My partner and his ex have a daughter who is 17 months old. They split up before their daughter was born. Apart from a period of approx 6 weeks (where her mother stopped contact), he has had regular contact since birth and overnight contact (from one to two nights at weekends)and a weekday evening visit from her being approx 6 months. His ex stopped all contact (with one overnight exception) at the end of March. She refused to attend mediation, so he was forced to take it to court. He's not in a position to afford a solicitor. His ex is also unrepresented.
He had the FHDRA at the beginning of June, where it was agreed that contact would be re-introduced and hand overs done by the maternal grandmother to him, working up to full weekends every other weekend, until the next court date at the end of August. His ex has failed to keep to the schedule and has not made their daughter available for contact as arranged, so he has still not been able to see her. He has written to his ex but she hasn't replied.
His ex has again refused to take part in mediation and ignored their attempts to get in touch (7 days expired). My partner was also ordered to attend the Separated Parenting Information Programme, which he has booked onto.
He tried to contact CAFCASS for advice but was informed that they have shut the case.
He sent an email, addressed for the attention of the lady who took the 1st hearing at the court after his ex didn't make their daughter available for the second arranged contact, explaining that his ex was not sticking to what had been agreed and asking if the next court date could be moved forward urgently but got a reply saying that they couldn't give legal advice (he hadn't asked for any) and that he would need to seek legal advice and probably need to make a further application to enforce the contact order.
This is where we're a bit stuck. We were under the impression that this isn't yet an order (the letter he received summarising the events of the 1st FHDRA only ordered that they attend the Separated Parenting Information Course before the next court date) and that the reintroduction contact schedule (which is temporary) was just an agreement made between them. Is there anything to enforce at this stage? Does he need to make another application (is C79 the way forward?) and how long would it take? Is there grounds to make it an urgent case? There is no way his ex is going to let him see their daughter until she is forced to and if he has to wait until the end of August, it will have been best part of 5 months since he's had regular contact. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.