Restoration to the care of a parent or other carer

If an order that will result in restoring the child to a care of a parent is made, contact will need to be sufficiently frequent to maintain or develop the relationship between the parent and child.

Maintenance of a relationship which has some positive features

Some parents will be unable to care for their child but will nevertheless be able to love and affirm the child and not undermine the placement with another carer. It is necessary to ask whether the frequency of visits enhance or destabilise the current placement.

Maintaining a sense of identity regarding kinship and culture

For some children the benefit of contact will be primarily that they understand who they are in the context of their birth family and cultural background. Contact might also help ensure that they have a realistic understanding of who the parent is and do not idealise an unsuitable parent and develop unrealistic hopes of being reunited with them.

How do they react to contact that is occurring?

Often a child’s wishes can be deduced from their behaviour at contact. Older children should be able to express their views and care should be taken to ensure that this expression is not influenced. The child’s legal representative will have an important role to play in this regard.

Negative reactions immediately before or following a contact visit may not necessarily indicate that the child is not enjoying and benefiting from contact with their birth family. Contact visits tend to bring out strong emotions in both the child and the parents and negative behaviours exhibited by the child before, during or after contact may simply be an indication of their heightened emotional state. For recently removed children there may be some separation anxiety which will need to be considered.

Should the child be able to refuse to attend contact at a particular age?

As a child matures their views about contact should have increased weight. Great care should be taken about agreeing with a young child who refuses contact when there is not an apparently sound reason. It may be difficult to get an older child to contact that they don’t wish to attend without causing greater harm than the benefit to be derived from the contact. The burden placed on carers to get an unwilling child to contact should be considered.

Older children asked to reflect on contact arrangements often wish that they had more contact than occurred.

How long was the child in the care of the parent before removal from their care?

In most cases there will be a strong attachment between a child and a parent who has been their carer for a long time. It is likely that the child will be adversely affected if contact becomes minimal in the absence of reasons to believe that the child will be harmed by contact. An infant or very young child will not have this strength of relationship.

How does the parent behave at contact?

Some behaviour by parents at contact, if persisted with, should result in limited contact; eg attending contact substance affected, denigrating others (including carers and the Department/caseworkers), not actively interacting with their child or favouring one child over another.

Has the parent failed to attend contact without good reason?

Persistent non-attendance will be harmful to a child whose expectations will be disappointed. This will often have impacts on their behaviour and possibly affect their placement.

Is there a strong relationship that is dysfunctional?

For some children there will be a strong relationship with a parent that will be dysfunctional. The parent may encourage poor behaviour ie violence, challenging appropriate limits on behaviour, diet etc. It is better to look at the health of the relationship.

Is there a substantial distance to be travelled?

Younger children especially should not be subjected to long travel to attend contact.

Are there limitations on people travelling to contact eg cost, disability?

Sometimes a carer will live some distance from the parent either because the care could not be found in the local community or because a parent has changed address. Ordinarily the onus should be on the parent to travel to the contact rather than having the child travel, especially younger children. If a parent is to be travelling, cost issues might need to be addressed. Enquiries should be made as to whether the Department can assist the parent with the cost of travelling to contact.

Will there be disruption cause to the child or the household in which the child is living?

Children and carer families will have their own commitments and patterns involving such things as piano lessons, basketball games, church attendance. It is important to ensure that a child is not made to feel greatly different from others in the household because they are at contact rather than carer family events. It is also important that the child does not resent attendance at contact because it takes them away from something that they enjoy doing.

Do arrangements need to be made regarding phone calls, cards and letters, email and social networking (eg Facebook/MySpace/Twitter/Skype)

Contact can occur in other ways than face-to-face. In some situations it will be necessary to limit or prohibit indirect contact or to ensure that it is supervised. For example, it may be necessary to prohibit a parent from making any reference to the child on a social networking website. Alternatively, especially if the parent is at some distance from the child the use of electronic communication should be encouraged.

How will the needs and circumstances of the child change over time?

A long term order for contact may create problems as a child’s circumstances change, particularly if the contact is to be relatively frequent. School, sport, cultural activities and friendship dynamics are just some of the factors which change over time. As a child gets older less frequent but longer contact may be appropriate.

The need for contact to be supervised may also change as the child and parent’s circumstances change.

How will the needs and circumstances of the carers/parents/others change over time?

Carers are often unknown at this stage of the proceedings. In cases where carers are known their attitudes to contact should be considered, as some of the literature suggests that their attitudes can have a powerful influence on the quality and frequency of contact.

