Press Releases

Dyllan Eagles and his supervisor Dr Ben Hine from the University of West London are recruiting participants for their research project on the Effect of COVID-19 National Lockdown on Non-Resident Father's Parent-Child Relationships.

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Cafcass are carrying out a review of the way they deliver their information, and support to parents, in particular the Separated Parent Information Programmes (SPIPs).

To assist with this they have prepared a survey that should take approximately 10 minutes to complete. The closing date is 30th December 2021.

We have provided feedback to Cafcass on their proposal already.

In broad terms, SPIPs are good and have some good content. Cafcass recommend these in the course of family court proceedings and they are then free. However, this rarely happens until well into court proceedings by which time conflict tends to escalate and it is simply too late. In this respect, the proposal to offer SPIP education for parents BEFORE a first hearing seems like a positive step, so long as this does not delay the date of a first hearing - time is the enemy of children and their non-resident parent! Indeed, helping parents to understand the harm  to children of conflict, delay and inappropriate withholding of contact seems like a good thing not just before court, but even before mediation. If progress is made between an application being made and the first hearing, the hearing can always be cancelled or used to rubber stamp any agreement reached.

Please complete the survey, based on your own experience and views. 

Other points you may wish to consider are:

• Encourage early pre-hearing SPIPs
  
• Make SPIPs compulsory for both parents before the first hearing, but after setting a date for it (to avoid further delay). 
• No exceptions for domestic abuse allegations – better parenting behaviour by parents is still desirable, whatever the outcomes of investigations.
• Make them as interactive as possible – check ID of participants, ask questions as they go, etc (not self-guided online only).
• Make people repeat it if inattentive (they do this kind of thing online on driver speed awareness courses very effectively).
• Report back to court if a parent does not complete it - so the court is aware of who is or is not taking the best interests of children seriously.
• Propose the creation of Parenting Plan – out of court and/or for court should out-of-court resolution fail - again it would show who is being reasonable and who is not.
• Extend the scope to cover:
  • Downside of court – cost, stress, delay, damage to children
  • Include examples of (alienating) behaviours or denigration that might result hiding their true feelings e.g. showing upset if a child says something positive about a parent, resulting in them next time only reporting negative things (that are received more sympathetically)
  • Offer guidance of what might be reasonable arrangements based on whether parents, prior to separation had 50/50 care, current distances apart, etc, thus avoiding litigation just to find out what a judge might decide
  • Cover long-term effect on children of loss of parent/half of family & friends attachments.

The link to the survey can be found here.

You can read our former article on SPIPs here and on Early Intervention Pathways here.

 7th December 2021

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DWP are consulting on ‘Child Maintenance: modernising and improving our service’. The deadline for this is this Friday 6^th August 2021.

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Please save the date! On Saturday 19th February 2022 we will be holding an online Annual General (AGM). The AGM will be available for signed-up FNF Members to attend. The workshop will be open to everyone who registers to attend and will cover relevant issues to achieving the best shared parenting outcomes for your children. Further details will be communicated at a later date.

If you are not a Member, but would wish to attend the AGM and hear of our progress and plans please consider joining here. It only costs £39 a year (£35 for renewals) or as little as £5 for a month and £4 for monthly renewals.
If your membership has lapsed, please consider re-joining by logging in using your current details and then renew your membership.

 7th December 2021

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FNF Operations and Marketing Officer - vacancy

Following Luca's recent departure, we are recruiting for the role of Operations and Marketing Officer offers a great opportunity to make a difference and improve outcomes for children and their parents. We offer a range of support services as well as campaigning and lobbying activities to improve family support services and legislation. Being a small organisation, doing a huge job, means that the postholder will be able to be involved in a wide range of projects and to use and develop their experience in a breadth of ways that are less likely to be available in larger organisations. The role is offered on a 12 month contract, with a view to extending it or making it permanent depending on how the role evolves and availability of funds. The role is offered full-time or part-time based at our office and working from home. We will consider job-share options for part-time workers. The pay for the role is offered at a gross salary of £24,000 to £28,000 (full-time-equivalent).

We want to hear from all interested candidates, and to be considered for the position we strongly recommend submitting a detailed covering letter along with your CV, outlining why you're right for the role. The closing date for applications is Thursday 22nd October 2021.

Click the link here to find out more and... Apply Now!

Click the link here to the Charity Job website to find out more... and Apply Now! 

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