This is an unusual one, but my partners ex for various reasons has stopped him seeing his daughter since she was 3 months old. (She will be 3 in April next year) he made various attempts and was shot down by her and her parents every time. In her eyes if she can't be with him then he can't see his child. He rightly or wrongly accepted this and has always paid CSA and thought it may be easier for everyone if he wasn't involved. I think he was scared to ask as he thought she was being very well looked after and didn't want to rock the boat. The last time he asked for contact was approx Nov 2016 and she agreed and then cancelled the day before. He was contacted by childrens services completely out of the blue about a week ago and informed that the child was in the care of the local authority and was residing with the maternal grandparents. They had struggled to track him down and he was shocked to find that social services had been involved since the end of 2016 and the child had been under the local authority since October. He received a letter stating court dates are already in place and if he wanted to apply to be the child's long term carer then he must do immediately. We have contacted a solicitor for legal advice but due to it being busy over Xmas don't have an appointment until next week. As he has had no contact for 2 years I wondered what the chances of him becoming the child's full time carer are if the maternal grandparents are the only other option. He is on the birth certificate, has no criminal record, is employed and in a good financial position. We are getting married next year and have no other children. He is desperate to be involved in her life and knows he should have made more effort to see his child and sees this as his opportunity to do whatever he can. The grandparents have also applied to be a long term carer as well. Thank you for reading this essay!