Can I Stop Access to my Child?

There are many reasons why you might want to stop access or contact with your child by your former partner. However, it’s best to speak to a family law solicitor before threatening to do so or acting on it.

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Stopping access

Stopping your ex-partner’s access to your child is a big step to take. It’s essential to take that step only if you can justify it, have the legal authority to do so, or are confident that your decision will not be overturned by the court or have unintended consequences.

The repercussions of deciding to stop contact include:

1. The child’s other parent applies to the family court to enforce any existing access or contact order.

1. The child’s other parent applies to the court for a child arrangements order so they have a court contact order.
2. Your child blames you for the decision to stop access and says that they want to see or even to live with their other parent.
3. Your child’s other parent alleges that you stopped access because you are trying to alienate and distance your child from them without justification.
4. Your child’s other parent decides it would be best to ask the court to make a child arrangement order that provides for the child to live with them and have contact with you.

Whatever the background to your separation or divorce and the reasons why you feel driven to stop child access, it often helps to sit down with a family lawyer to assess your options and the alternatives to stopping access.

Reasons for stopping access

There are several reasons why you may want to stop your ex-partner from seeing your child, such as:

1. Your ex-partner turns up late or cancels contact visits at the last moment, so you don’t know, from one week to the next, whether contact will take place or not.

1. Your child says they don’t enjoy their contact visits with their mum or dad.

3. The children return from access visits all ‘hyper’ and overtired, and then can’t settle back into their daily routine for days.

1. Your child says they hate step-siblings or a new partner’s children or are being bullied by them.
2. You feel intimidated when your ex-partner collects and returns your child.
3. Your ex-partner stopped paying child support, and you don’t think contact should take place if your ex can’t be bothered to support their child financially.
4. You don’t want your child to see your former husband or wife’s new partner during access visits.
5. You are worried that your former partner will disappear with your child and take them overseas to live.

Alternatives to stopping contact

A family law solicitor can advise on the alternatives to stopping contact. They include:

1. Talking to your former partner about the contact visits to make them more fun for your child, rather than your child and their parent sitting around watching TV. Those discussions don’t have to take place with your ex if you don’t think that would work. Your solicitor could help you resolve matters, or you could attend family mediation sessions.
2. You could agree that your child is collected from school or from a relative’s home to stop you having to come face to face with your ex-partner at contact collection and return times, so you are not intimidated or upset by the access handovers.
3. If you want to stop access because child support is not being paid, you could apply to the Child Maintenance Service for child support.
4. Your family lawyer could address issues of concern, such as the risk of your ex taking your child overseas to live or your child feeling bullied by step-children in the household, to see if the concerns can be reduced.

As a parent, you need to do what is best for your child and, after exploring the alternatives, you may conclude that stopping access is in your child’s best interests. How you should go about that will depend on whether there are any existing court orders in place.

Court orders and stopping access

If there is an existing court order, such as a contact order or child arrangement order,  you should take legal advice before stopping access. If you don’t take legal advice on the existing court order, you could find that your ex starts enforcement court proceedings.

If there is an existing court order in place, such as a contact order or child arrangements order, you may need to make an application to the family court to vary the existing court order before you can stop contact.

If there are no existing court orders in place, you may be able to stop access, but it is still best to take legal advice from a specialist Cheshire children law solicitor before doing so. That’s because a family law solicitor can talk to you about alternative options and the prospects of your former partner applying to court so they can see your child under a child arrangements order. Sometimes, by quickly cutting off access after a nasty incident or a trying weekend, you can play into your former partner’s hands and create more headaches and hassle for yourself.

Our expert Cheshire children solicitors can look objectively at your options and help you work out what’s the best alternative for you and your children.

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