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Hello All,
I hope I have the correct forum, I am after some advice regarding family court proceedings. My husband and I had regular contact with his son for 4 years, no major issues, then 3 years ago Mum moved him 60miles away. No explanation given. She said she would do the drive back for contact however after 2 trips this turned in to 'you want to see him, you have to come and get him'. Which we did, for over a year no questions asked.
My husband and I had a baby, contact with his son and ex partner started to become increasingly difficult again and eventually stopped last year and he was taken out of the UK without any notice. He was returned, as we kept in contact with his school however no communication between parents or child until my husband filed for a Court Order once mediation had been refused. Contact centre was ordered as the claims of abuse started...
He has been a litigant in person up until now, CAFCASS have just completed a S7 report and they have recommended the parents attend an SPIP. As it has been 12months since we have seen him and we originally had regular contact before all the normal accusations started, given the history of provocation has anyone had any experience of the courts dismissing this next hurdle of SPIP in order to see your child? It breaks my heart to think my husband and his son, who wants to see him, will have to go even longer while this horrible, and unnecessary process continues.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Hi there
I understand how you must both be feeling, but generally the court will go along with the recommendations made in a report.
A SPIP course is used a lot, it’s a short course with the emphasis on the damage parental conflict has on children and promoting safe contact with them. Its usually one 4 hour session, or split into two 2 hour sessions, the parents don’t attend the same meeting.
It may be that the court will order contact and the SPIP course, it might not be that your partner has to wait until after completion of the course.
All the best
Hi,
I took the SPIP course after cafcass recommended it. sat the 4 hour session. just left work an hour early and took an evening class. was pretty basic, making you watch videos about parental conflict. they ask you to work as teams with other people in the class, to brainstorm etc. the course organisers inform the court whether you have attended or not. just better to get it out the way asap.
if a child has not been seen for 12 months, then maybe court will advise more sessions in contact centre. i would recommend getting a barrister for the day if you can afford it. hopefully it can be argued to limit the number of sessions in contact centre.
...what happened with contact centre contact? If you haven’t seen his son for a year, it’s likely the court may want a short period of supervised, or supported contact. If you’ve been having some form of indirect contact such as Skype or FaceTime, the court may agree to re start contact, but it’s a suck it and see I’m afraid.
The court process is very slow... every step takes time, but hopefully your husband and his boy won’t have to wait too much longer.
Best of luck
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