Facilitating a contact plan between adults with learning and mental health difficulties

Kaileigh Hazeldine supported a gentleman through several local authority proceedings in regard to agreeing a contact plan with his partner of more than 30 years.

She has paranoid schizophrenia and learning difficulties and after a hospital admission required a long-term care home placement. The local authority had sought to restrict all contact between our client and his partner based on historic allegations.

When the local authority sought to withhold all information from our client, Kaileigh requested an urgent hearing to progress matters. Witness evidence was directed from the Police in relation to their investigation, which had concluded without further action being taken, as well as further input from the expert on the progression of contact.

A contact plan was put in place and indirect contact resumed between our client and his partner via letters, with proposals for it to increase to telephone contact shortly and then hopefully face to face in the future in line with our client’s wishes.

Throughout the proceedings, which focused on his partner’s mental capacity, and arrangements for residence and contact, Kaileigh supported our client to engage fully in the proceedings. Given his own learning difficulties, a significant amount of time was spent explaining all the documents to take his full instructions and ensure he understood the court proceedings and next steps.

The contents of this article are for the purposes of general awareness only. They do not purport to constitute legal or professional advice. The law may have changed since this article was published. Readers should not act on the basis of the information included and should take appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.