As a parent you will have to make difficult decisions about your children whilst you go through a separation, and afterwards. In relation to residence and contact issues often it is difficult to agree on the best way forward with your ex- partner.

We are sensitive to these issues, and have many years of experience in helping parents to resolve their disputes in the best possible interests of the children.

Residence

Residence means where, or more precisely, with whom a child will live, after separation. This used to be called custody. A residence order states which parent a child should live with on a permanent basis and who should be the child’s primary carer. If you can agree where your child should live between yourselves, you will not need to ask the court to become involved. Reaching an agreement now does not prevent you going to court later if arrangements break down or if one of you changes their mind.

If you cannot agree on arrangements for where your child should live you could consider attending mediation. Mediation is a voluntary process which aims to help parents negotiate with the help of a mediator. Mediation is not appropriate if you have experienced domestic violence.

Contact

The time the non-resident parent spends with the child is known as ‘contact’. Contact between a parent and child can be 'direct', in other words face-to-face contact, or it may be ‘indirect’, such as telephone conversations, emails and letters. There could be ‘supervised’ contact, where another person is always present, or ‘staying’ contact, where the child will stay overnight with the non-resident parent.

It is not just parents who can ask for contact with a child. Grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, and anyone who has had a close relationship with a child may ask a parent for contact with the child.

Care

If you are assigned a social worker to assist with family problems or difficulties, the social worker’s aim is to help and assist rather than work towards removal of your child/children from the home. This is a last resort. Our advice is to try and work alongside the social worker but if you encounter real problems then please inform us without delay and we will try to assist by negotiating with them. If the Local Authority conclude a child is not receiving the sort of care it would be reasonable to expect from a parent, and this lack of care is causing the child significant harm they can apply to the court for one of the following orders:

• Emergency Protection order
• Care order
• Supervision order.

Facing the threat of the Local Authority taking your child into care can be one of the most traumatic and lonely experiences for a parent. Will Harrington & Co pride themselves on having expert Solicitors who have many years of experience in relation to care proceedings and if you require any confidential advice or help contact a member of our team.