FNF Newsletter - 11th March 2017

Before we get to the latest news update (see below), here is a reminder about our 2017 Conference next Saturday:

There are still some tickets left for the FNF 2017 Annual Conference in Bristol Saturday 18th March 2017. 
Click here for a last chance to book your places!

We are delighted to have some high profile and forward thinking leaders in the field of family law and Parental Alienation (PA).

The Rt. Hon Sir James Munby - President of the Family Court

Sir James will speak on family justice and will be taking questions submitted by attendees.

Dr Sue Whitcombe - Leading practitioner in the field of Parental Alienation

Sue will provide run workshops on Parental Alienation with a focus on what works and early intervention.

Sarah Phillimore - Barrister at St John’s Chambers in Bristol

Sarah will talk about initiatives in Bristol to assist litigants in person and intractable disputes.

Lori Busch and Paul Apreda - Trustees at The ManKind Initiative and
Families Need Fathers respectively

Lori and Paul will jointly run workshops on dealing with Domestic Violence Allegations and offer practical steps for those who have false or unfounded allegations made against them.

Further details of Conference, hotel accommodation and speaker biographies are available here
or click on the image below to obtain tickets now:

All Conference attendees will also receive a complimentary copy of FNF's book on shared parenting: For the Sake of the Children.

Focus on Parental Alienation – at last

Over the last year we have been talking to CAFCASS regularly. The main focus has been sharing your views with them on the issue of Parental Alienation. As we are aware, after their parents separate, children are frequently alienated from a parent, grandparents and others by alienating behaviours by the other parent. Your really great response to our surveys last year enabled us to deliver a powerful message that Parental Alienation (PA) is for most of our members and service users the single biggest challenge and that it affects around half of us. We have impressed upon CAFCASS senior directors that this issue needs to be considered as emotional abuse and that CAFCASS Officers need better training and guidelines. At the CAFCASS ‘Voice of the Child’ Conference on 27th October 2016 we also raised the issue of PA. We then provided support to the BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme in shaping their powerful piece on 21st November 2016.  Thousands of you also supported a petition to Parliament to make PA illegal. The government did not agree, but we helped to send a clear message that this is a huge issue that requires attention.

We thank you sincerely for your help with these initiatives and are delighted to report that CAFCASS’ Chief Executive is reported to have made a clear statement about PA being a form of neglect or child abuse. We understand that CAFCASS are reviewing their operational procedures on PA. No doubt this won’t be the answer to everyone’s prayers and wishes, but it is a crucial and important step forward.

CAFCASS article in the Daily Telegraph

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FNF in Parliament

Last year we were able to use the responses from over 800 of you to provide written evidence to the Work and Pension Select Committee Inquiry into Child Maintenance (see here).
This resulted in us being invited to give oral evidence to the committee (see here and here). Their report is due to be published soon once their deliberations have been completed. Further to our contribution, we were also invited to give evidence to the National Audit Office (NAO) and this, in turn, has led to us being invited to give oral evidence in April to the Public Accounts Select Committee. We will keep you informed of further developments.

We have also very recently submitted written evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry into Men and the Workplace. Details will be published by the Committee in due course.

Finally there was an interesting Parliamentary Debate last week between a number of MPs (one of whom we had met with beforehand) and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Women and Equalities (Caroline Dinenage).  The subject was: The Role of Fathers in the Family Unit.  Hansard transcript and video available.

That's all for now - Hope to see you at the Conference!

With best wishes

Jerry Karlin
FNF Chair and Managing Trustee

Families Need Fathers - because both parents matter - 2017 - Our 43rd year

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