Variation or new application?

Hello to all. A long time since I've needed to post here but... here we go again!

Around 7 years ago following repeated issues with my ex and her mental health, alcohol misuse and domestic violence impacting our child, I made an application to court for my son to live with me. While I was unsuccessful, the order made resulted in me having my son for nigh on half the time, though crucially, he is down as residing with his mother. Recitals were made about keeping me informed of any further involvement of police or social services relating to incidents that could impact my sons welfare. All has been well while the order has been in place, arrangements have been stuck to and no sign of any further problems.

Fast forward to last week and a rather serious incident occurred which involved my ex being drunk and resulted in my son being brought to my home by the police to ensure his wellbeing. Conversations with both police and social services have since revealed that there has been involvement and interventions by them both throughout the time that the Child Arrangements Order has been in place. The fact I wasn’t made aware by the institutes is a separate bone of contention, and while I know recitals aren’t enforceable, it does somewhat surprise me that my ex has not been forthcoming given that her word that she would is included in the current order. As has always been the case, my son hasn’t told me about the incidents out of what both me and social services think is a desire to protect his mother, which I can understand to a degree. This sort of weighs into the questions about what comes next.

I plan to make another application to court for my son to live with me, pending the outcome of a social services assessment on the situation. I fully expected them to have supported my previous application but after prolonged involvement, they didn’t. I have a bit more confidence in that this time around but experience tells me to expect the unexpected when it comes to social services so I haven’t made the application just yet.

So to the crux, I have questions about my application given this set of circumstances.

• Am I right in thinking I’d be applying for a variation of the existing order rather than starting a fresh application, even though I’m looking to change where my son resides?
• Given the situation, would I be expected to attempt to resolve this in a written agreement outside of family court as they’d usually expect?
• Similarly, would I be expected to attempt mediation as a resolution?
• My son is now 14 and I am confident he wouldn’t say anything to incriminate or hurt his mother, meaning he is unlikely to say he wants to live with me in case his mother views it as a betrayal. Would the child’s wishes ultimately be ignored because of the safeguarding issues, even given his age?
• The police insisted there be no unsupervised contact with the mother and that arrangement remains in place. Of course, once social services deem this to no longer be necessary and the mother has completed any counselling or therapy sessions she is referred to, I would be happy for unsupervised contact to be explored on a see-how-we-go basis. Would it be reasonable to say this in the application, or would I be expected to have any potential future contact arrangements included in the order?

Whilst I had a solicitor to act on my behalf for the last application, my personal circumstances don’t afford me that luxury this time so I will need to do this myself. Any advice anyone who has been through similar can offer would be greatly appreciated, since it has been a while and this could be uncharted waters. Thanks in advance.