When a family separates, the impact is not limited to the two parents involved. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and other important people in a child’s life can also find themselves suddenly cut off. This may not happen because a court has made a decision, but simply because communication between the adults has broken down.
For children, this loss can be significant. Grandparents in particular often play a central role in a child’s early life, providing childcare, emotional stability, family history, and a sense of continuity. When contact with them becomes disrupted or stops altogether, children can feel that loss keenly, even if they do not always have the words to explain it.
This article looks at how grandparents and wider family members can seek to maintain or rebuild contact with children after a family breakdown, and how a professional child contact service can support that process.
The Legal Position of Grandparents and Extended Family
No automatic right to contact
It is important to understand from the outset that grandparents and wider family members do not have an automatic legal right to contact with a child in England and Wales. Parental responsibility usually sits with the child’s parents, and it is normally the parents who make day-to-day decisions about who their child sees and when.
This means that if a parent decides to stop a grandparent from seeing their grandchild, there is no immediate automatic right that allows the grandparent to insist on contact. However, that does not mean there are no options.
Applying for a Child Arrangements Order
Grandparents and some other relatives may be able to apply to the family court for a Child Arrangements Order. This type of order can set out who a child lives with, spends time with, or otherwise has contact with.
In most cases, grandparents must first ask the court for permission to make the application. This is known as seeking leave of the court. The court will consider factors such as the nature of the proposed application, the connection between the grandparent and the child, any risk of the application disrupting the child’s life, and whether the application appears to be in the child’s welfare interests.
Before applying to court, most applicants also need to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting, unless an exemption applies. Mediation can sometimes help families agree contact arrangements without the stress and cost of contested court proceedings.
In practice, the court can recognise the importance of extended family relationships where there is a meaningful and established bond with the child. However, the child’s welfare is always the court’s paramount consideration.
If you are at this stage, taking advice from a family law solicitor as early as possible is strongly recommended. Understanding the process before you begin can save significant time and stress. The article on what are child arrangement services and how do they work for separated parents gives useful context on how the wider child arrangement framework operates.
Why Extended Family Contact Sometimes Needs Professional Support
When direct arrangements are not working
In many cases, grandparents and extended family members manage contact informally. These arrangements may work around the parents’ contact schedule without needing professional involvement. But when the parental relationship has broken down significantly, or where one parent is actively opposed to extended family contact, informal arrangements can quickly fall apart.
A professional child contact service can provide a neutral, structured framework that makes contact possible even when the adults involved cannot agree or communicate effectively.
When safeguarding concerns are present
In some cases, concerns may exist about the safety or suitability of contact with a particular extended family member. These concerns may arise because of past incidents, allegations, family conflict, substance misuse, domestic abuse concerns, emotional harm, or a history of difficult behaviour.
Where contact is still being considered, supervised contact can provide oversight while the child’s safety and emotional wellbeing remain central. Supervision does not mean concerns are ignored. It means contact takes place in a managed way, with appropriate boundaries and professional observation.
The article on how child supervised contact helps keep children safe while maintaining relationships explores how supervision balances these two priorities: the child’s safety and their need for important family relationships where those relationships are safe and appropriate.
When a parent has died or is incapacitated
Where a parent has died, become seriously ill, or is otherwise unable to facilitate contact, grandparents on that parent’s side can sometimes find themselves cut off from their grandchildren entirely. This is one of the most painful situations grandparents face, especially where they are also grieving.
Professional support can play an important role in helping families rebuild contact carefully, particularly where the child is coping with loss, confusion or divided loyalties. In these cases, contact needs to be handled sensitively and at the child’s pace.
How a Child Contact Service Can Help
Providing a neutral venue and framework
For grandparents and extended family members, a professional child contact service offers many of the same core benefits it does for parents: a neutral, safe, structured environment for contact to take place, with an independent professional present where supervision or support is required.
Where the parent or carer with whom the child lives is concerned about contact with a grandparent or other relative, the presence of a professional can provide reassurance. In some cases, this can allow contact to be agreed privately without the need for immediate court proceedings. In other cases, it can help contact take place in line with a court order.
This benefits everyone, particularly the child, who gets the chance to maintain an important relationship without being placed in the middle of adult conflict.
If you are looking for child arrangement services Cheshire or across Greater Manchester and Merseyside, CAR’s team can discuss whether supervised or supported contact is the right approach for your family’s specific situation.
Managing complex family dynamics
Families are complicated. A professional contact service is experienced in navigating the dynamics that can arise in extended family contact, including tension between different branches of the family, the child’s own feelings about grandparents or other relatives, and the concerns of the parent or carer arranging the contact.
Experienced contact supervisors are trained to keep the focus on the child rather than the adults. They can also record what happens during sessions accurately and without taking sides. That neutrality is often exactly what is needed when relationships between the adults are strained.
