Geldards Provides Clarification On Child Contact In Lockdown

On 5th November 2020 the House of Commons published an updated briefing paper concerning the serious questions about the impact of COVID-19 on separated families.

Individuals may no longer leave their households without reasonable excuse. Reasonable excuse does include facilitating contact between parents and a child where the child does not live in the same household as their parents or one of their parents.

It is expected that Child Contact Centres shall remain open provided they are able to take appropriate measures to ensure they are safe. The National Association of Child Contact Centres statistics show that as at 1st October 2020 46% of supported centres were open and 31% were making plans to reopen.

Clearly if a child or person in contact with a child is showing systems of Covid 19 i.e. a high temperature, a new continuous cough and/or a loss of change to sense of smell or taste government advice is to self-isolate for a period of 10 days from when symptoms start. You should arrange to have a test and the result of the test will then determine how long you must stay at home and self-isolate. During this period it may be permissible to suspend contact.

If your child is at home with someone who, in the same household has COVID-19 the child must stay home for 14 days. The 14 day period starts from the day when the first person in the house developed the symptoms or if they do not have symptoms from the first day their test was taken.

In practise a mixing of households may not be advisable where there are vulnerable persons. Each case will be determined on its facts.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact Claire Dean at Claire.Dean@geldards.com.