Cafcass report in RE the mil application for contact

[Fifi782005]

I posted a few weeks ago regarding our DS paternal grandmothers application for contact .
We had a call from our cafcass officer and she has decided to reccomend indirect contact with no view to increase to direct contact .
I have a few questions ;) , does anyone have any experience of indirect contact orders that are permenantly ? We ,well I feel that this was an ok outcome and that I don't even think mil will bother with the indirect contact . DH on the other hand is saying absolutely no way mil is not having any contact or information about our son !
So , we know that mil will not be satisfied with the cafcass report does this automatically mean we will go to a final hearing ? Even if we ( I ) aggree with what cafcass recommend ? Will her scolicitor advise her to continue the fight ? Also with the cafcass recommendations for no direct contact in the future mean that further applications are likely to be refused or should we get or can we get an order in place to prevent further applications to stop our sons childhood being dragged through court cases ?

Sorry for all the questions but we are self representing and find the whole thing baffling ! We have had some very helpful responses previously .Thank you for taking the time to read
X

Sorry , just to add . DH and I are still together and although he feels no contact at all is best I'm not going to go behind his back so to speak and agree with cafcass if he doesn't want to , I feel that it's all pretty raw for him at the moment and think in a few days weeks he will see that this isn't a particularly bad outcome and could end the whole court visits etc which is very stressful and we can get back to our "normal lives " x

What form of indirect contact?

Letters and a recent photo , I'm not sure how frequent as yet (think it was twice a year) as cafcass spoke with DH . He was on the phone a while with her and she said a hard copy of the report with full details will be sent to us .
I believe it was the same for her birthdays and Xmas with occasional letter update .

Usually indirect contact constitutes the sending of letters, cards and presents by the applicant. Depending on the age of the child, they are then "encouraged" to respond by the parents.

A contact order lasts until the child is aged 16.

thank you for that collaborate , our little one is only two so would have to be us writing and letters back and if the order lasts until he is 16 would that mean any future requests for a direct contact application would be ignored as there is already an order in place ??

They can apply for a varaition of the contact order at any time, as can you. I really wouldn't think that you'd be expected to write back yourselves.

Once your child is able to write a short note, so say about 6, you can bow out. Although you should encourage him to respond to notes, presents etc, you won't be punished if he isn't prepared to do so.

Re. your question about whether the grandma will proceed to a contested hearing, she will find, if she's publically funded, that her certificate almost certainly won't be extended to cover a final hearing if she has little chance of success, ie any more than Cafcass recommend.