The Law

Contact

Contact is when the children spend time visiting or staying with the parent, grandparents, relatives or other people important to them who they don't live with. This can include the telephone, text messages, e-mails, letters and cards.

A Contact Order, given by the Court, requires the person with whom the children live to allow them to visit, stay or have contact with the person named in the order, usually the absent parent. As with other orders, these continue until the children are 18 or have completed full time education.

Try and establish a regular routine of contact as soon as possible after you, or your partner, leave the home. Try not to let them down, always keep to contact days and times.

It is better that contact is agreed by the parents without the intervention of the Court. However, if this is not possible, a recommendation will be made to the Court as part of the Welfare Report. They will consider the children's interests and opinions and the present situation when making their recommendation. There is no rule as to the amount of contact, this will depend on many factors which include their age's and wishes, your commitments, work and the like, and both parents wishes.

If contact is being refused by a parent or the children are refusing contact this must be addressed immediately. For older children it is usually that friends become temporarily more important however younger ones are more open to persuasion, usually by the parent they live with!

The Court, in particular, takes a very dim view of one parent refusing previously agreed contact with the other without a valid reason or pursuading the children not to contact, visit or acknowledge the absent parent.

If your children have chosen to live with you or are living with you, try to continue as normal as possible. Encourage regular contact with Mum and never refuse any communication or contact that has previously been agreed or the children have asked for. Listen to your children's views and opinions and take these into consideration when making any material changes.

If you are struggling to maintain contact with your children or have lost contact completely or they are refusing contact with either parent, contact us. 

Some of the procedures described and the terms used may be different depending on whether you live in Jersey, Guernsey or one of the other Islands.