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Original poster

Contact Orders for grandparents, CAFCASS home visits??

26 replies

VIKPOW · 05/03/2012 15:43

Hi im new to this site, looking for a bit of advice really,or anyone else's experiences-

Basically my mother who ive had nothing to do with for 8 years ( due to her violent, agressive and unstable behaviour) is taking me through court to try and have contact with my 1 yr old son. We've been to court 3 times and now CAFCASS are doing a full welfare report, we have a home visit on friday.

Anyone else experienced something similar and does anyone know why CAFCASS are going to be looking at our home and my sons bedroom but not visiting where my mother lives???

any help much appreciated x

OP posts:
LilacWaltz · 05/03/2012 15:45

Doesn't sound right to me!! I thought a grandparent had to have an existing relationship with a child?

Original poster
VIKPOW · 05/03/2012 15:54

well you'd think so but doesnt sem to be the case. apparently any blood relative can apply to the court for a contact order, regardless of their relationship with you. i really cant believe this is hapenning to us, to make matters worse she's getting full legal aid for this as she doesnt work, and we have to pay a solicitor £145 per hr, it cost us over a grand already :(

OP posts:
Justw0nder1ng · 05/03/2012 16:15

I'm no expert but from what I've heard it's very hard to get a contact order for grandparents to stick anyway. Sounds odd to me that it's got this far as grandparents have to apply to the court for permission to seek contact.
My ex ils want contact but know they can't get it so they are paying for my ex to take me through court

Original poster
VIKPOW · 05/03/2012 20:23

i totally agree- i dont know why the court has given her permission to apply for contact- theyve based it purely on her being the MATERNAL grandmother, not actually looked at the circumstances, just hope CAFCASS goes in our favour

thanks for the replies

OP posts:
prh47bridge · 05/03/2012 22:32

Grandparents will generally be granted leave to apply for a contact order unless it can be shown that allowing them to apply will damage the child regardless of whether or not they actually get an order. It has nothing to do with the likelihood of your mother getting an order. Now that she has got leave the courts will look at the circumstances.

Justw0nder1ng · 05/03/2012 23:44

What sort of contact do grandparents generally get ordered? Is it likely they would get unsupervised or overnight? Do the courts enforce contact in the same way they would with a nrp?

Original poster
VIKPOW · 07/03/2012 20:18

not sure what contact they can get- same as NRP as far as i know, i havent even contemplated that shappening to be honest, i get too upset x

OP posts:
Justw0nder1ng · 07/03/2012 21:48

No way, I'm sure a grandparent wouldnt get more than a couple of hours in the park on a Sunday afternoon! Many grandparents with happy relationships with their children/grandchildren wouldnt get every other weekend and half the holidays! I can't see she'd get much

ElsieMc · 09/03/2012 21:21

My GS1 lives with me on an RO and the paternal grandparents get every other weekend with their son. The reality is that their son rarely attends contact and they take all this quality time up despite ignoring my lovely GS1 for the first two years of his life.

A stand alone application may be difficult to achieve, but in our case they used their son to achieve their goals quite effectively.

My grandson absolutely loathes going and despite our best efforts, his resentment is growing and this is storing up real problems for the future.

Fifi782005 · 06/08/2012 13:40

Hi there I was wondering how things went for you vikpow ? We are going through something very similar with DH mother :( we are waiting for cafcass to vist and do the report then back to court later in the year . Both deeply shocked that it's even got this far to be honest and we are still together and as there are no welfare issues with our little one shocked to have cafcass involved !
If anyone else has a similar experience re grandparents contact I would be interested to hear your outcomes.
X

Batman22 · 22/11/2012 17:30

hello
The maternal grandparent has been ordered to have my son overnight even though the Judge knows she is on high end cannabis. You will be surprised what Judges order but I doubt they would want their children been in the care of a drug addict.

avenueone · 22/11/2012 20:37

I thought they had to have an existing relationship - scary....I would make your position very strong that you do not want contact with her and that is your right - this way you can't supervise the contact and she surely would not be allowed contact with a child that does not know her at all and it would have to be through a contact centre... would she really want your poor baby to go through all that.
Do you think this may be her way of getting contact with you? if so this may stop her if she find out she will not get that. As for a phycological report on her. After such a long absence you have no way of safeguarding your child as you know nothing about her now. It would mean a lot of work for CAFCASS they should recommend no order.

