C (Interim Contact: Procedural Irregularity), Re

Facts

The appellant father and the respondent mother are the parents of C, a girl aged 4 whose birth in 2022 coincided roughly with the end of the parties' relationship. In February 2023 the local authority sought an emergency protection order to remove C from her mother's care, and in the care proceedings which followed the mother was the subject of a psychological/psychiatric assessment and both parents of independent social work assessment. At a final hearing in June 2024, DJ Cassidy made a child arrangements order for C to live with her father, together with a one-year supervision order, and made no contact order, providing instead by recital for contact between C and her mother once every three months supervised by the local authority. On 28 January 2025 the mother applied for a child arrangements order transferring C's full-time care to her; the father's application to extend the supervision order was refused in April 2025. Cafcass safeguarding letters reported no material change of circumstances and unchanged risk levels. DDJ Griffin ordered one session of supervised contact, which took place on 10 February 2026 and went well. On 23 February 2026 HHJ George ordered supervised interim contact no more than fortnightly and no less than monthly until the final hearing. The father sought permission to appeal, and a stay of that paragraph was granted.