Is there a need for a specific order or is the Care Plan sufficient?

Does the Care Plan include provision for determining location?

Will a written contact plan be provided to parent/child/carer/others? Will this include contact rules?

For many parents and children it is difficult to predict future circumstances, particularly if a specific long-term carer has not been identified. Care should be exercised in ensuring that an unduly limiting contact order is not made. It may be preferable to ensure that plans for contact are clearly set out in the care plan without contact orders being made. Even if an order is made it is likely to be for a short duration rather than until the child turns 18 so the Care Plan should contemplate as much of the longer term future as possible.

Should contact be supervised?

Where a child has been removed from his or her family as a result of physical or sexual abuse, contact visits will most likely need to be supervised in order to ensure the safety of the child. If there has been trauma caused by a parent a child may not feel safe unless contact is closely supervised.

In cases involving allegations of physical or sexual abuse of a child by a parent, very careful consideration should be given to the risk that any contact with the parent (even supervised contact) may bepsychologically damaging to the child: see Should contact be prohibited or restricted? below.

If there is a real risk that a parent is likely to be substance affected, affected by uncontrolled mental illness or is likely to behave in a way at contact which will be detrimental to the child or the placement, general supervision will be needed.

In some situations where restoration is planned contact can be used to help a parent improve their parenting skills. It would need to be specifically planned that this would be the case.

Who should supervise contact?

Are written guidelines necessary eg re non-denigration of others, not being substance affected, communication in language other than English?

For some parents it will be necessary to provide rules governing such matters as advance confirmation of attendance, the importance of not denigrating other people, that the contract may be cancelled if they attend substance affected, that they are not to communicate with the child in a language not spoken by the contact supervisor, etc. This will make it clearer that there may be consequences if the rules are broken.

Should contact with parents and others occur separately from each other?

If there is a real risk of conflict between adults present at contact separate contact should be ordered, or contact rules provide for the cessation of contact if conflict arises.

trauma that they have suffered at the hands of or with the acquiescence of a parent, or

distressing behaviour by a parent at contact – eg intoxication, verbal abuse, favouritism towards one child, denigration of carers or the Department/caseworkers.

Identify the risks and safety concerns that have led to the intervention or involvement of Community Services

Identify and clarify the strengths within the family, including any progress made by family members in addressing those concerns

Hear and consider the views of the child(ren) either directly or indirectly through the child’s legal representative

Focus the parties attention on the child’s (or children’s) best interests

Identify and clarify disputed issues

Identify and clarify areas of agreement

Develop options and consider alternatives

Enhance communication between the parties

Reach agreement on issues of dispute between parties to avoid, or limit the scope, of any hearing

Formulate final or interim orders that may be made by consent.

Create an environment where everyone feels able to discuss and negotiate the issues in dispute and encourage parties, particularly families, to directly participate and contribute to the process

Clearly explain how the conference will be conducted and its purpose

Explain that the conference is confidential and explain the limits to the confidentiality of the process

Address any power imbalances that arise in the conference through appropriate strategies which allow all parties to express their views freely and without fear of intimidation

Intervene appropriately if a participant becomes antagonistic or aggressive

Confirm that legal representatives have the most up-to-date instructions from their clients

Clarify the risks and safety concerns that led to the intervention of Community Services

Lead a discussion with the participants regarding the strengths within the family

Assist the parties to identify/clarify the facts, views, interests and opinions of parties to the conference and to identify and clarify areas of agreement

Provide a “court perspective” on cases of a similar nature (whilst not providing legal advice) to help parties “reality test” their positions and provide information to assist parties to identify those matters which may be of particular concern to the Children’s Court, if it were considering the case

Develop options for resolution and consider alternatives to negotiation and settlement. Assist the parties to clearly understand what is likely to happen if they cannot agree to an appropriate way forward

Structure the process to ensure that each party understands the problems and options for settlement

Outline, with the assistance of the parties and/or their legal advisers, how each party’s views/options for settlement promote, or fail to promote, the best interests of the child

Introduce options that could be considered by parties, after they have had an opportunity to generate those options themselves

Endeavour to establish agreements or settlement in appropriate cases

Ensure that the written agreement is accurate and is understood by the parties

Ensure that all parties understand that in the event that agreement is reached as to any final orders the Court can only make those orders if it independently approves them and determines that they accord with the requirements of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (the Act) and are in the best interests of the child.