At Rafton Family Lawyers specialist family law services we are frequently asked about issues where there is an allegation of risk to children spending time with the other party. In these cases the court will often look to an external agency to enable the other parent to continue to have a relationship with the children which is important but also balancing that with the risk in having the other parent being unsupervised. This generally occurs when there are allegations of abuse such as physical or verbal abuse to children, mental health issues that may impact on parenting and significant issues of addiction such as alcohol or drug use. Generally speaking, supervision services are a temporary arrangement only while the court investigates what the long term arrangement should be for the children. At Rafton Family Lawyers our solicitors are highly specialised in dealing with parenting matters which is one of the core objectives of our business and we can assist parties in both the Penrith, Richmond and Parramatta areas across Western Sydney and at our office in Sydney CBD. There are a number of supervision agencies available and they are generally:
- The government has funded centres that are provided by external agencies. In the Western Sydney area the centres are located at Harris Park near Parramatta, Penrith and Blacktown. There are also other centres that are partially funded by the government providing longer wait times but in some cases no fee for service and they are available in the Central Coast and Hunter regions.
- Private supervision agencies are available that can provide qualified supervisors on a one to one basis and do not need to be located at the actual centre as the private fee basis enables the supervision to occur anywhere including at the other parent’s home or at the home of a grandparent or family member.
- In some cases the court will order supervision but will look at an appropriate supervisor within the family of the other parent. This could be a trusted grandparent, uncle or aunt. This is not always an order that is made but if the court were to consider family members, they would generally need to swear an affidavit in the proceedings and in some cases, provide an undertaking or promise to the court that they acknowledge their requirements of supervision and will ensure that they do not leave the children unsupervised with the other parent.
As supervised contact matters and arrangements for the children deal with highly specialised areas, we do recommend that you speak to one of our specialist family law solicitor team at Penrith, Parramatta or Richmond if you need further help. Today’s article was provided by one of our specialist lawyers from our Penrith office located at 62 Warwick Street, Penrith.