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Under the ''Family Law Act'', agreements, awards and orders about parenting time or parental responsibilities are called ''parenting arrangements''.
==Reports and assessments about parenting after separation==
Parents, guardians, arbitrators and judges sometimes need help in deciding what arrangements for parenting after separation are in the best interests of the children and need to get someone else's input. The people from whom input is usually sought include psychologists, clinical counsellors, family justice counsellors and social workers. Sometimes, input is often sought from the children themselves.
The sort of input people look for changes depending on the circumstances and the issues. Sometimes all that's needed is a short consultation with a mental health professional. However, if what's needed is advice, a report, an opinion or recommendations that will be used in mediation, collaborative negotiation, arbitration or a court proceeding, something more substantial may be required.
Under section 211(1) of the provincial ''Family Law Act'', people can agree or the court can order that a mental health professional will conduct an assessment and prepare a report on one or more of:
#the needs of a child,
#the views of a child, and
#the ability and willingness of the parties to meet the child's needs.
Most of the time, reports under section 211 are intended to cover all of these subjects. Reports like this talk about the family, the children, and the arrangements for parenting after separation that are in the best interests of the children, and are usually described as "section 211 reports," "parenting assessments" or something similar. Under the old ''[http://canlii.ca/t/ldg3 Family Relations Act]'', these were called "section 15 reports" or "custody and access reports."
Since section 37(2)(b) of the ''Family Law Act'' requires parties and the court to consider the views of the child when deciding what is in the child's best interests, people can agree or the court can order that a mental health professional or anyone else with the right kind of training, including lawyers, will prepare a report on the child's views. These reports don't involve an assessment, they just report on the things the child has said to the person who interviewed them.
Reports that focus on the views of a child without an assessment are usually described as "views of the child reports," "hear the child reports" or "voice of the child reports." However they're described, the key difference between these reports and a report under section 211 is that they don't involve the interviewer's analysis or opinion of what the child has told them. These reports are ''non-evaluative''; section 211 reports are ''evaluative''.
===Section 211 reports===
Reports prepared under section 211 of the ''Family Law Act'' are prepared by psychologists, clinical counsellors, family justice counsellors and social workers. They must be in writing, and the court can make orders about who will prepare the report and how the report is to be paid for. Picking the sort of mental health professional who will prepare the assessment often depends on what type of assessment is required, and whether there's money to pay for it. Psychologists, clinical counsellors and social workers will charge for their work. Reports from family justice counsellors are free, but, because they're free, there's a huge demand on family justice counsellors' time and it may take many months before they can complete a section 211 report.
Regardless of which sort of mental health professional assesses the family, if the report is a full assessment, covering all of the subjects listed at section 211(1), the assessor will meet each of the parents separately and see each of them again with the children. If the children are old enough and mature enough, the assessor may speak to the children separately. The assessor may also speak to other people who know the parents and their children, such as friends, family and neighbours, the children's teachers, and any counsellors or therapists who might be involved with the family.
Once the assessment is finished, the assessor sends their assessment to the parties, and to the court if the assessment was court-ordered. These assessments can be used in two ways: to help the parties reach an agreement resolving their dispute; and, in court, to help persuade the judge that one party's proposal about parenting after separation is more likely to be in the best interests of the children than the proposal of the other party. When section 211 reports are used at trial, the person who prepared the report can be asked to come to court to give evidence about their assessment and their recommendations and can be cross-examined about how they conducted their assessment and how they reached their conclusions and recommendations.
It is important to remember that the function of assessors in court is to present their conclusions and recommendations and the evidence that they relied on, like the results of psychological tests and the observations they made during their interviews, in coming to those conclusions and recommendations. At the end of the day, it's always up to the judge to decide the parenting arrangements for the children. The Supreme Court discussed the purposes of custody and access reports in a 2001 case called ''[http://canlii.ca/t/4xfd Gupta v. Gupta]'', 2001 BCSC 649. The court's comments in that case refer to the old term for these reports (which were known as "section 15 reports" at the time), but thesee comments are just as applicable to assessments under section 211 of the ''Family Law Act'':
<blockquote>"[A report's purpose] is to assist the Court in determining the issues before it, including the paramount issues of what is in the best interests of the children. The section itself contemplates that the person doing the investigation must be approved by the Court, and must be independent or neutral. ... The investigation is carried out for the purposes of the Court, and in the best interests of the children, and not those of the partial parents who are embroiled in what is seen as the dispute of their lives, who generally represent the extremes of every issue, and whose evidence is often found to be coloured to say the least."</blockquote>
====Family justice counsellors====
When people cannot afford the cost of a report from a psychologist, clinical counsellor or social workers, the court may order that an assessment be prepared by a family justice counsellor. Unless the parties agree to something else, the Provincial Court will almost always order that a report be prepared by a family justice counsellor when a report will be useful. The assessments of family justice counsellors are free.
