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# the ability and willingness of a party to a family law dispute to satisfy the needs of a child.
Reports of the first kind are called ''needs of the child assessments''. You might also hear them called ''section 211 reports''. Under the old ''Family Relations Act'' these the equivalent reports were called ''section 15 reports'' or ''custody and access reports''. These reports are intended to be neutral and prepared without bias. They can be very helpful in resolving a dispute about the care of children. A court <span class="noglossary">will</span> usually give a great deal of weight to the assessor's opinion and recommendations. The neutrality of these reports is a very important standard.
==Picking the assessor==
Needs of the child assessments are routinely prepared by family justice counsellors, social workers, registered clinical counsellors, and psychologists.
===Family justice counsellors are employees of the Ministry of Justice based in registries of the Provincial Court. Their counsellor reports are free, but because there is such a high demand for these reports and there are so few family justice counsellors who are trained to prepare them, the delay from requesting a report to getting it done might be up to a year.===
==Arranging for the assessment==
{{REVIEWED | reviewer = [[Inga Phillips]], July 1214, 2017}}
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