By 
Success story
Every other Saturday, a father in his thirties spent two hours with his six-year-old son in a contact centre playroom while a supervisor sat by the window, writing notes. Four months in, he asked us what many parents in the UK ask: how long does supervised contact last, and could he do anything to end it?
Why a supervisor sat in on every visit
A year earlier, a fact-finding hearing had found that he gripped the boy’s mother by the wrists hard enough to bruise and threw her phone at a wall. On other evenings he shouted abuse at her while their son sat on the sofa. He had denied all of it.
The final order said his son would live with his mother and see him only at the centre, supervised. It gave no end date. A forum post had told him that supervised contact in the UK could only last so long before it stopped by itself. “The judge got it wrong,” he told us at our first meeting.
How long does supervised contact last in the UK?
In England and Wales, where the family lived, no law sets a time limit for supervision. Contact under a child arrangements order normally ends when the child turns 16 (Children Act 1989, section 91(10)). Section 11(7) of the same Act lets a court make an order, or parts of it, last for a specified period. His order did not. Unless both parents agreed otherwise, supervision would continue until a court changed the order.
Moving from supervised to unsupervised contact therefore meant asking the court to vary his order on form C100, usually after a mediation information and assessment meeting (MIAM).
After findings of abuse, Practice Direction 12J says any contact order should not expose the child to an unmanageable risk of harm, and should be in his best interests. Less supervision would have to meet that test too.
What we advised while the visits stayed supervised
We advised him to wait until something had changed. Where abuse is found, the court should consider a section 91(14) order, under Practice Direction 12J. That would bar him from applying again without the court’s permission, and a hasty application could invite one.
Disputing the findings was also likely to count against him, because the court considers whether a parent can appreciate the effect of past abuse. Over several meetings he stopped arguing with the judgment. He began talking about what his son had heard.
What happens after supervised contact depends on evidence of change, most of it from him. He paid for a weekly domestic abuse perpetrator programme, checking first, on our advice, that the provider would report to the court.
He arrived early for every centre session, often with a jigsaw they finished over several visits, and never mentioned the case to his son. With our guidance, he asked the centre for its written session reports.
From his application to a night at his flat
After the six-month programme, he attended a MIAM and applied on form C100. We helped him write a short statement accepting the findings in his own words, attaching both sets of reports.
We advised him to propose moving from supervised to unsupervised contact in stages, with a review before any overnight stay, so the court could see each step work before the next. Handovers would happen inside the centre at different times, so the parents never met.
The court then directed a Cafcass welfare report (Children Act 1989, section 7). The Cafcass officer judged the risk low by then and backed the stages. The boy’s mother did not oppose the first two, provided a review came before any overnight stay.
The court approved the plan. First came six weeks of supported contact at the centre, three hours each Saturday. Then came three months of alternate Saturdays from eleven until five, away from the centre. At the review, the court added an overnight stay every other weekend.
Parents asking how long supervised contact will last in the UK want a number. Here it was nineteen months, from the first supervised visit to the first night at his flat. Every family’s risks are different, so this timetable is no guide to yours.
Steps for a parent whose contact is supervised
This week, check your order for an end date or a review date.
Write down honestly what the court found and how it may have affected your child. Any later statement starts there.
Arrive on time for every session, and keep the centre’s session reports in date order.
Ask any programme whether you are suitable and whether it will report to the court.
Never talk about the case with your child, and keep it off social media.
Start moving from supervised to unsupervised contact only when you can show what has changed. Apply after a MIAM unless an exemption applies.
Our guide to when a court limits or stops contact covers the wider rules. He agreed to us sharing his story, with details changed. See how we prepare these accounts.
“The step down to a supported centre catches many parents out. Supported centres do not watch each family one to one or share what they see, so the session reports you relied on stop. Where a court sets a review, Practice Direction 12J says it must give directions so it has full information about how the order is working. Before that stage starts, ask what the court will want to see, and who will provide it.”
Hannah Overton, Complex Children Specialist, Kabir Family Law
Ask us what happens after supervised contact
If your contact is still supervised and you hope to start moving to unsupervised contact, bring us your order and the findings. We will tell you honestly whether it is time to apply. The first consultation is free and confidential.
