What is supervised contact and who can do it?
When making a parenting order, a judge may order that a parent can only have “supervised contact” with their child. Supervised contact is when one parent – usually the parent who does not live with the child – spends time with their child in the presence of someone else. Let’s look at why this might happen…
The supervisor could be a grandparent, friend of the family, or it could be a person who works for a service provider. The supervision can take place at contact hand over, where the primary carer parent provides the child for the contact, or for the entire visit.
Why do I need supervised contact with my child?
In some circumstances, the access parent may have had an extended period of time away from their child for work, or due to a particularly acrimonious separation or issues of concerns have arisen.
Depending on the age of the child and the nature of their relationship with the access parent, it might be better for the child to have a gradual reintroduction to that parent and to build up their relationship again.
In other cases, the parent with custody may have concerns about the contact parent’s relationship with the child and may be fearful of their child spending time alone with them.
Alternatively, if the parents have a very high level of conflict, supervised contact centres can provide a hand over service where the parents do not have to see or speak to each other. And sadly, in other cases, there may have been issues of family violence and supervised contact may be necessary to ensure the safety of the child and also the safety of the parent with custody.
Finally, if there are concerns about significant levels of drug use and alcohol abuse by the contact parent, supervised contact allows for that parent to be assessed prior to the contact to ensure that they are able to care for the child.
Supervision means that the contact parent and the child are free to spend time together and allows for regular contact, in an environment where the child can seek help if they become upset or fearful and where the supervisor can intervene at any time should the need arise.
Why should I agree to supervised contact?
Agreeing to some initial supervised contact could be seen by the court as the contact parent doing all they can to enable them to spend time with their child, and to make every effort to ensure their child feels safe and comfortable at all times.
Further, reports on the supervised contact time can then be provided to the court to confirm that the time the parent and child are spending together is progressing well.
In a recent case, a father successfully appealed against the decision of a judge who failed to asses the nature of the risk before making orders for him to have supervised contact with his young daughter.
The orders made by the judge required the father to have three different types of supervised contact – one at a contact centre, one supervised by his mother (the child’s paternal grandmother) at a public play centre, and one supervised by the mother or her parents at their home.
In his appeal, the father accepted that supervised contact was inevitable on an interim basis, but sought that the paternal grandmother supervise all the visits, other than at the contact centre, and that they be allowed to occur at a place other than at a public play centre.
The parents in this case had separated after the man assaulted his partner, for which he was criminally charged and convicted, and a domestic violence order was also made.
For about two years after separation, the father spent time with the child at the home of the maternal grandparents, where the mother and child lived, until the mother ceased contact.
The father argued that the level of risk was so insignificant that supervision could be undertaken by the paternal grandmother. He said it could be inferred that the mother also considered the risk to be low, given that she was proposing to supervise the contact herself in her own home. He argued that because of the high level of conflict between him and the mother and her parents, contact in their home would not be conducive to a pleasant time for the child.
The mother’s case for supervision centred on the father’s anger and emotional regulation which she argued was evidenced by the father’s assault on her and more recent issues which had occurred when she had been supervising contact.
She also argued that the father and paternal grandmother did not have a good relationship and the paternal grandmother had no prior relationship with the child, so she would not be able to act in the child’s best interest and protect her if conflict arose.
The appeal judged ruled that the primary judge did not evaluate the evidence concerning risk and what would be required from a supervisor. The primary judge also did not explain why he determined the paternal grandmother could supervise in some settings, but not others.
The case was re-submitted for hearing, with the orders to continue until then.
If you need advice on parenting orders, whether supervised contact might be necessary or how to go about organising supervised contact, or any other aspect of family law, please contact Michael Lynch Family Lawyers on: (07) 3221 4300 or email: [email protected]
