ICLS Meeting with Children Announcement
The FCFCOA has raised a concern about increased requests from ICLs to meet with children at Court Registries, sometimes in conjunction with Court Children’s Services events like interviews for Child Impact Reports and Family Reports.
While we do not think this practice is widespread in NSW, we wish to remind the ICL Panel that meetings with children should not take place at court or as part of CCS events unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Examples may be:
- The child resides in a remote area and it is more practical to see them while they have travelled to the Registry for a CCS event;
- A meeting at the Registry is necessary to safely manage physical or psychological harm;
- There has been a lack of compliance from parents making the child available for a meeting with the ICL.
If the ICL is of the view there is a need to meet with a child at the Registry this should usually be raised with a Judicial Officer in the first instance.