Because of high demand, assessments prepared by family justice counsellors may take up to a year or more to complete.
====Psychologists, counsellors and social workers====
Assessments are also prepared by privately-retained mental health professionals. Assessments prepared by a psychologist usually include psychological testing.
The cost of these assessments can range from $5,000 to $20,000, depending on the number of children involved, where the children and the parents or guardians live, and the amount of work that needs to be done. They can usually be completed in three to six months.
===Views of the child reports===
Section 37(2)(b) of the ''[http://canlii.ca/t/52cd2 Family Law Act]'' requires the parents and the court to consider the views of the child when making decisions about what is in their best interests. Section 202 allows the court to decide ''how'' the child’s views will be heard and presented.
The views of a child can be presented to the court in a number of ways, including through:
#the evidence presented by the parties,
#letters the child might write to a mediator, an arbitrator or the court,
#a lawyer appointed to represent the child, and
#an interview with the mediator, the arbitrator or the judge.
There are plenty of advantages and disadvantages to each. Hearing what children have to say though the parties is cheap, but parties often disagree about what the children have said. Letters from children are also cheap, but it's hard to know why the children decided to write the letter and whether a party told the child what to put in their letter. Lawyers for children can play an important role in presenting the children's views in an arbitration or in court, but they charge for their services. Interviews with the mediator or a decision-maker can be inexpensive, but not all mediators, arbitrators or judges are comfortable speaking to children.
Views of the child reports are a good alternative. Views of the child reports give children an opportunity to express their views to a neutral person who listens to them, and then prepares a written report for their parents, the mediator, the arbitrator or the judge. Because they are brief and don't require the interviewer to conduct an assessment or express an opinion, they can be produced quickly, sometimes the same day, and are relatively inexpensive.
These reports are prepared by trained, neutral professionals, usually a mental health professional, lawyer, mediator, or someone else with special training. The interviewer will speak to the child, sometimes more than once, and then write a report summarizing what the child has said and agreed that the interviewer may repeat in their report. These reports are different than other reports because all they talk about is what the child has told the interviewer.
For information on to how get a views of the child report, see [[How Do I Get a Views of the Child Report?]]. It's located in the ''How Do I?'' part of this resource, in the section ''Other Litigation Issues''.
====Family justice counsellors====
Family justice counsellors prepare views of the child reports for free, but because there is such a demand for these reports, and so few family justice counsellors trained to prepare them, there can be a delay of six months or more before the report is finished.
====Psychologists, counsellors and social workers====
The reports of mental health professionals can be prepared as quickly as the professional's calendar allows, sometimes the same day, but more typically within one to four weeks. The cost of these reports can range from $500 to $2,500, depending on the number of children involved and the professional's hourly rate.
The website of the [http://hearthechild.ca BC Hear the Child Society] has a list of some of the professionals in British Columbia who are trained to prepare views of the child reports, and where those professionals work. There are other professionals in the province who are trained to prepare these reports but are not on the society's list.
====Lawyers====
The reports of lawyers can be prepared as quickly as the lawyer's calendar allows, sometimes the same day, but more typically within one to four weeks. The cost of these reports changes depending on the number of children, the lawyers' hourly rate — some offer a discounted rate for this sort of work — and whether the lawyer will interview the child and prepare their report for a fixed, flat fee. Similar to the reports of mental health professionals, lawyers' reports may cost anywhere from $500 to $3,500.
The website of the BC Hear the Child Society has a list of some of the lawyers who are trained to prepare views of the child reports, and where those lawyers work. There are other lawyers in the province who are trained to prepare these reports but are not on the society's list.
===from first section===
==Reports and assessments about parenting after separation==