looked after’ by the Local Authority.
Under the Children Act 1989, where a child is looked after, the Local Authority has a duty to facilitate ‘reasonable contact’ between a child and its parents. Usually this will be by way of supervised contact.
Under What Circumstances Can the Local Authority Prevent Contact From Taking Pace?
So, the question is under what circumstances can the Local Authority prevent this contact from taking place? Under Section 34(6) of the Children Act 1989 the Local Authority can suspend contact between a child and its parents, without making an application to the Court, but this can be for no more than 7 days. The Local Authority must be satisfied that it is necessary to refuse contact, and the decision made on an urgent basis.
If the Local Authority want to suspend contact beyond the 7 days, they must make an application to the Court (as set out in Section 34(4) Children Act 1989). The Court should only grant this application if there are very good reasons for doing so and it is rare this to happen.
Next Steps...
If you are a parent with a child in care and have concerns regarding contact, please contact one of our team on freephone 0800 011 6666 or visit the family law section of our website.
