Sole custody or prohibited steps order…or something

[Divorcedalongtime]

My children are all teens (one only just and one nearly an adult) now.
their dad and I divorced well over ten years ago. I am a perfectly normal parent who thought that dating someone who had previously been an addict was fine because he would never relapse…

he has had sporadic contact , he lives with his mum.
Then he got arrested and incarcerated for drug violations and for assault on his sister.
I want to apply for sole custody but I’m absolutely terrified of family court and worried that I’d be opening a can of worms so to speak.
my parenting is all above board, the only thing they could disagree with is home education and youngest is autistic and really struggling (but in therapy privately) but I’ve heard so many horror stories of parental alienation claims.

I don’t want their dad to be able to demand to meet the kids unsupervised (I spoke with social services and they agreed that a public supervised meet now and again is acceptable) but I also for practical reasons like right now I need to apply for passports for them but can’t because he can’t sign, take a photo of his ID documents, etc

but also I am so so scared of doing the wrong thing.
please don’t judge me

You don't need the father's signature or his ID documents to apply for passports for your children. You can do it by yourself.

As there are no court orders in place, you can refuse any request from him for an unsupervised meeting with the children.

If you choose to go to court, they won't care about you home educating. Given your ex's proven drug use and the position of Social Services, there is clearly no parental alienation.

@prh47bridge i should have said, they are not British passports and sadly I do need his signature and proof of ID (which does seem stupidly old fashioned).

thank you for reassuring re the drug use, I have so much guilt and shame about the whole situation

You can apply for a specific issues order for permission from the court to apply for the passports on your own - but he will obviously be notified of your application.