[Solved] Interim contact arrangements

Always ask for more and if needed come down to what you'd actually accept.

in my opinion if she is in fact using drugs and as the childred are on SS child protection register then would change of residence not be a safer option for the children?

Thanks dad-i-d, My son was on the child protection register last year after his mothers heroin use meant she stopped sending my son and her other daughter to school. During this process there were many multi agency meetings and she was linked into substance mis use agency and given heroin substitute prescription, that she is still on today. She was was stepped down to children in need which means there is less risk but they still have a social worker and multi agency meetings. Eventually social services stopped support as she was engaging and children were going to school. Immediately after they stopped support she disengaged from support with substance mis use agency, although still getting a prescription from chemist but there was no accountability or tests. She told me she was using heroin again so I made 2 safeguarding alerts after she did not listen to me about sending children to school.(this was 2 months after she told me so I gave her every opportunity) She then got an NMO out on me in July 2018 and stopped me seeing my son for 7 months(from may 20th), until fact finding when NMO was discharged when she did not give any evidence. During this period my sons attendance is at 84% on last school report which is persistently absent. the Cafcass report states it is at 93% and this was when I was taking him to school all week but they did not listen to this. They are only seeing the spike in poor absence now as attendance reporting is only just capturing this. I cannot make another safeguarding alert as it would seem malicious.. they disregarded my last 2 alerts saying we needed to try mediation..i have emails trying mediation in 2016.2017 and 2018. they just did not want to open up case again...
I am meeting the school on Friday morning who have escalated concerns to education welfare team, who have in turn given her an action plan and given her an interview under caution.
this is getting worse and worse but Cafcass have recommended contact every other week-from contact every weekend and one day a week-its ridiculous.
I will ask for a hair strand test and she will be found positive for heroin but not even sure if that makes any difference..
I will ask the school again on Friday morning meeting if they are thinking of escalating to children's social services. They are being very supportive with me so we will see. Maybe I will know more on Friday. On the last contact on Saturday, She could not even put any pants or vest/t shirt on my 8 year old who was embarrassed about it. Surely if you were involved in custody court case with safeguarding alerts you would do this unless there is something majorly wrong.

Hi all,

I had a meeting with my sons school today and they informed me that they had referred him and his step sister to children's social services. They now have a named social worker whom I have tried contacting today, with no luck...I would really appreciate what to do next with regard top asking for interim contact as my directions hearing following section 7 report is this Wednesday 19/12. Cafcass have suggested every other week contact which as I have said in other emails increases risk. The previous CIN plan talked about me being a protective factor and contact every weekend and one day a week. Cafcass did not look at any CIN or child protection register reports from social services in section 7...My son breaks up for Christmas on 19/12 which is the same day as court case so he will be out of school for 3 weeks and at more risk. Please can someone advise what would be a sensible move to safeguard my son and what to ask for with regards to contact. Can social services support me with regards to contact over Christmas and until contested hearing, possibly in February.... Should I ask them to write a letter for court?

You should be given the opportunity to speak at the hearing, I would suggest that you write down the list of concerns you have, as you’ve done here, in bullet point format and refer to it when speaking, ticking each point off as you deal with it.

A brief position statement would also be useful, giving info about the most recent developments. The school might provide you with a letter stating the recent developments, you could refer to that and tell the court you have it with you and ask permission to file it. Make the correlation between attendance and drug use.

As far as interim contact, make the point strongly that you are recognised as the protective factor in his life and that the recommendations to halve contact would be detrimental to his education and well being more generally.

Ask the court to consider pick up and drop off for over the school holidays, perhaps suggesting meeting in a public place close by. Speak to Social Service to see if they could provide a link for hand overs.

I’ll pm you.

Thank you Mojo