The legal issue
A father in his thirties could see his six-year-old son only at a contact centre, for two hours every other Saturday, with a supervisor in the room taking notes. The year before, a fact-finding hearing had found that he bruised the mother's wrists, threw her phone and shouted abuse at her in front of the boy. The final child arrangements order set no end date for the supervision. He asked whether it would ever stop and what he could do, and at first he still disputed the findings.
The law this rests on
- Children Act 1989 s.1(3) and (4)(a): where a party opposes an application to vary a section 8 order, the court must have regard in particular to the welfare checklist, with the child's welfare paramount under s.1(1).
- Children Act 1989 s.7(1): a court considering a question about a child under the Act may ask an officer of the Service (Cafcass) to report on matters relating to the child's welfare.
- Children Act 1989 s.8(2): a section 8 order includes an order varying or discharging a child arrangements order.
- Children Act 1989 s.11(7)(c): a section 8 order may be made to have effect for a specified period, or contain provisions which are to have effect for a specified period.
- Children Act 1989 s.91(10) and (10A): a section 8 order, other than provision about with whom or when the child is to live, ceases to have effect when the child reaches 16, unless it is to have effect beyond that age under s.9(6) (exceptional circumstances).
- Children Act 1989 s.91(14): on disposing of an application, the court may order that a named person may not make a further application of a specified kind without the court's leave.
- FPR Practice Direction 5A: form C100 is the application for a section 8 order or to vary or discharge one.
- FPR Practice Direction 12J para 35: when deciding child arrangements, the court should ensure that any order for contact will not expose the child to an unmanageable risk of harm and will be in the best interests of the child.
- PD12J para 37(e): the court should consider the capacity of the parents to appreciate the effect of past domestic abuse and the potential for future domestic abuse.
- PD12J para 37A.1: where domestic abuse is found, the court should consider whether a section 91(14) order would be appropriate, even if no one has applied for one.
- PD12J para 38(c) and (d): where direct contact is judged safe and beneficial despite domestic abuse, the court should consider whether such contact should be for a specified period, and whether it will be necessary to review the operation of the order; if so, it should set a review date and must give directions so that at the review it has full information about the operation of the order.
- GOV.UK (form C100): it is a legal requirement to attend a MIAM before applying to the family court, unless a valid exemption applies.
How we approached it
We explained that no law fixes how long supervision lasts, so his order would apply until a court varied it, unless both parents agreed to do something different. We advised him to wait until he could show the court something new, because where abuse is found Practice Direction 12J says the court should consider a section 91(14) order restricting further applications. We explained that disputing the findings was likely to count against him, and over several meetings he came to accept them. He paid for a domestic abuse perpetrator programme, having checked on our advice that the provider would send the court a final report. He kept every centre session and, with our guidance, obtained the centre's written session reports. When the programme ended he attended a MIAM and applied to vary the order, using form C100. We helped him prepare a statement accepting the findings and advised him to propose stages, with a review before overnight stays and handovers inside the centre at separate times.
The outcome
Cafcass prepared a section 7 report after reading the programme report and the centre's session reports and speaking to both parents. It judged the risk low by then and backed a staged plan. The mother did not oppose the first two stages, as long as a review came before any overnight stay. The court approved six weeks of supported contact at the same centre, followed by three months of alternate Saturdays away from it, from late morning to early evening. At the review it added an overnight stay every other weekend. Nineteen months passed between his first supervised visit and his son's first night at his flat. Each family's risks are different, and this timetable predicts nothing for anyone else.
What to take from this
- England and Wales have no statutory time limit for supervised contact. Contact under a child arrangements order normally ends when the child turns 16. Until then the order stands unless a court varies it; parents can agree to do something different, but that agreement cannot be enforced unless a court makes it binding.
- Look in your order for an end date or a review date.
- To change a final order, apply on form C100 to vary it, after a MIAM unless an exemption applies.
- Where abuse has been found, the court should consider a section 91(14) order restricting further applications, so apply when you can show what has changed.
- The court considers whether a parent can appreciate the effect of past abuse, so continuing to dispute findings already made is likely to count against you.
- Keep every session, collect the centre's session reports and ask any programme provider for a final report.
- Propose stages with a review, so the court can see each step working before the next.
- A supported centre does not watch each family one to one or share observations, so plan how the court will hear how that stage went.
Checked and approved for publication by Iblal Iqbal.
Last reviewed .
