Contact reduced to nil, not because of anything done to the child, but because of a parent’s conduct towards everyone else involved in the child’s care.
Background
The mother lodged a minute to vary in May 2025 seeking to reduce the father’s contact with their child to nil, having stopped contact herself at the end of 2024. To succeed she had to establish a material change of circumstances since the contact orders made in October and November 2023.
The legal framework
Section 11(7)(a) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 makes the welfare of the child the paramount consideration. Section 11(7)(b) requires the child’s views to be considered so far as age and maturity allow, and section 11(7D) requires the court to consider whether the relevant persons can co-operate on matters affecting the child.
The decision
The sheriff found a material change of circumstances, recalled the contact orders and reduced contact to nil. No expenses were awarded to either party.
The findings concerned the defender’s conduct towards professionals rather than towards the child. The sheriff found belligerent and confrontational behaviour towards school staff, social workers and court officials, unfounded complaints to the police and to social services, and verbal abuse of social work staff who were attempting to facilitate supervised contact. The child has complex needs and requires consistency, predictability and regulated emotional support, and the defender altered arrangements inconsistently and made unrealistic demands of the school. Medical evidence confirmed depression and a confrontational manner, and the sheriff found that his behaviour deteriorated quickly and unpredictably.
The child, aged six, said that he wanted contact. The sheriff held that he lacked the maturity to understand the issues, and that section 11(7)(b) requires a child’s views to be considered but does not require the court to follow them. The sheriff indicated that contact might be revisited if the defender demonstrated genuine change.
What it means in practice
Contact is not reduced to nil lightly, and it is striking that here it was not conduct towards the child which brought that about. Where a parent cannot work with the school, the social work department or the other parent, the court may conclude that contact cannot be made to work at all.
It is also a clear illustration that a child expressing a wish is not the same as a child determining the outcome. Weight follows age and understanding. Our page on child contact in Scotland explains how variation applications are approached.