A Guide to Supervised Visitation in Australia

The Family Law Act places an emphasis on the importance of a child’s relationship with their parents, and if it’s in the best interests of the child, they should be able to maintain a relationship with both parents.

However, sometimes the fitness of a parent and the risk to the safety of a child may be a concern for the other parent or the court. This concern could result in a child only spending time with one of their parents during supervised visitation.

In this article, we’re going to explain what supervised visitation is, why this kind of arrangement may be put in place, and how it works.

What are the reasons for supervised visitation?

If a parent or the court is concerned that the safety and wellbeing of a child is at risk when they are with a parent, then supervised contact may be decided upon. This concern is usually derived from instances of past behaviour by that parent.

These concerns may be due to:

• The parent has a history of drug and substance use and abuse;
• There is a risk of violence towards the child from the parent;
• There is a history of neglect by a parent;
• There is a risk of sexual abuse of the child;
• There is a risk of child abduction;
• There is concern about the parenting skills of a parent;
• The parent has a mental illness that may put the child at risk of harm;
• There is a history of abuse of a parent by the other parent; or
• The parent has been absent for an extended period of time.

While in many instances supervised contact will be decided due to the risk of harm to a child, it can also be a way for a parent to be able to be reintroduced to their child after a long period of time apart. A parent may have had little to no access to a child for a variety of reasons, including work commitments or the separation from the other parent was particularly acrimonious.

Supervised contact may be a result of:

• A judge or magistrate’s order;
• An order of the court with consent of the parties; or
• An agreement, either formal or informal in nature, between the parties that has been decided upon as part of family dispute resolution.

Preparing for supervised visitation

If you’re the parent attending a supervised visit with your child, this can be an emotionally and mentally stressful time for you.

Whether you agree with the supervised contact order or not, seeing your child and making the most of your time together is of the utmost importance.

Some of the things you can do to make the visitation successful and meaningful for both you and your child include:

Understand the rules of the visitation

Make sure you know the ins and outs of your visitation circumstances. If your contact is taking place in a neutral place, like a children’s contact centre, make sure you take the time to learn the rules of the centre. They may have requirements of things you need to do prior to your visit.

Supervised visitation is not only the time you get to spend with your child, but it’s also a time to show that you’re actively working hard on your parenting and understand the requirements.

Come prepared with an activity

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by the restrictions placed on your time with your child, however, this time is for you to focus on your child and the bond you have. Some of the best ways you can do this is by choosing an activity for your visitation that your child is interested in. They may be interested in crafts, so you could work on making something together. This could be an ongoing project that gives them something to look forward to for each visitation. Another great option is finding a book that you can read together each visit.

Stick to the schedule

This is a time to establish some consistency with your child, so the last thing you want to do is disrupt or even have to cancel your visit with them. Try to plan ahead with the other parent as much as possible to ensure that any commitments that may disrupt your scheduled visitation are taken into consideration.

Whilst emergencies may happen occasionally, where possible try to not change the scheduled time to see your child.

How to prepare a child for supervised contact

The concept of supervised visitation may be difficult for your child to understand, so in order to allow them to be able to focus on their relationship with their other parent, it’s important to prepare them to spend time with their other parent.

• Try not to spring a supervised visit on your child and instead keep them in the loop with the schedule of these visitations. This will allow them to know when they are next going to see their other parent and they too can prepare themselves for it.
• Aim to encourage your child to be excited about their next visit and encourage them to build their relationship with their parent. Even if their other parent frustrates you or you have negative feelings towards them, these visits are about your child being able to continue and build their relationship with them.

By encouraging them to be excited about seeing their other parent, it may make your child more open to communicating with you about how they are feeling and about their visits with their other parent. As curious as you may be about their visitation sessions, you don’t want to interrogate them after it, rather you want to make them feel like they can communicate with you.

It’s also important for you to follow the visitation schedule closely too, you don’t want to take away the chance for your child to spend time with their other parent or disrupt if it is avoidable.