I am a Social Worker, qualified with over 10 years experience in court work.

Hi all, I am Gary, an independent social worker with over 10 years of court experience in both public and private law. I do have a busy work life as the job is manic. I was approached by a guy who works security at the office I work at yesterday who told me he was involved in current proceedings for contact with his daughter and his beliefs of what happens during the court process and any assessments was completely flawed. I sat with him in the rain for around 20 minutes, giving him advice on how to best approach the proceedings.

I then thought on my drive home about how many parents must be in a similar situation. Like I said, I am busy, however I am wanting to help as many people as possible.

I will check in here, every couple of days and answer to the best of my knowledge any questions you may have. I will say that you will get straight, honest responses on any queries you may have. You may not like the answers, however if you have got barriers in the way to seeing your kids, let's look at how these can be overcome. Thanks.

We have quite a lot of advice on here already However, occasionally we have Dads looking for an ISW for their case. I had a look at your website - it doesn't mention reports for court - do you do section 7 reports or other parenting reports please? We also usually recommend Dads get a free half hour's legal advice with a solicitor or use a direct access barrister for court hearings. Plus we give tips and help to prepare for hearings - from other Dads who have been through the system.

Hi Ash. Thanks for your reply. Any ISW work at the moment I will be contracted to complete via ACCA, and directly from the court in some instances. At the moment I am hoping to help people with advice for them to have an understanding of what I would be assessing, how I would be assessing and why. I would hope to be able to advise how to overcome any barriers for parents to have contact with their children. With regards to my company, the full name is FamilyFirst social work consultancy LTD. It would not let me fit the consultancy bit in my username.

I do not have a website, I absolutely do not need one. I have enough work to last me 3 lifetimes at the moment.

And I totally agree with your advice regarding dad's accessing free legal advice. This is the most important piece of advice I also share, even if in my opinion, a decision from the court is a dead cert to go in dad's favour.

Like I said, I am hoping to help where I can. Dad's can either ask me questions or not. Luckily I have not been in a situation where I have not been able to have contact with my daughter (apart when she was 14 and I caught her drinking vodka with her mates and she went to live with her mum for 3 months and she chose not to speak to me ).

To all the good dads out there, keep fighting for your kids. Sometimes you are the only person who is.

Ok sorry - must be another website with the same name

Family First Social Work said:

even if in my opinion, a decision from the court is a dead cert to go in dad's favour.

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Could you please elaborate on what you mean by this? It doesn't appear to be the experience of the majority...

It is what it says. If when completing a S7 I am recommending that children are to live with dad or have contact with dad, I would still even reccomend that dad seeks legal advice.