sbreslin · 13/03/2013 18:27

Hi - My wife and I are in dispute with my mother regarding access to my daughter and have just attended an initial mediation session MIAM to which we stated that we would not be participating in as we do not want her to have any access. We are now thinking that my mother will apply to the courts for a contact order. Therefore, I was windering if anyone else was going through the same issue as us, my daughter is in a stable realtionship and fully settled etc. We are worried that a Judge is going to grant access.

McKenzie13 · 14/03/2013 10:56

Hi Vicpow,

Would probably need to know more about your case to give you fuller and more accurate advice.

In my experience grandparents are either added as party to an existing case for contact (usually with the Father of the child). If the Grandparent has made an application for contact in her own right and the case just involves the two of you then CAFCASS should be visiting both homes. They should also monitor contact between both parties. They usually monitor contact with you and the child and then similarly with the Grandparent and the child.

It sounds like CAFCASS are conducting a full s7 report. At the meeting I would ask the CAFCASAS officer when the report would be made available. When you see the report it will have a recommendation (usually in the last paragraph of the report). CAFCASS are meant to be the eyes and ears of the court and so courts usually go with their recommendation.

In recent years CAFCASS have been snowed under with work and so I have seen reports submitted late; conducted in a short amount of time or not even conducted with sight of one of the parties including the child.

Would need to know a little more about your case so feel free to PM me.

Here to help.

prh47bridge · 14/03/2013 12:40

Vikpow's case was 12 months ago! The thread has been resurrected by sbreslin.

McKenzie13 · 14/03/2013 15:37

sbreslin.
Apologies for missing your post. Many thanks to prh47bridge for pointing that out to me.

under s10CA1989 the grandmother may seek permisison from the court to make an application for a s8 Contact Order. These are usually granted. In fact if there are already court proceedings ongoing the court is likely to add the Grandmother on to an existing case, unless there are any objections from parties.

Tewa · 14/03/2013 16:09

For a grandparent to make an application to the court they need to submit a C100 for a Section 8 application (such as contact) but also a C2 for permission to start proceedings.

It costs £200 and these two application forms should be submitted together.

FayesmummyEmma · 26/07/2013 23:26

Oh my, cant beleive how many people seem to be going though simular cases.. im bio mother is trying to have unsupervised contact and more contact with my little one, shes threatening court action, and to apply for contact and blackmailing me to do it or court..
please let me know any outcomes or advice x

sbreslin · 31/07/2013 16:20

we have our final hearing tomorrow, not looking forward to it but hoping for the best!

borrowedlight · 02/08/2013 16:21

How did it go sbreslin?

sbreslin · 09/08/2013 06:55

The court ruled in her favour and gave unsupervised contact once a month we are devastated and worried what it will do our little one we are going to appeal though

onlyhereonce · 09/08/2013 19:04

How can this possibly be right?? The baby is only 1yr old and you havent had a relationship with your mother for 8yrs and they award her direct unsupervised contact??? The whole legal system, in my opinion, is biased towards grandparents for some reason. Why can't a mother/father decide who and who doesnt see their children?????

Packer104 · 27/11/2017 09:16

Our daughter in law said we couldn't see our 3 year old grandson last June. We did see him every week but only for 2 hours at a time. My daughter in law suffers from anxiety. Since then she had another little boy who is one now. My husband and I are in court in 2 weeks to regain a relationship with our 4 years old grandson and start one with the toddler. Anyone else in this heartbreaking situation. Our son stand by his wife.

Packer104 · 27/11/2017 12:03

Mckenzie13 are you still using this sight? I joined today and would like to hear from you.

Katiec73 · 31/01/2024 18:41

Hi. Yes I’m in the same position have two granddaughters, aged 3 and 5 months only had contact with the eldest granddaughter regularly until July 2023. Never meet our 2nd granddaughter. My husband and I have had our CAFCASS telephone conversation to day. It is heartbreaking, genuinely just want to be part of my granddaughters lives.

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