Special services

Family court assistance

The legislator has made it a central task of the youth welfare office to assist parents in crisis situations and to advise and support them in developing an amicable concept for the exercise of parental responsibility (see Section 17 Para. 2 SGB VIII).

Even in the event of separation and divorce, parents generally retain joint parental custody of children who are still minors, unless one parent applies to the court for a custody arrangement and can sufficiently justify this as necessary. In these cases, the Youth Welfare Office provides family court assistance; this means that the Youth Welfare Office must be heard before any decision is made on arrangements for the exercise of parental care and can contribute its professional assessment of the child's welfare to the proceedings.

Regulation of the right of access

The purpose of the right of access is to maintain, foster and promote the child's contact with the parent who does not live with them and with people who are particularly close to them. The child's established family relationships should be preserved as far as possible, particularly after the separation or divorce of their parents. Contact between the child and both parents is generally in the child's best interests and is of particular importance for its development. Contact can include personal contact, but also contact by letter or telephone.

Who is entitled to a right of access?

In principle, the child has a legal right to contact with the persons important to it, primarily the right to maintain contact with both parents. The parents have a duty to enable the child to have contact; in addition, they have their own right to have contact with the child. At the same time, other persons close to the child have a right to contact with the child.

In detail, there is a right of access for:

the child,
father and mother,

insofar as this is in the child's best interests, also for

grandparents of the child,
the spouse or former spouse of the parent who lived with the child (step-parents)
persons with whom the child has been in family care for a longer period of time (foster parents).

Help from the youth welfare office:

Advice for those entitled to access
Advice and support for the child in exercising the right of access,
mediating assistance to facilitate an amicable agreement in difficult situations regarding the exercise of contact rights (e.g. supervised contact).