The Family Solution Group, a subgroup of the Private Law working group, led by Mr Justice Cobb recently published a report entitled “What about me?” Reframing Support for Families following Parental Separation.
What is clear from the report is that the need to place children at the centre of all decisions requires constant focus and a renewed energy to ensure success. The stark options of court, or limited non-court, dispute resolution remain perhaps the clear obstacles to an effectively child-focused solution for cases that do not need judicial involvement.
The Key Recommendations
The report recommends the establishment of a Minister for Families to manage provision for parents and children, as the remit so clearly goes beyond that of the justice system. Public education is identified as a vital part of the reforms, to draw the public away from conflict and notions of winning and losing. This would involve abandoning legal language and ensuring the focus is on child welfare. A ‘Separated Families Hub’ website is proposed as a definitive source of reliable information and signposting.
While professionals and the courts champion the efforts of Cafcass to provide an independent perspective in cases, their involvement comes after a court triage process and in cases that are considered serious enough to warrant the input. This leaves many families without the assistance of Cafcass, itself a strained resource. The report recommends a framework of direct support services for children to inform, consult and support them as issues are resolved.
Giving Children A Voice
Going beyond the Cafcass filter is also advised, ensuring that all children over ten years old have their voices heard, with the assistance of the support services and dedicated parts of the Separated Families Hub.
The report is at pains to make clear that it is not rejecting the legal solutions available, but that they should be the preserve of families that need them, to ensure safety in the face of risk and harm. This, the report labels as the ‘Safety Pathway’, providing in contrast the ‘Cooperative Parenting Pathway’ with a very early triaging of families, identifying needs in the holistic range of support.
Parenting programmes are optional and invariably only taken up when required by the courts. The report recommends that attendance becomes a matter of course in all disputes and indeed an element of the no fault divorce procedure soon to arrive.
The Cafcass Co-Parenting Programme
The cafcass Co-Parenting Programme identified that timely intervention in some suitable cases helped to avoid drift and promote change. The approach has led to improved communication between parents and this has in turn reduced the level of conflict and hence helped in achieving safe agreements between parents for parenting children after separation. The programme is designed to help parents put themselves in the shoes of their children and to better understand the impact of their conflict on the child. The parents are also expected to complete the Separated Parents Information Programme ideally before acceptance on to the Positive Co-parenting Programme.
The programme offers a structured 4 session programme for families identified as needing ongoing court involvement. The aim is to work collaboratively within the court process in a tight time frame not exceeding 12 weeks.
The focus on the children and putting children at the centre of all we do as family lawyers is so important and assisting the parties in achieving a suitable arrangement to share time with their children is part of the role we all subscribe to as Children law specialists.
This year, our annual Care Conference will focus on child contact and for any professionals wishing to learn more and hear from a great range of speakers, please contact Sharon Jeffery at s.jeffery@timms-law.com.