The article on putting children first in child arrangement services is a useful read for any extended family member approaching this process. It is a reminder of what professional services are fundamentally designed to achieve.
Independent Social Work assessments
In some cases, a court, solicitor, local authority, or family professional may request an independent assessment of whether contact between a child and an extended family member is in the child’s best interests.
CAR’s qualified Independent Social Workers can carry out these assessments, producing reports that consider the child’s needs, the family history, any safeguarding concerns, and the suitability of contact. These reports can be particularly useful where the court needs an objective professional view before deciding what arrangements should be made.
Find out more about this aspect of the service on the ISW Services page.
What to Expect If You Are a Grandparent Seeking Supported Contact
The process for grandparents using a child contact service is similar to the process for parents. Before sessions begin, the service will usually carry out an initial assessment. This helps the team understand the family background, the child’s needs, any safeguarding concerns, and what level of support or supervision is appropriate.
Sessions may take place in a community setting, such as a park, café or leisure facility, or in a more structured environment, depending on the circumstances of the case and any court directions in place. Community-based contact can work particularly well for grandparents because it allows sessions to feel more like normal family time, rather than a formal appointment.
If you would like to understand what sessions look like in practice before committing to a referral, the frequently asked questions on child supervised contact covers many of the most common queries, and the Supervised Visitation page gives more detail on how community-based sessions work.
For grandparents who are working alongside a parent who is also seeking contact, for example a paternal grandmother supporting a father through court ordered child contact services for fathers Cheshire, it is worth discussing with the service whether joint sessions or separate sessions are more appropriate given the family dynamics.
Sibling Contact
Child contact services can support sibling contact as well as grandparent and extended family contact. Where siblings have been separated, for example where children from the same family are living in different households following separation, care arrangements or wider family disruption, a contact service can provide a safe and structured framework for them to maintain their relationship.
Sibling relationships can be highly significant for children’s identity, emotional wellbeing and sense of stability. If sibling contact has broken down or has never been formally established following a separation, this is something worth discussing directly with the service and, where needed, raising with a family law solicitor.
A Child Arrangements Order can, in appropriate cases, include arrangements for siblings or wider family members to spend time together. The court’s focus will always be on what best promotes the child’s welfare.
A Note for Professionals
Where a professional, such as a solicitor, social worker, family mediator, guardian, or another agency, is involved in a case that requires contact support for extended family members, CAR welcomes referrals directly.
The Referrals page sets out how this works, and the team is experienced in working within multi-agency frameworks where several professionals are involved.
For families in specific professional circumstances, for example those connected to cases involving child supervised contact services for accountants greater Manchester or other professional backgrounds, the same flexible approach applies.
The Child Supervised Contact page and the Private Child Contact Supervision page have further information about how different types of contact can be arranged privately, without a court order, where all relevant parties agree and safeguarding checks support that approach.
FAQs
Do grandparents have to go to court to see their grandchildren?
Not necessarily. Many grandparents maintain or rebuild contact informally, through family discussions, mediation, or private contact arrangements. Going to court is usually a last resort where agreement cannot be reached. If court becomes necessary, grandparents usually need to ask for permission before applying for a Child Arrangements Order. Speaking to a family law solicitor first is strongly advised.
Can a child contact service arrange contact between a grandparent and grandchild without the parents’ agreement?
No. A contact service facilitates contact that has been agreed between the relevant parties or ordered by the court. It cannot impose contact on a family where there is no agreement, no parental authority, and no court order.
What if the grandchild does not want to attend sessions?
A child’s wishes and feelings should be taken seriously, particularly as they get older and become more able to express their own views. A contact supervisor will manage a reluctant child sensitively and will not force a session to continue if the child is clearly distressed. The child’s views may also be relevant if the matter returns to court.
Can grandparent contact sessions happen in a community setting?
Yes, in many cases. Community contact can work particularly well for grandparent sessions because it allows for natural, activity-based time together. This might include a walk, a visit to a park, a café, or another suitable public setting. Whether this is appropriate depends on the child’s needs, the family circumstances, any safeguarding issues, and any court directions.
How do I make a referral for grandparent contact?
You can make a referral directly through the Referrals page, or get in touch with the team via the contact page to discuss your situation informally first.
Does CAR have experience with extended family contact cases specifically?
Yes. CAR’s team has worked with a range of family members beyond parents, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings. Find out more about the team’s background on the Why Us page.
Talk to Child Arrangement Resolutions Today
If you are a grandparent, an extended family member, or a professional working on a case that involves contact beyond the immediate parents, Child Arrangement Resolutions can help.
CAR provides professional, child-focused contact services across Greater Manchester, Cheshire, and Merseyside. Support is tailored to the specific circumstances of each family and always keeps the child’s welfare at the centre.
Get in touch with the team today to discuss your situation and find out how CAR can support you.